Through a collaborative effort of the Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands & Peoples of the North American West, the Archives and Special Collections (ASC) department of the MSU Library, and the Friends of MSU Library , Montana State University offers a $3,000 annual award to facilitate research into collections held by ASC.  

The award is intended to defray the costs of either travel to Bozeman to conduct research; to facilitate digitization of portions of a collection to allow a researcher to work remotely; or a mix of the two. Recipients may be academics (including graduate students) or independent scholars who are residents of the United States. We are unable to pay for any costs above the award amount. 

Recipients should have a proven track record of accomplishment (or promise, in the case of graduate students) in their scholarly or creative work.  Applicants may use any of the unrestricted holdings of the MSU Archives and Special Collections, including manuscripts, MSU archives, the Trout and Salmonid collection, or Special Collections books. 

The awardee will share the preliminary results of their work in a public online presentation for MSU students, faculty, staff, and the Friends of the Library during the academic year following the award and will complete a creative or scholarly work within one calendar year from the date of the award. A copy of the work should be submitted to the head of Archives and Special Collections on completion.

Applications should consist of: 

• A cover letter;  
• A statement of purpose of no more than 1500 words describing the project, the collections the researcher plans to consult, and the anticipated final product;  
• A budget for travel, digitization, or a combination of the two;  
• A 2-3 page curriculum vitae. 

Send applications to the Head of Archives and Special Collections, Jodi Allison-Bunnellby April 14, 2025.  

Applications will be evaluated by a joint committee composed of the director of the Doig Center, a member of the ASC faculty, the Head of ASC, and a member of the Friends board.  

Criteria for evaluation: 

• Evidence of an appropriate range and depth of ASC collections to be used;   
• Significance and originality (or a fresh treatment) of the proposed topic; 

• Quality of writing and organization; 
• Applicant’s past record of successfully publishing or otherwise disseminating academic or creative works, or in the case of graduate students, demonstrated promise of success; 
• A well-supported budget for travel, digitization, or both. 

The award will be announced by May 1, 2025. Recipients will receive $1,500 at the start of the research and $1,500 after their public presentation is completed. We highly recommend travel in early to mid summer, when awardees can access campus housing. Lodging in Bozeman is extremely expensive.   

The Merrill G. Burlingame Archives and Special Collections at MSU features manuscript collections on the West and the Greater Yellowstone, with particular strengthsin agricultural history; the world’s most comprehensive collection of trout and salmonid books; select records of MSU history; area-focused books; and a substantial collection of angling oral histories.  

2025 Pacific Northwest Labor History Conference: “Labor in a Hostile Political Environment: What Can Labor History Teach Us?”

April 25-26, Portland, Oregon

Registration Open Now at pnlha.org

Friday night, April 25 Oregon AFL-CIO, 3645 SE 32 nd Ave., Portland

6:00-8:00 p.m. Panel Discussion: “How Labor History Helps Us Understand and Face the Current Attacks on the Labor Movement”

Graham Trainor, President, Oregon AFL-CIO

April Sims, President, Washington State Labor Council

Sussanne Skidmore, President, British Columbia Federation of Labour

Tour, Reception and Social Hour

Saturday, April 26, NECA/IBEW Electrical Training Center, 16021 NE Airport Way, Portland

8:00-5:00 pm Plenary Sessions:

“The Other Operation Dixie: Public Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement”

Will Jones, Professor of History, University of Minnesota

“Malevolent Bargains: The Politics of Immigration Restriction (1920s/2020s)”

Dan Tichenor, Professor of Political Science, Director, Wayne Morse Center on Public Governance, University of Oregon

Bob Bussel, Professor Emeritus, Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon

Responses from Oregon Trade Unionists

Workshops/Panels:

•Pages from British Columbia Labor History

•Black Oregonians and the Civilian Conservation Corps

•Teacher Strikes in the PNW in Historical Perspective

•Young Workers On the Move

•Class and Racial Violence in the PNW

•Labor and the Environment

•Julia Rutilla, PNW Radical

•New Research in Labor History and Labor Strategy

•How to Do Local Union History

[Agenda subject to change. See PNLHA website for Updates]

Register now at pnlha.org

Early Bird (by April 1): $45

Students: Free [with student ID]

Pedagogy in an Age of Uncertainty: AI, Inclusive Teaching, and the Politics of Knowledge

Proposal Due: May 23, 2025

Conference Date: August 18 - 21, 2025

Location: Virtual on Whova

H-Net is pleased to announce that “Pedagogy in an Age of Uncertainty: AI, Inclusive Teaching, and the Politics of Knowledge” will be our theme for the fourth annual Teaching Conference. This year’s theme invites presenters to explore the challenges of teaching and learning amid rapidly evolving technologies, the complexities of knowledge production in an era of misinformation and censorship, and ongoing debates over diversity and inclusion at all levels of education.

We welcome individual, panel, and roundtable proposals, and encourage interactive sessions such as digital posters, assignment charrettes, and other innovative formats that foster engagement and discussion.

This year, our keynote speaker will be Robert Cassanello, Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Florida.

The conference will be held in a virtual format during the week of Monday, August 18th, 2025. Presenters will have the opportunity to be recorded for future reference via the H-Net Commons. Selected presenters will also be invited to publish their work in the H-Net Conference Proceedings publication.

All proposals should include a title, CVs and email addresses for all presenters, and an abstract of no more than 200 words. No pre-recorded sessions will be accepted. Submissions are encouraged to focus on any of the following issues: 

1. Innovative pedagogical approaches to fostering critical thinking, media literacy, and inclusive and equitable learning environments in today’s polarized political landscape.

2. Challenges and strategies related to the use of digital resources and artificial intelligence.

3. Public-facing educational programs and resources (H-Net, National History Day, literacy initiatives, etc.) that strengthen civic engagement, historical literacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration and can enrich existing humanities efforts on the local, state, and national levels.

4. Difficulties relating to government mandates at all educational levels.

Email submissions to brothe10@msu.edu by Friday, May 23, 2025.

As H-Net is a proponent of open source access, the conference will be free and open to all.

The National Archives Foundation still welcomes applications for the Fifth Annual Cokie Roberts Fellowship for Women's History. Applications will be accepted through April 14, 2025.

LEARN MORE

The Cokie Roberts Research Fund for Women’s History will award up to $12,500 to support annual fellowships for applicants who will perform new research at the National Archives to elevate women’s history. Applicants can be based anywhere in the U.S. The recipients of the fellowship will perform original document research from the National Archives on women’s history for a published book, article, essay, film, short series, or art piece developed for the general public.

How to apply: The application window is currently open and will close on April 14, 2025. Interested applicants must submit the following information through an online form: Project Proposal Responses – Applications require written responses to project proposal questions. These questions include: An abstract or executive summary of your project proposal; any prior experience conducting research at the National Archives; an overview of your proposed research topic and why the topic is important to you; and when and where you hope to publish your final work. Resume/CV (no more than three pages) One (1) letter of recommendation (supporting your application/project) Three (3) samples of your work. Contact fellowship@archivesfoundation.org for more information.

APPLY NOW

Curious about past recipients? You can learn more about prior awardees and their respective projects and topics at the fellows page here.

MTHS Seeks Applications for Fellowships

The Montana Historical Society is seeking applicants for our annual Montana History Network fellowship.

The fellowship, which comes with a $4,000 stipend, is for graduate or doctoral students who will conduct research at Montana Historical Society (MTHS), Montana State University (MSU) and/or University of Montana (UM) library and archives.

Please note that for the 2025 fellowship, research will need to be conducted at MSU and UM, as MTHS is closed for renovation.

The student is expected to be in residence and conduct research for four weeks between May 1, 2025, and Oct. 31, 2025. The student will submit a written report about the research by Dec. 31, 2025, which will be shared with Nelson Weller, who is funding the fellowship.

In addition, the student will submit an article to Montana the Magazine of Western History for consideration for publication within one year of the residency.

Applicants must be enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program in history or a related field. The research topic must be suitable for MTHS, MSU and/or UM library and archives collections. It also must have the potential to make a significant contribution to Montana’s history, with the potential to produce an article-length publication.

Applicants must submit a cover letter; a project proposal not to exceed 3 double-spaced pages, including specific materials the applicant intends to consult at each library or archive. They also need to include a curriculum vitae, summarizing their academic and professional background, qualifications, and accomplishments. In addition, applicants must submit at least one letter of recommendation.

The deadline for submissions is April 11, 2025. All applications must be sent electronically as one PDF document to mthslibrary@mt.gov.

For more information, email Roberta Gebhardt at rgebhardt@mt.gov or go online to https://mths.mt.gov/research/fellowships/.

Edited by: Dr. Sara Gallagher, PhD

Description:

The Midwest has long been a pivotal yet underexplored region in the history and cultural expression of Black Americans. From Black homesteading communities that shaped the rural landscape to the literary voices that captured the complexities of migration, labor, and identity, the Midwest holds a unique place in the Black American experience. This edited volume seeks to explore the intersection of history and literature, focusing on Black homesteading, migration, and cultural production in the Midwest. We invite scholars, historians, and literary critics to contribute original essays that examine the Black Midwest through historical, cultural, and literary lenses. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

- Black Homesteading and Rurality: The role of Black farmers and settlers in building self-sufficient communities in the Midwest, including case studies of all-Black towns and agricultural practices.

- Migration and Urbanization: How the Great Migration reshaped Black Midwestern communities and how literature reflects these transitions.

- Black Women’s Voices: The contributions of Black Midwestern women in literature, journalism, and activism, from the 19th century to the present.

- Popular Culture and the Black Midwest: The influence of Black Midwestern culture on music, film, and other forms of artistic expression.

- Regional Identity in Black Literature: How authors such as Toni Morrison, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Colson Whitehead depict the Midwest in their works.

- Canadian Connections: The history and cultural contributions of Black settlers in the Canadian Prairies.

- Contemporary Reclamations of the Black Midwest: Modern literature, activism, and cultural movements that revisit or reinterpret Black Midwestern history.

Key Questions:

This collection seeks to answer a range of questions, including but not limited to:

- How did Black homesteaders shape the economic and cultural landscapes of the Midwest?

- What role did the Great Migration play in the cultural and historical representation of Black Midwestern identity?

- How have Black Midwestern women contributed to cultural and historical narratives?

- In what ways does popular culture reflect or distort the realities of Black life in the Midwest?

- How do contemporary writers and activists engage with the legacy of Black settlement and migration in the region?

- What connections can be drawn between historical Black Midwestern communities and present-day social and political movements?

Target Audience:

This collection is intended for scholars, researchers, and students in the fields of African American Studies, American History, Literary Studies, Cultural Studies, and Midwest Studies. It will also be valuable to educators, writers, and general readers interested in Black history and literature.

Chapter Submissions:

We seek well-researched and original chapters between 6,000 and 8,000 words. Submissions should be grounded in historical and/or literary analysis and should align with the themes outlined above.

Details for Abstract Submissions:

Interested contributors should submit a 300–500-word abstract outlining their proposed chapter, along with a brief biography (150 words), by April 27, 2025.

Important Dates:

- Abstract Submission Deadline: April 27, 2025

- Full Chapter Submission Deadline: August 10, 2025

- Final Revisions Due: September 29, 2025

- Tentative Publication Date: Spring 2026

Editor information/Biography:

Dr. Sara Gallagher is a scholar and professor at Durham College in Canada, specializing in the Black American West and Western Studies broadly. She earned her PhD from the University of Waterloo in 2022. Her research focuses on Black literature and cultural production in the Midwest and West. She is the author of Black Wests: Reshaping Race and Place in Popular Culture (forthcoming from OU Press in Spring 2025) and has published widely on Black Western narratives in literature and film.

Contact/For all inquiries please email: Sara.Gallagher@durhamcollege.ca

The Yale Group for the Study of Native America (YGSNA) is pleased to invite applications for the 2025/26 Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Writing Fellowship in American Indian and Indigenous Studies. Since 2010, the Roe Cloud Fellowship has helped to develop American Indian Studies at Yale by facilitating the completion of the doctorate by scholars working on pressing issues related to the American Indian experience. Scholars working on topics in Indigenous Studies that relate to the study of North American Indians are also encouraged to apply.

The Henry Roe Cloud Fellowship honors the legacy of Henry Roe Cloud (Ho-Chunk), a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Nebraska and graduate of Yale College, 1910. A tireless critic of federal Indian assimilation programs, particularly the manual, vocational labor programs developed at various boarding and “industrial” schools, Roe Cloud championed increased educational opportunities for American Indians and founded the American Indian Institute which he co-ran with his partner Elizabeth Bender Cloud (Ojibwe), a noted educator, advocate, and member of the Society of American Indians. Together, they worked to transform American Indian higher education and federal Indian policy more broadly. Roe Cloud served, for example, as the only Native co-author of “The Problem of Indian Administration,” commonly known as “The Meriam Report,” an extensive survey made at the request of Secretary of the Interior that detailed the appalling failures of federal Indian policy in the early twentieth century. This survey, presented to Congress in 1928, helped to set in motion many of the subsequent reforms of the Indian New Deal.

The Fellowship will support a graduate scholar in any doctoral field for the academic year, beginning August 1, 2025, and ending July 31, 2026. Graduate students working towards careers in higher education who have completed all doctoral requirements but the dissertation are invited to apply. The expectation is that the dissertation will be completed during the fellowship year. The criteria for selection will be based on an assessment of the quality of the candidate’s work and the project’s overall significance for the study of American Indian and Indigenous Studies.

The Roe Cloud Fellowship will provide support comparable to that for Yale University graduate students, including an annual stipend, health care coverage, and full access to Yale facilities and services. The fellow will work in close affiliation with the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (ERM) Program and the Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM). The fellow will have access to Yale’s exceptional research libraries. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, in addition to its premier collection of Western Americana, also holds the papers of many important American Indian writers, including Joseph Bruchac, Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor, and James Welch, as well as those of important policy makers such as Felix Cohen and Richard Henry Pratt. Manuscripts and Archives at Sterling Memorial Library holds the papers of John Collier and Henry Roe Cloud.

The Roe Cloud Fellow will also have the opportunity to participate in the activities of the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders, the Native American Cultural Center, as well as the YGSNA working group. Formed in 2003 to bring together the intellectual community at Yale working in the area of Native American Studies, YGSNA organizes bi-monthly workshops throughout the academic year as well as related academic events on campus.

Yale student, staff, and faculty members are also increasingly active in regional and national Indian Studies networks. Additionally, the state and federally-recognized Indian Nations of Connecticut maintain museums, archives, and research centers, and host community events that draw regional, national, as well as international visitors.

Each fellow will be mentored by a professor drawn from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and will be responsible for making a formal YGSNA presentation of the project during the academic year. Usually held in the Conference Room of the Native American Cultural Center, this presentation is open to all interested members of the campus community. 

Application Instructions

Applications must include a c.v., a cover letter, a writing sample of approximately 25 pages drawn from the dissertation, as well as three letters of recommendation, including one from the candidate’s dissertation advisor. The application deadline is March 10, 2025. For further information write to: RoeCloud.Fellowship@yale.edu.

Click here to apply for this position.

The American Historical Association will host a three-week long National Endowment for the Humanities Institute for Higher Education Faculty on US environmental history and policy from the early 19th century through the 20th century. The application deadline is March 5, 2025. If your membership (or colleagues) might be interested, we encourage you to share information about the Institute.

Situated at the intersection of environmental, Indigenous, and political history, this institute will explore how humans have contributed and adjusted to environmental changes. This long historical context is crucial for understanding what differentiates current emissions-driven climate change from what came before.

Drawing on local collections, including those of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, and the local environment as a laboratory, the institute will provide a combination of historical content, methodological approaches, and additional professional development opportunities.

The first two weeks of the institute will be held June 1–13, 2025, in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, located on the Clinton Library campus. The institute will conclude with one week of online engagement among Institute faculty and participants.

You can learn more about the institute on the AHA's website. Please contact Lizzy Meggyesy, AHA publications and communications associate, at lmeggyesy@historians.org with any questions. 

Visual Wests, a NEH Institute for Higher Education Faculty and advanced graduate students, will be held at the University of Oklahoma from July 7 to August 1, 2025. This residential institute explores the visual imagery and material culture – paintings, sculptures, maps, films, clothing – that shaped ideas about the American West since the nineteenth century. We will analyze artistic, cartographic and archival silences that supported settlers’ political and cultural hegemony, and contemplate overlooked visual practices by Indigenous, African American, and Mexican American actors.

 

Additional information on the institute and the application process can be found at https://visualwest1.com/. The application deadline is March 5, 2025.

 

A primary feature of the Institute will be workshop sessions in which participants immerse themselves in the rich archival, library, and museum resources at the University of Oklahoma. The Institute also includes day trips to Tulsa’s Greenwood District, mural arts in rural communities, the former Concho Indian Boarding School, historic Black towns, and the First Americans Museum.

 

Please contact VisualWests@ou.edu with any questions.

Carl J. Ekberg Research Grant

The Center for French Colonial Studies awards each year a $2,000 grant to further research related to the French presence in the swath of territory between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, the Illinois Country being pivotal, during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. Proposals may request support for any stage of a research project from initial fieldwork to the summary of results. This grant may be combined with other awards.
 
By accepting the award, recipients thereby agree to submit an abstract of their project (up to 1,000 words) to Le Journal, the Center’s quarterly publication, and may be invited to present a paper based on their research at the Center’s annual conference.
 
FIELD OF STUDY: All academic disciplines are eligible. 
 
ELIGIBILITY: The award is open to graduate students in their final years of doctoral study and junior scholars who recently defended their dissertation; applicants may be of any nationality. Priority will be given to doctoral students whose dissertation proposal has already been approved. Applicants should have the necessary language proficiency to conduct the project.
 
AWARD: $2,000.
 
DEADLINE:  March 31
 
APPLICATIONS: A completed application (in English or French) consists of the following:
From the applicant:

• a completed online application form (available HERE)
• a curriculum vitae
• a statement of purpose in which the candidate describes the following:

1. the nature of the project
2. potential sources
3. language competence as it pertains to the proposed research
4. the applicant's current degree status
5. how an award would aid in the completion of the project

From the applicant’s project/dissertation advisor:

• a letter evaluating the applicant’s proposal and promise

Applications are reviewed by an interdisciplinary committee. The name of the recipients will be announced in April. 

All communication can be directed to: frenchcolonialstudies@gmail.com