The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is pleased to offer fellowships generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for dissertation research in the humanities or related social sciences in original sources.

The purposes of this fellowship program are to:

• help junior scholars in the humanities and related social science fields gain skill and creativity in developing knowledge from original sources;
• enable dissertation writers to do research wherever relevant sources may be, rather than just where financial support is available;
• encourage more extensive and innovative uses of original sources in libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and related repositories in the U.S. and abroad; and
• provide insight from the viewpoint of doctoral candidates into how scholarly resources can be developed for access most helpfully in the future.

To be eligible, an applicant will—

• be enrolled in a doctoral program in a graduate school in the United States (master's thesis research is not eligible) throughout the duration of the fellowship;
• complete all doctoral requirements except the dissertation and be ready to start research as early as June 1 and no later than September 1, 2017, with approval of the dissertation proposal no later than March 31, 2017;
• plan to do dissertation research primarily in original source material in the holdings of archives, libraries, historical societies, museums, related repositories, or a combination; and
• plan to write the dissertation and receive the Ph.D. degree in a field of the humanities or in a related element of the social sciences (candidates for the Ed.D, J.D., or D.D. degrees are not eligible).

An applicant may be of any nationality but must be enrolled in a U.S. graduate school and be studying here, not on a campus abroad, even if operated by a U.S. institution.

Proposed research may be conducted at a single or multiple sites abroad, in the U.S., or both. Any relevant repository may be used, including government archives and private collections accessible to the applicant. Preference is given to applicants who will be studying away from their home institution.

Those who are conducting original source research using online sources in novel or innovative ways are eligible to apply for this fellowship.