Job Details

Type: Full-Time
Salary: $60,000–$69,000 per year
Posted: 12/02/2025
Category: History; +3 — Military
School: Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department/Area: Charles Warren Center

Position Description

The Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University invites applications for the 2026–27 Warren Center Faculty Fellowship on the theme “Commemorative Acts,” led by Tiya Miles (History) and Robin Bernstein (African and African American Studies; Women, Gender, & Sexuality).

Set against the backdrop of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the start of the American Revolution, the 2026–27 seminar will explore the varied dimensions of commemoration as a national practice. As commemorations proliferate throughout the country during this historic year, the seminar seeks to examine how individuals, communities, and institutions remember—or forget—the past.

Seminar Focus

The program welcomes scholars whose work engages with commemorations as events, rituals, processes, material objects, or built environments that shape public memory. Projects may explore large-scale national commemorations or more focused, localized acts that illuminate broader questions of identity, narrative, and belonging.

The seminar will emphasize:

• Performance history and the tools of performance studies

• The role of space, audienceship, ritual, temporality, bodies, and memory

• The dynamic relationship between remembrance and erasure

• The intersections of race, gender, and other categories of historical analysis

• Key historical moments, including the Civil War, slavery, abolition, and Reconstruction

The co-conveners will foreground questions central to African American studies, including archival challenges, genealogy, democracy, and the politics of national memory.

Core Questions

The seminar will address fundamental inquiries such as:

• Why do commemorations matter?

• What functions do they serve in a modern nation-state?

• How are commemorations created, sustained, or dissolved?

• How can Harvard contribute to ongoing national conversations about public memory?

Fellowship Details

Fellows will:

• Present and workshop their research in the faculty seminar

• Participate fully in the intellectual life of the Warren Center

• Receive library privileges and office space for the 9-month academic year

Stipend: Determined according to fellow needs and Center resources, up to $66,000.
Average recent stipends have been approximately $50,000.

Basic Qualifications

• Applicants must hold a Ph.D. or equivalent and may not be degree candidates.

• Research must align with the seminar theme.

• Applicants should demonstrate the capacity to contribute to an excellent and inclusive scholarly community.

Application Instructions

Deadline: January 7, 2026
Letters of Recommendation Deadline: January 9, 2026

Applications must be submitted electronically and include the following:

Required Materials

1. Project Title & Statement of Research

   • Upload a three-page, double-spaced project statement

   • Use the “Statement of Research” field

   • Do not include lengthy materials prepared for other grant applications

2. Three Letters of Recommendation

   • Instructions will be provided in the electronic application system

   • Letters must be submitted by January 9, 2026

Contact Information

Monnikue McCall
Executive Director, Charles Warren Center
Emerson Hall, 4th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-3591
Email: momccall@fas.harvard.edu

Salary Range

$60,000–$69,000
Minimum References Required: 3

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Harvard University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics.