Giving Tuesday

The Presbyterian Historical Society’s Research Fellowship Program awards annual research and travel grants to eligible scholars, students and independent researchers who wish to use PHS’s rich holdings. Since 2004, the program has supported scholarship in a range of fields including mission history, social justice movement and ecumenism. Fellows submit reports to PHS and are encouraged to publish their work in the Journal of Presbyterian History.

The significance of scholarship and access to research materials has never been more important. Each grant of $2,500 is awarded through a competitive application process and can be used to cover travel, lodging, and other research expenses. Consideration is given to those whose primary residence is more than seventy-five miles from Philadelphia.

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Some Previous Fellowship Winners:

I am extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to visit the PHS archives and to have benefited from the generous support of the society in conducting my research. I hope that this unique opportunity will allow my dissertation to present new and novel aspects of both the American missionaries’ history in Lebanon and of architectural and urban history in the region, and be a testament to the importance of the extensive and well-preserved archives of the mission and the PHS. 

-- 2019 PHS Research Fellow Yasmina El Chami from the Univrsity of Cambridge

The holdings of the Presbyterian Historical Society are vital to my dissertation research and project. Without the funds provided by the PHS’s Research Fellowship Program, I would have found it very difficult to undertake my research there, particularly for the amount of time I did. Furthermore, the kind and enormously helpful staff greatly facilitated my time in the archive, offering helpful suggestions and insights into the PHS’s holdings on my topic.

-- 2018 PHS Research Fellow Johanna Peterson from University of California, San Diego

The Presbyterian Historical Society is a national treasure. It's vital holdings shed light on not just the history of American Christianity, but also the changing texture and organization of social, political, and economic life through the centuries. The Federal Council of Churches collection is particularly essential for my current research into the history of American social Christianity, but a number of other collections are directly relevant as well. I am grateful for the generous provision of a fellowship as well as for the expert assistance of the Society's staff during my visit. Thank you!

--2016 PHS Research Fellow Heath W. Carter from Valparaiso University

"I am convinced that the best way to understand the past is through a close study of the individual institutions, figures, and events that shaped (and now reveal) deeper historical shifts. The generous support of a Research Fellowship at the Presbyterian Historical Society allowed me to spend three full weeks conducting research at PHS, where I used missionary records to reconstruct the history of a Presbyterian mission school in Iran during a crucial period in the history of US-Iranian relations. As a graduate student and aspiring historian, this fellowship provided me with the unique opportunity to conduct in-depth primary research into an important topic, while developing the skills necessary for my future studies and career."

--2015 PHS Research Fellow Julian Cole Phillips, M.A. Student from The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University

"The Presbyterian Historical Society’s Research Fellowship program has been indispensable to my book project on the American Revolution in Pennsylvania and other projects. Historians have always known that Presbyterianism was central to the revolution, but the wonderfully preserved sermons at PHS exposed the force and pervasiveness of a singular and important Presbyterian political logic that not only shaped the coming of the revolution, but the consequences of that revolution in the formation of new polities that would dominate the political world of the United States for at least another century. PHS is the only place to conduct such research and has pushed my research and enhanced my understanding of the American Revolution above and beyond any and all expectations."

--2014 PHS Research Fellow Dr. Chris Pearl from Lycoming College

"The Fellowship gave me the opportunity to examine the records of the Federal Council of Churches and National Council of Churches, two of the most prominent Protestant ecumenical organizations of the 20th Century. The staff at PHS made my research trip all the more productive as I collected material to add to my completed dissertation, which explores the political and social influence of mainline Protestantism. My time at PHS also helped me uncover material for conference papers and future projects on the economic attitude of these influential organizations. The Presbyterian Historical Society's archives are a vital means for uncovering the complexities and debates of U.S. life, and the Fellowship Program is an essential resource to help scholars and researchers tell that story."

--2014 PHS Research Fellow Dr. Kristen Shedd from Oklahoma State University

"The Research Fellowship Program draws researchers to the rich storehouse of materials preserved at PHS. It brings scholarship to life at a time when promising work in the humanities often goes unexplored for lack of funding. It also supports projects that are uniquely important today. Not long ago, scholars looked upon religious activity as the superficial dressing over supposedly greater historical forces such as politics and economics. This view is no longer tenable. The cultural and social dynamics of recent years have impressed a plain truth upon us all: if we hope to understand the world we live in, we must take religion seriously. We have much to learn, and the Research Fellowship Program produces scholarship that fills this need."

--2012 PHS Research Fellow Chris Schlect, Ph.D. candidate from Washington State University