Diasporican Archives Graduate Research Fellowship 2025
Deadline
March 21, 2025
at 5:00 PM
Application Guidelines
Description: CENTRO Press and Lost and Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative jointly call for applications for the Diasporican Archives Graduate Research Fellowship. We will award up to two fellowships of $3,000 each to two graduate students currently enrolled at CUNY. The awardees will conduct research at CENTRO’s Archives to edit a chapbook with original research and unpublished archival materials. Fellows will have the support of an ad hoc group of advisors composed of members of both CENTRO and Lost and Found. Successful chapbooks will be co-published as part of CENTRO Press’ Diasporican Archives Chapbook Series and Lost and Found.
Application Deadline: March 21, 2025.
Goals: To incentivize publication of literary materials from CENTRO’s Archive with a rigorous academic framing; to keep CENTRO’s archive alive and dynamic; to make diasporic Puerto Rican literature easily available to students, teachers, professors, researchers, and readers everywhere.
Funding Amount: $3,000 (+ Publication costs, if applicable), disbursed in two installments.
Duration of fellowship: April to September 2025 (the Archives will be closed in July)
Eligibility: This fellowship is restricted to Masters and Doctoral students currently enrolled at a CUNY institution and who will continue to be enrolled for the duration of the fellowship.
Conditions:
- The proposed project should focus on materials held at CENTRO’s Archives. We are looking specifically for students interested in researching materials from the following collections:
- Jesús Colón Papers
- Clara Colón Papers
- Erasmo Vando Rodríguez Papers
- Emelí Vélez de Vando Papers
- Graciany Archilla Miranda Papers
- Juan Flores Papers,
- Miguel Algarín Papers
- Juan Avilés Collection,
- Ana Gloria San Antonio Papers,
- Victor Fernández Fragoso Papers,
- Elba Cabrera Papers,
- Juan González Papers
- Blase Camacho Souza Papers
Projects focusing on other collections will be considered but will need prior approval before submitting the application. If you wish to propose work with a different collection, please reach out to the Editor at [email protected]
- Fellows must commit to a minimum of 10 visits to the Archives from April-September 2025.
- At the end of the summer, the awardees must submit a report with the findings of the research conducted with the support of the fellowship.
- The awardees must submit to the advisors and Editors a final version of the chapbook proposal by the end of October 2025.
- Fellows who fail to meet the minimum of visits to the archive and don’t submit a successful proposal will have to return the award.
- CENTRO Press and Lost and Found do not commit to publishing the work if the quality of the research and final proposal do not meet the Press’ standards. The joint Editorial team will carefully consider the chapbook proposal and evaluate the merits and viability of the project together with the awardees’ fellowship advisors.
Deliverables:
- A chapbook proposal. CENTRO Press and Lost and Found commit to responding to the awardee within one month of submission, after which period, if the proposal is not accepted, the awardee can submit it to other presses.
- If the chapbook proposal resulting from the summer research is accepted, a chapbook with the archival materials worked with during the time of the fellowship will be edited and published as part of CENTRO’s Diasporican Archives Chapbook series and will also be part of the Lost and Found Catalog.
Application Process:
Applicants must apply using apply button above or this link. Applications will not be accepted by email. The application consists of: 1. a project description specifying the author or topic of research and sketching out the intended publication project, including a brief paragraph justifying the merits of the project; 2. a work plan for the time spent in person at the archive; 3. and a CV.
Applicants will be notified of the results by mid-April.
For any questions, you can write to the Editor at [email protected]
