Relaunching the Rome Fellowship

The Paul Mellon Centre and the British School at Rome are excited to announce that the Rome Fellowship has been refreshed for the spring 2020 round of applications (which opens on Monday 25 November).

Now in its fifteenth year, the Rome Fellowship offers an individual the unique opportunity to spend three months in Rome for research on a British-Italian art-historical topic. Previously the fellowship required applicants to be of mid or senior career status, yet applications will now be open to scholars, researchers, curators and other GLAM (gallery, library, archive and museum) professionals from immediately post-doctoral to those internationally recognised in their field of expertise.

Funding has also increased, not only will the fellowship still offer full residential accomodation and meals at the British School at Rome but now also includes an honorarium of £3,000 as well as the sum of £8,000 towards replacement staff costs if the applicants are employed. For independent applicants the honorarium will be £7,000.

The fellowship also includes benefits such as Italian language lessons and assistance in gaining access to resources not normally open to the public.

The British School at Rome

The School hosts some thirty-five individuals at any one time, from academics and fine artists who have won awards to spend an extended period in Rome, to researchers making specific trips to use the rich library and archives of the BSR, as well as the amazing resources of other Italian and international organisations based in Rome.

The BSR Library is a specialist reference resource, with an open-shelf collection consisting of c.110,000 volumes (books and periodicals) and 600 current periodicals. The library subscribes to many Italian periodicals that are not widely available in the UK. The BSR also has a rich collection of maps and rare prints, as well as a photographic archive that contains over 100,000 items (prints and negatives of rare and unique collections, including calotypes, glass negatives, nitrate and acetate negatives, early photographic prints, 35mm film, postcards, slides and lantern slides), covering many subjects including Italian and North African archaeology and topography, ancient Greek and Roman art, in particular sculpture, and European medieval and Renaissance art and architecture.

There is a big sense of community at the BSR, with fellows and residents encouraged to take part in the vibrant atmosphere, from communal dining to workshops and events.

Supported Topics

The Rome Fellowship supports projects on British-Italian art or architectural history. Some recent Rome Fellows have undertaken research on the following topics:

• Vernon Lee and Psychological Aesthetics
• Reproducing Classical Idioms of Power and Culture in Film
• Oscar Rejlander and British Art Photography in Rome
• Architecture and Urbanism between Italy and Rome
• John Henry Parker’s Historical Photographs of Rome

Find out more about the Rome Fellowship or email [email protected].