In 2017, our Giving Tuesday campaign is all about helping researchers and scholars. Donations received through our online donation page on November 28th will go directly toward awarding an additional Research Fellowship. Thanks to a generous matching pledge, all donations received up to $1,500 will be doubled!
Our Research Fellowship program awards research and travel grants of $2,500 to scholars, students, and independent researchers. Learn more about the program here.
Some Previous Fellowship Winners:
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!
--Heath W. Carter, Valparaiso University, 2016 PHS Research Fellow
Dynamic and compelling primary sources are important to the work of scholars, and the Presbyterian Historical Society houses many such papers, letters, journals and records. Due to the Fellowship I received and with the assistance of the extremely helpful staff, I managed to look at thousands of such documents on the first years of the Southern Presbyterian mission in Korea and the cross-cultural interchange between American women missionaries and Korean women. These sources are a key component in my dissertation work and tell a story not only of evangelism, but also of educational, relational and cultural interchange. As we move towards a more globally connected world, scholarship on cross-cultural encounters becomes decidedly more germane and the mission collections at the Society provide a rich archive of global interaction. I am extremely thankful for the generous support of the research fellowship.
When I began to plan out which archives I would need to visit for my dissertation research, the Presbyterian Historical Society was at the top of my list. I had heard from other historians about the impressive size and scope of its collections, and also about the incredibly helpful staff. After using CALVIN, the online catalog system, I also knew that the PHS had plenty of materials on my dissertation topic, the intersection of Christianity and sports in the United States. My research trip to Philadelphia confirmed everything that I had been told. I was able to study a wealth of material from the National Council of Churches, the PCUSA, and the Religion News Service collections, all of which will be crucial to my dissertation.
As a graduate student living in Texas, it would have been difficult for me to afford the cost of travel to visit the PHS. Thanks to the fellowship, however, I was able to make the trip. Thank you for making it possible, and for allowing me to join the ranks of numerous other historians whose work has been based upon sources held at the PHS. The work of the PHS is truly vital, indispensable for those who seek to understand our past and present in all its complexity.
"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."
--Julian Cole Phillips, M.A. Student, The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University, 2015 PHS Research Fellow
"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."
--Dr. Chris Pearl, Lycoming College, 2014 PHS Research Fellow
"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."
--Dr. Kristen Shedd, Oklahoma State University, 2014 PHS Research Fellow
"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."
--Chris Schlect, Ph.D. candidate, Washington State University, 2012 PHS Research Fellow
