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Solmsen Fellowship

 Solmsen Fellowship 

Call for Applications for 2025-2026 

Deadline: Thursday, October 24, 2024 

Access application information and link to digital application on the IRH fellowships webpage: https://irh.wisc.edu/irh-fellowships/ (scroll down to “external fellowships”). 

The Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is pleased to offer four Solmsen Fellowships for the academic year 2025-2026, to be awarded to scholars from outside the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Through a generous bequest from Friedrich and Lieselotte Solmsen, the Solmsen Fellowships sponsors humanities scholars working on European history, literature, philosophy, politics, religion, art, music, and culture in the classical, medieval, and/or early modern periods before 1700. Projects on the relationship of pre-1700 Europe to other parts of the world are also welcome. The Solmsen Fellowship does not typically support editions, anthologies, or translations. 

All IRH fellowships are residential. Solmsen Fellows are required to live in Madison, Wisconsin, throughout the academic year to ensure their active participation in the intellectual and social life at the IRH. (Alternatively, fellows must demonstrate to the director’s satisfaction the ability to be on campus daily and at short notice). 

The Solmsen Fellowship provides a stipend of $60,000, plus health benefits (if accepting the award through UW-Madison payroll), office space, limited support services, and access to university facilities (libraries). Fellows may extend their residency through the following summer on a non-stipendiary basis. However, the fellowship may not be deferred for any reason. The fellow is expected to participate in the intellectual life of the IRH by attending the weekly Monday seminar (3:30 - 5:00 pm), utilizing their campus office Monday - Friday, and giving a seminar presentation at the IRH. Fellows are also encouraged to join weekly afternoon teas and other IRH events as time and interest permit. Please consult the IRH’s website for more information about other fellowships and activities.

Eligibility 

• The IRH encourages applications from senior scholars as well as junior scholars with research projects that are well advanced. 

• Faculty members of the University of Wisconsin–Madison are not eligible for this fellowship. 

• Independent scholars are eligible to apply. 

  • Applicants must be in possession of their doctorate at the time of application (latest conferral date accepted: 10/24/24). We will not accept applications from graduate students who anticipate having a doctorate by the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year or who have defended but not submitted their dissertations. 
  • Scholars who have previously held an external fellowship at IRH (Kingdon, Solmsen, or Ciplijauskaité) are eligible to apply after ten years from the end date of their prior IRH fellowship (fellows from the 2015-2016 academic year may apply for 2025-2026 fellowships). 
  • Applicants whose projects are in religious studies are also eligible to apply to the IRH Kingdon Fellowship program. If you would like to be considered for both the Solmsen and Kingdon Fellowship competitions, please complete the Solmsen Interfolio application first and indicate within the application form that you would like your project to be included in the Kingdon competition as well. Your Solmsen application will be duplicated and sent to both selection committees. 

Application Materials to Prepare 

  • • Project Proposal. Up to 1,500 words (about 5 double-spaced pages of 12-point font). The proposal, written to be accessible to readers outside your discipline and free of jargon, should address the significance of the project. Clearly state the intended product of your research, whether it is a book or an article (or a series of articles). For book projects, an outline of chapters is highly recommended. The proposal should also state how the project will be accomplished, and the specific work plan for the period of the fellowship. Projects to revise doctoral dissertations should involve substantial expansion, new research, and/or new conceptual frameworks – the proposal should clearly explain how the project relates to the submitted dissertation yet will be a different book. 
  • Project Bibliography. Publications (not your own) relevant to the project, up to 2 pages. 
  • Curriculum Vitae. Including work forthcoming and in progress. 
  • Two letters of recommendation. Each must address the significance and feasibility of the proposed research, quality of the proposal, qualifications for the project, and past work. Letters must be submitted online via Interfolio; IRH will not accept letters emailed to staff members. Successful applications from more senior scholars tend not to have letters from the applicant’s degree-granting institution (e.g., dissertation advisor). 
  • Completed Solmsen Interfolio Application. Note: required entries in the Interfolio application “form” will include a reduced 100-word project abstract (separate from your uploaded project proposal); please prepare this shortened abstract before 
    • . Abstracts over 100 words will be cut off in review materials sent to the selection committee. Reminder: Solmsen applicants who would also like to be considered for the Kingdon competition need not submit two separate applications. Complete the Solmsen Interfolio application first and indicate that you would like your project to be included in both competitions. Your Solmsen application will be duplicated and sent to the Kingdon selection committee. 

    Application Submission 

    • Applicants must access the online application through Interfolio. The Interfolio application link is found in the Solmsen Fellowship section of the IRH fellowships webpage: https://irh.wisc.edu/irh-fellowships/ (scroll down to the expandable “external fellowships” menu). 

    • You must complete your online application and upload all required materials to Interfolio by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Thursday, October 24, 2024 (recommendation letters must also be uploaded by your recommenders by 11:59 ET pm 10/24/24). Note that Interfolio operates out of Washington, D.C. and deadlines are set at Eastern Time, NOT Madison’s Central Time. Please check the your time zone of the computer you are using if submitting last-minute. 

    • You do not need to complete your application in a single session. You may start it, save changes, log out, and return to it later. (To see your saved applications, go to the Interfolio dashboard and click the “Deliveries” button; un-submitted applications will appear as "in-progress.”) 

    • You can submit your application early while letters of recommendation are still pending (in fact, we encourage you to do so). Letters of recommendation can be submitted even after you submit your portion, but your recommenders must upload their letters to Interfolio by the deadline (11:59 pm ET) or they will not be attached to your application packet. 

    • Please press the “submit” button on your portion of the application as soon as possible. Even after submission, you may return to an application repeatedly to make edits and changes until 11:59 pm ET on October 24th. (Again, to see an application you have already submitted, go to the Interfolio dashboard and click the “Deliveries” button; submitted applications will appear as "sent deliveries.") 

    • The selection committee will not see, review, or read any submitted materials until October 25th. 

    Letters of Recommendation 

    • Applications require two letters of recommendation. 
    • To identify your letter writers and request letters of recommendation from them within the Interfolio system: Open the application page. Find the category “Confidential Letter of Recommendation or Evaluation” and click the “Add File” button on the far right. On the next screen, select the tab labeled “Request a Recommendation,” then click the “Request” button. On the following screen, enter the first and last name of the recommender along 
      • their email address. Click the “Send Request” button to complete the process. 
      • Interfolio will then contact the two recommenders directly with instructions on how to submit your letters. Please do this early so that Interfolio has time to contact your writers and so they have time to review Interfolio’s submission instructions. Letters must be submitted through Interfolio; letters emailed directly to the IRH will not be accepted. 
      • The deadline for letter writers to submit letters is also 11:59 pm ET on Thursday, October 24, 2024. Letters submitted after midnight will not be attached to your application. IRH does not send reminder emails to letter writers and does not check for missing letters close to the application deadline. Check Interfolio early and often to make sure your letters are submitted ahead of the deadline. 

      Deadlines 

      • Application materials submitted through Interfolio (by applicant): 11:59PM ET, Thursday, October 24, 2024. 
      • Letters of recommendation uploaded to Interfolio (by recommenders): 11:59PM ET, Thursday, October 24, 2024. 
      • Notifications from IRH: Late February or Early March 2025.* 

      *Every application will get full consideration. However, due to the exceptionally large number of applications received each year, the review is completed in multiple stages of review and voting (preliminary review, semi-finalist review, and finalist review). The selection committee makes every effort to notify individuals no longer being considered at each stage of the competition. Only awardees and alternates will need to wait until early March for notification. Applying for both the Kingdon and Solmsen Fellowship competitions at the same time may affect this notification timeline. 

      Inquiries 

      • For substantive questions about projects and proposals, contact Steven Nadler, IRH Director (smnadler@wisc.edu; 608-262-8151). 
      • For all other questions about this fellowship and the application process, contact Katie Apsey, IRH Associate Director (apsey@wisc.edu; 608-262-3855). 
      • For help using Interfolio, please contact Interfolio’s help desk (help@interfolio.com; 877-997-8807).