Huntington Research Fellowships 2027–2028: More Than 150 Awards From $3,500 a Month to a $50,000 Academic Year in San Marino, Opening 1 September 2026 and Closing 15 November 2026

Huntington Research Fellowships 2027–2028: More Than 150 Awards From $3,500 a Month to a $50,000 Academic Year in San Marino, Opening 1 September 2026 and Closing 15 November 2026

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California runs one of the largest research fellowship programs in the American humanities. Its Research Division awards more than 150 fellowships every year to scholars from around the world, and the whole program runs on a single annual deadline. For the 2027–2028 fellowship year, the application portal opens on 1 September 2026 and closes at 11:59 p.m. PST on 15 November 2026.

That single-deadline structure is the most important practical fact about this program. There is no rolling review and no second chance in the spring. If you miss 15 November 2026, the next opportunity is the 2028–2029 cycle a full year later. The window between now and then is enough time to do the one thing that most distinguishes successful applications here: find out precisely which Huntington holdings your project needs, and be able to name them.

Key Details

What the Fellowships Actually Pay

The program is really four programs sharing one portal and one deadline, and the money differs sharply between them.

Long-term fellowships are the flagship. They come in two shapes: one term of four to five months at $25,000, or a full nine-month academic year at $50,000. Roughly 13 are awarded each year, which makes them the most competitive category in the program by a wide margin. Long-term fellows are expected to be in continual residence at The Huntington between September and May and to take part in weekly working group sessions during that time. This is not a stipend you collect remotely; it buys a year of your physical presence in San Marino.

Short-term fellowships are the volume category, with approximately 140 awarded annually. They pay $3,500 a month for one to five months in residence. Because the number of awards is an order of magnitude larger than the long-term pool, a short-term fellowship is the realistic entry point for most applicants — particularly graduate students and scholars who need a defined block of archival time rather than a full year away from teaching.

Travel grants work differently: The Huntington reimburses economy round-trip airfare in advance of the trip, and pays a $4,000 stipend after the grantee submits a detailed report on the research conducted. Note the sequencing — the stipend follows the report, not the visit. The exact tenure window for 2027–2028 travel grants is set in the annual guidelines and should be confirmed in the call document when the portal opens; in the prior cycle, grants had to be taken up within a defined twelve-month period.

Exchange fellowships are a distinctive feature and are frequently overlooked. Nine are offered in partnership with Corpus Christi, Jesus, Linacre, Lincoln, and New Colleges at Oxford; Trinity Hall, Cambridge; Trinity College Dublin together with Marsh’s Library; the University of Durham; and the John Rylands Research Institute and Library at the University of Manchester. If your project genuinely spans Huntington holdings and a British or Irish collection, this category has a much smaller applicant pool than the general short-term competition.

The Huntington also accepts variable-term applications in the same cycle, which accommodate projects that do not fit neatly into the standard durations.

Who Is Eligible

Eligibility varies by category, and this is where applications most often go wrong before they are even read.

For long-term fellowships, you must have completed all requirements for the PhD at the time of application. This is a hard gate. Importantly, residence and institutional affiliation are explicitly not factors: scholars from every institution and at every career stage past the doctorate are welcome, and there is no expectation that you come from a research university.

For short-term fellowships, the door is considerably wider. They are open to graduate students, faculty members, postdoctoral scholars, and independent researchers, and you do not need to have formally graduated to apply. Independent scholars without a university appointment are a genuine constituency here, not an afterthought. One nuance worth knowing: because the short-term stipend is designed to offset living expenses for visiting scholars, the peer review committees may take locality into account for faculty who already live near San Marino. Applicants in the Los Angeles basin should not assume this disqualifies them, but should be aware that the stipend’s stated purpose shapes how committees weigh it.

For travel grants and exchange fellowships, applicants must be doctoral candidates who have advanced to candidacy (ABD) by the application deadline, faculty members, or other postdoctoral scholars.

Across every category, all fellows are expected to be in continuous residence at The Huntington and to participate in and contribute to its intellectual life. The program is built around a resident community of scholars, and selection committees read applications with that community in mind.

What You Submit

The application is short, which means each component carries weight. It consists of a project description, a CV, and letters of recommendation.

The project description is capped at 1,500 words and has a prescribed internal structure. Roughly 1,000 words should describe the project and its significance. Roughly 500 words should describe the specific Huntington materials you will consult and outline your plan of work for the fellowship period.

That 500-word section is the part that separates competitive applications from the rest, and it is the part applicants most often underwrite. A description that gestures at “The Huntington’s rich holdings in early modern print” is materially weaker than one that names collections, manuscript groups, or call numbers and explains what each will let you establish. The committees are explicitly charged with assessing the need for access to The Huntington’s collections. If a reader cannot tell why your project requires San Marino specifically rather than any well-stocked research library, the application has not done its job.

Letters of recommendation must be tailored to your individual application and should speak to the relevance of The Huntington’s collections where possible, and to why access to them is crucial to your project. A generic letter recycled from a job application is a visible weakness. Give your referees the collection-specific portion of your proposal, and give it to them early — you are asking them to write something they cannot produce from memory.

How Applications Are Judged

The review committees are charged to evaluate applications on three stated criteria: the quality of the proposal and the clarity with which it is conveyed; the significance of the project for research in the humanities or arts; and the need for access to The Huntington’s collections.

Reading those criteria carefully tells you how to allocate effort. Clarity is named alongside quality, which is a signal that these are peer committees reading across fields. Your reader may be a distinguished scholar of a period three centuries from yours. Jargon that is standard in your subfield will cost you. Write for an intelligent specialist in a neighbouring discipline.

The third criterion — need for access — is the one that is genuinely specific to a collections-based fellowship, and it is the one most likely to be treated as boilerplate by applicants. It is not. A project that could be completed with digitized sources and interlibrary loan is a weak fit no matter how strong the scholarship, because the fellowship exists to bring scholars to material that cannot travel.

Preparing Between Now and 15 November 2026

With the portal opening on 1 September 2026, there is a useful runway. A realistic sequence:

August 2026 — identify your materials. Search The Huntington’s online catalogue and finding aids and build a concrete list of the collections, manuscripts, and printed works your project requires. If you are uncertain whether a holding is what you think it is, contact the curatorial or reference staff. This is normal and expected, and it is far better done in August than in November.

September 2026 — draft the project description. Write the 1,000-word significance section first, then the 500-word materials-and-plan section. Then cut. A 1,500-word cap on a project you have lived with for years is a real constraint, and first drafts routinely run long.

Early October 2026 — approach referees. Give them your draft, the collection list, and the explicit guidance that the letter should address why Huntington access matters. Six weeks is a courteous amount of notice; two weeks is not.

Late October 2026 — decide your category honestly. If you are a graduate student, the short-term competition is where you belong. If you hold a PhD and can genuinely commit to continual residence from September through May, the long-term award is worth the attempt, but treat a short-term application as the sensible parallel path if the guidelines permit it in a given cycle. Check the 2027–2028 call document on this point rather than assuming.

Early November 2026 — submit. The portal runs on SurveyMonkey Apply, and the deadline is 11:59 p.m. PST on 15 November 2026 — a hard cutoff in Pacific time, which matters if you are applying from Europe, Asia, or Australia. Submitting on the final evening leaves no margin for a portal problem or a referee who has not yet uploaded.

Common Mistakes

Treating the collections section as filler. It is the criterion the committee is explicitly instructed to assess. Underwriting it is the single most common self-inflicted wound.

Applying to the wrong category. Long-term fellowships require a completed PhD at the time of application. Travel grants and exchange fellowships require at least ABD status. Applications that fail the category gate cannot be rescued by quality.

Ignoring the residence expectation. All fellows are expected to be in continuous residence. Long-term fellows are further expected to be present September through May and to attend weekly working groups. If your circumstances make that impossible, a shorter category is the honest choice.

Miscalculating the time zone. The deadline is stated in PST. International applicants who plan around their own midnight will miss it.

Boilerplate letters. A referee letter that never mentions The Huntington is a wasted slot in a three-component application.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be affiliated with a university? No. Short-term fellowships are explicitly open to independent researchers, and for long-term awards, institutional affiliation is not a selection factor.

Can international scholars apply? Yes. The program awards fellowships to scholars from around the world. Applicants should plan for the practical realities of a US residency, including visa arrangements, and raise questions with the Research Division early.

When will I hear back? Decisions for the 2027–2028 cycle are communicated in March 2027, to both successful and unsuccessful applicants.

Can I apply for more than one category? The interaction between categories is set out in the annual guidelines. Check the 2027–2028 call document published when the portal opens on 1 September 2026 rather than relying on prior-year practice.

Is the fellowship taxable, and does it include benefits? The Huntington’s fellowship terms, including tax treatment and any associated benefits, are covered in the materials provided to new fellows. These details are not confirmed here and should be checked directly with the Research Division.

What if my project needs both Huntington material and a British collection? That is precisely what the exchange fellowships with Oxford, Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin, Durham, and Manchester exist for, and the applicant pool is far smaller than the general competition.

Official Links and Contact

• Application portal (2027–2028 cycle, opens 1 September 2026): https://fellowships.huntington.org/
• Available fellowships and category descriptions: https://www.huntington.org/available-fellowships
• Fellowship FAQs: https://www.huntington.org/fellowship-faqs
• Research and fellowships overview: https://www.huntington.org/research-and-fellowships
• Questions: [email protected]

Before submitting, confirm every figure and date against the 2027–2028 call document published on the official site when the portal opens. Stipend levels, award counts, and tenure windows are set annually by the Research Division, and the figures above reflect the terms announced for this cycle.