The Jane Austen Scholar-in-Residence

The Jane Austen-Scholar-in Residence Program  supports travel research fellowships to promote scholarship related to the eighteenth-century studies using the Alberta Hirshheimer Burke-Jane Austen Collection at Goucher College. Established in 2000, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the donation of the Jane Austen Collection, this competitive residency offers the selected scholar a two-week residency providing an award of $2500 to help cover estimated travel and living expenses. 

In 2019, the Goucher College Library partnered with the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) to award the residency on a rolling basis. Goucher College Library is now part of a select group of research institutions in the ASECS Joint Library Fellowship program.

Please contact the Special Collections & Archives with any questions at archives@goucher.edu.

Applicant Requirements

  • ABD graduate student or post-doctoral or holding a Ph.D. (or equivalent) at the time of application
  • Applicants must be living outside the Baltimore region
  • Recipients will be asked to join ASECS prior to the start of the fellowship (membership in ASECS is not required to apply)
  • The award must be used within 18 months of receiving unless special arrangements have been made.
  • The recipients will be asked to provide Goucher College Library with a summary report on the progress of their research, what materials they consulted, and a print copy or electronic access to the work resulting from the research.

How to Apply

  • Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
  • Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, a proposal describing your project, and two reference letters.
  • Submit applications to Kristen Welzenbach, curator of special collections and archives, at archives@goucher.edu or Goucher College Library, 1021 Dulaney Valley Rd., Baltimore, Md 21204.

About the Alberta Hirshheimer Burke-Jane Austen Collection at Goucher

 

In 1975, at the death of Alberta Hirshheimer Burke, a Goucher alumna of the Class of 1928, Goucher College received the extraordinary Jane Austen collection that she and her husband, prominent Baltimorean Henry Burke, had acquired over a period of forty years. This nationally recognized collection includes copies of all first and early editions, an extensive collection of translations, biographical and critical works, and later editions.  The collection is supported by a great number of works from the Georgian period including novels, periodicals, courtesy books, works by Humphry Repton and contemporaries, and beautiful color-plate books. The Burke’s personal papers include Alberta Burke’s own notebooks of Austen-related ephemera and correspondence with Austen collectors and scholars. For an overview of the Burke Austen collection, see this Jane Austen Collection Guide.

The Goucher College Library serves the intellectual and creative needs of the greater Goucher community and visiting researchers. Located within the library, the Special Collections & Archives (SC&A) includes rare books, personal papers, photographs, the college archives, and other unique research materials. With more than 15,000 rare and special books, including incunabulum from the advent of printing, finely printed and finely bound works, and a growing collection of artists' books, the SC&A holdings support primary research in many disciplines. Students, faculty, and outside researchers are encouraged to explore our unique collections.

The James Wilson Bright Collection, a 4,000 volume teaching collection, will be of interest to 18th century scholars and includes Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, and Early Modern English texts that support centuries of scholarship in English studies, is an important collection for 18th century scholarship.

Former Scholars

 Prior to partnering with ASECS, the Jane Austen Scholar-in-Residence program  started out as the Burke-Austen Scholar-in-Residence.  The following scholars were Burke-Austen fellows: