The Metropolitan Museum of Art announces 56 scholars have been awarded fellowships to conduct art-historical, curatorial, conservation and scientific research for the 2019–2020 academic year.
The remarkable group of international fellows includes junior and senior academics from 18 countries and more than 30 universities. Among these 2019–2020 fellows are 19 postdoctoral and 37 predoctoral scholars working across the fields of art history, anthropology, critical theory, philosophy, museum studies, historiography, conservation, and the material sciences.
The fellows’ research projects this year encompass a vast array of subjects, including the complex ideological interrelations between pre-Columbian and modern Mexican art, artist David Hammons’ challenges to the legibility of racial blackness in the 1970s, and the circulation of enamels in Byzantine courtly and religious life. Through their interdisciplinarity and diversity of thought, this year’s fellows are reconsidering the boundaries of visual discourse while simultaneously illuminating and expanding our knowledge of The Met collection of artworks spanning 5,000 years of human creativity.
A Met fellowship grants scholars from around the world opportunities to immerse themselves in a curatorial, conservation, education, or scientific research department at the Museum. Drawing on the particular strengths, resources, and expertise of their host departments, fellows use the Museum as a space for dynamic exchange, research, and professional advancement. Fellows have unique access to the Museum’s inner workings and fully integrate themselves into the life of The Met.
Each fellow is paired with a supervisor or primary contact in their host department who can help them navigate the Museum and facilitate access to resources. Fellows have access to staff, libraries, collections, research facilities, labs, and the time and space necessary to complete their book manuscripts, doctoral dissertations, scholarly articles, conservation training, research experiments, and other academic pursuits.
Additional details about current and former fellows, including their fellowship projects, institutional affiliations, and areas of study, can be found on The Met’s website.
