The Visiting Fellowship program offers scholars at all stages of their careers funding to pursue projects that require in-depth research on the library’s holdings, draw on staff expertise, and participate in intellectual life at Harvard.

Houghton also provides fellows with access to other libraries at the University, and opportunities to exchange knowledge and promote their research through its publications, and scholarly and public programs.

Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse amount of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

The library particularly welcomes proposals that reexamine its collections through a global lens and/or demonstrate how the holdings of a rare book and manuscript library can contribute to discourse around contemporary social, political, and cultural issues. New fellowships on gender and sexuality studies in the performing arts, and early modern black lives underscore Houghton's commitment to diversifying perspectives on our collections.

Doctoral students, post-doctoral, academics and independent scholars, as well as curators, and other library, archive and museum professionals, are welcome to apply.

Fellowships are normally not granted to scholars who live within commuting distance of the library. Fellows are expected to be in residence at Houghton for at least four weeks during the period from September 2020 through June 2021 (these do not have to be consecutive weeks).