What are the fellowships?

The Durham Collections Fellowships scheme is delighted to invite applications from researchers for Visiting Fellowships of one month in duration.

The aim of the Durham Collections Fellowships is to enable and foster research across the historic collections of Durham, notably Palace Green Library, the Museum of Archaeology, the Oriental Museum, the Library of Ushaw Historic House, Chapels and Gardens (formerly Ushaw College, the former Roman Catholic seminary just outside the City), and the medieval Priory Library and the archives and object collections of Durham Cathedral. The resources available to scholars include not only libraries and archives, but also collections of visual and material culture, and architectural assets. The purpose of the Visiting Fellowships is to support research into these globally significant collections.

Durham University would like to express our sincere thanks to Graham and Joanna Barker, Chris and Margaret Lendrum, and Peter and Tina Holland, for their generous support of fellowship schemes at Durham Collections Fellowships.

Named fellowships

The Barker Visiting Fellowships

The Barker Visiting Fellowships are intended to support research into any of the collections held in Durham and there are a number of Lendrum Priory Library Fellowships available specifically to support work on the surviving contents of Durham Cathedral ‘s medieval priory library.

This collection has been the focus of a large-scale digitisation project, Durham Priory Library Recreated.

Fellows will be encouraged to work collaboratively with academic subject specialists, librarians, archivists and curators to realise the collections ‘ research potential, and to develop innovative research agendas. They will also be encouraged to participate in the life of the University, particularly its broad range of seminar series.

All Fellowships

Holland Visiting Fellowship

25 Fellows

Lendrum Priory Visiting Fellowship

17 Fellows

Barker Visiting Fellowship

49 Fellows

DRRL Visiting Fellowship

22 Fellows

PhD Bursary

4 Fellows

Thoits Visiting Fellowship

1 Fellow

Other research fellowships

The Spanish Gallery Collection research fellowships

Two fellowships are available to undertake research into the collection of the Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland.

The fellowships are affiliated with the Zurbarán Centre and Durham Collections Fellowships. Generously funded by the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica (CEEH), each fellowship includes a monthly stipend of £2,100. An allowance for research-related travel will be available on request. The fellows will be part of the University‘s research community and have privileged access to the Spanish Gallery.

Find out more information and apply

The Barker Visiting Fellowship allowed me to become a temporary member of the vibrant community of Durham University and to extend my network with UK scholars that I am sure will bring fruitful cooperation in the future. From the scientific perspective, it permitted me to boost my progress on my project provisionally titled Uranian Poetics: Girolamo Fracastoro and the Tradition of Medical Scientific Poetry. The core of my activity consisted of the consultation of manuscripts and old printed editions preserved by the Palace Green Library, particularly the texts from the Kellet Collection and the Magby Library. Among the material that turned out to be particularly relevant and inspirational, I refer only to the De arte poetica and the didactic poems of Girolamo Vida (1485-1566), the carmina of Théodore de Bèze (1519-1605), the Paedotrophiae, sive De puerorum educatione by Scévole de Sainte-Marthe (1536-1623), and ten volumes of the Carmina illustrium poetarum italorum. This scholarly material allowed me to study in detail numerous precedents, contemporaries, and successors of Fracastoro. The study, in turn, contributed to placing his theory of poetry and his medical-poetic works into a clearer historical, scientific, and literary context. In conclusion, the Fellowship was extremely beneficial, both in heuristic terms and for concrete research activities. I am very grateful to the committee and the philanthropic funders, and I hope to continue my collaboration with them in the future.
Enrico Piergiacomi
Barker Visiting Fellowship (Technion University of Haifa (Israel)., Israel)
My time at Ushaw enriched my understanding of recusancy in the eighteenth century generally, and more specifically of recusants as a dynamic diasporic readership
John Stone
Holland Visiting Fellowship (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain)
I am very grateful for the opportunity this fellowship has afforded me to focus on the rich materials available at Palace Green Library. Durham has been a wonderful place to work, and the fellowship scheme is very welcoming and helps you connect with other fellows while giving you plenty of time to get your work done. I have been able to work with materials I couldn’t have found anywhere else and would encourage others to look into what’s available in the amazing collections here.
Joanne Myers
Barker Visiting Fellowship (Gettysburg College, USA)
I express my gratitude to Durham University for offering me the Residential Research Library fellowship. My experience at Durham was very enriching. Along with the great academic exposure, I got the chance to explore the rich cultural heritage of a beautiful Romanesque city. It is substantially important to mention that the visiting fellows are given access to all the resources. From navigating through the rich archives and rare collections to exploring the latest research in the Bill Bryson library, everything was hassle-free. The functionaries at all the places are very welcoming. Overall, my stay at Durham has been very fruitful in terms of my studies, learning and cultural exploration. I returned home with beautiful memories and building lovely relationships.
Veenat Arora
Barker Visiting Fellowship (Panjab University, India)
At Durham, Vanessa consulted Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century oeuvres from the Ushaw and Palace Green libraries on mystical theology and instructions for religious rituals to explore the understanding and rationalization of occult practices at a time of global Counter–reformation. Two of the most influential works in her search were Martín Antoine Del Rio, Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex, quibus continentur accurata curiosarum artium, et vanarum superstitionum confutatio, vtilis theologis, iurisconsultis, medicis, philologis (Moguntiae: Sumptibus Petri Henningii, 1624); and Giovanni Bonna's Rerum liturgicarum libri duo (Augustae Taurinorum: Ex Typographia Regia, 1747). Some of the findings of this research were presented at the ‘Conferencia Internacional de Historia del Arte, UNAM, 2021’ and at the Renaissance Society of America annual meeting in Dublin, 2022.
Vanessa Portugal
Barker Visiting Fellowship (University College London, England)
First of all,i would like to thank Durham University for the hospitality and warm welcoming. I was so lucky and delighted to be one of the Durham Residencial Research Library Fellows, Visiting Barker Fellowship.lam working on a research entitled:The Role of Slatin Pasha in the Modern History of the Sudan 1879_1914. Slatin Pasha was an Austrian soldier who served under the British Crown during the Colonial Era in the Sudan. The Sudan Archive, part of Durham University Library and Collections, represents an essential resource for my topic. The primary Archival documents related to Slatin Pasha are only available at Durham University, kept in amazing condition and easily accessible for the researchers. I was able to find great rich informations about my research. I have collected data from Slatin's papers which included his diaries, official letters, Telegraphs, official invitations cards, congratulations letters of promotion, Slatin's correspondence with Ali Dinar(Fur Sultnate),the papers of Sir Reginald Wingate to Slatin. Descriptions of Battles of Atbarah and Omdurman.I found some informations in the Sudan obituaries files . Without Barker Fellowship, this research can not have been done. Thank Barker Fellowship for the great job you have done in assisting me. I wish a Lifelong prosperity to Barker Fellowship. Thank you so much DRRL.Thank you again to Durham University.
Mohammed Emam
Barker Visiting Fellowship (Open University of Sudan , Sudan)
My time in Durham as a researcher under the Research Fellowship scheme was both congenial and very fruitful. It provided me with access to significant and essential materials that facilitated my project in transformative ways. The library and archives staff were exemplary in their welcome and generous assistance. Living in Durham for one month was also a most pleasant experience. My thanks to all who support the scheme and I commend it to any who are considering making an application.
Rev Dr Robert Fennell
Barker Visiting Fellowship (Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
My Durham Research Library Fellowship was a fantastic experience. I collaborated with Durham faculty and other visiting researchers, and made great headway on my research projects in early modern British and Catholic history. In the Ushaw College library, I was able to trace how English Catholics were interpreting and responding to the political and religious conflicts that rent the European continent in the late eighteenth century. I now have invaluable epistolary and other evidence of the English Catholic communities divisions during this exciting time in history.
Dr Shaun Blanchard
DRRL Visiting Fellowship (Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, USA)
I was pleased to be awarded a DRRL Visiting Fellowship to undertake research on Sir John Marshall ‘s one-hundred-year-old photographic collection now preserved at the Oriental Museum. The Fellowship provided me with an excellent opportunity to understand the provenance of Buddhist sculptures preserved in Peshawar Museum Collection (Pakistan) and to compare the sculptures with others at important Buddhist sites in the Gandhara region and across the Indus in Taxila Valley. I was also able to study the present state of conservation of some of the objects now preserved in the different museums of Pakistan thanks to this photographic collection, as well as those held at Palace Green Library and at Ushaw. The Fellowship provided me with an excellent opportunity to discuss a number of new research initiatives for the protection of cultural heritage with several researchers at Durham University. Throughout, my research was actively supported by museum staff, librarians and archivists, and I am grateful for this support.
Tahir Saeed
DRRL Visiting Fellowship (Department of Archaeology and Museums, Islamabad)
The nature of my research required that I call up a very large number of rare books, which the staff of the library was extremely helpful with throughout my time in Durham. Lord William Howard’s personal library is a treasure trove for anyone interested to study Elizabethan and Caroline Catholic culture in England
Earle Havens
Holland Visiting Fellowship (John Hopkins University, USA)