Visiting Fellows
The purpose of the Visiting Fellowship scheme is to enable external scholars to visit the Institute and use its Collections to further their research, and to contribute to the academic and intellectual life of the Warburg.
Visiting Fellows will normally hold a PhD qualification and will be active scholars publishing in a field of intellectual endeavour associated with the work and intellectual resources of the Warburg Institute. If you are a current PhD student please do not apply for a Visiting Fellowship - however we welcome your application as an Occasional Student. Normally, Visiting Fellows would be invited to spend a minimum of six months at the Institute, the majority of which should be during term-time. As well as making full use of the Warburg’s intellectual resources, fellows will be expected to contribute to the intellectual life of the Institute by providing a blog post during their stay. They may also be invited to present a brief paper on their research to Warburg staff, students and fellows as part of the Work in Progress series (Wednesdays at 14:00 during term-time).
Visiting Fellows may be in receipt of a stipendiary Fellowship (provided by an external organisation). No funding can be provided by the Warburg Institute. Due to the space restraints imposed by the Warburg Renaissance building project works we are unable at this time to provide Visiting Fellows with desk space at the Institute; however there is plenty of seating available in the Library.
Applications
Candidates may be nominated for the award of the title of 'Visiting Fellow of the Warburg Institute' by a member of the academic staff of the Institute or they may submit an application for the award themselves. Nominations and applications need to be submitted by the following deadlines:
Applications will be considered by the Warburg’s Senior Management Team (SMT) in the first instance on the basis of the relevance of the Warburg’s collections to the research of the applicant and to the contribution he or she will make to the intellectual life of the Institute.
The SMT will make recommendations on the proposed conferral of the title of Visiting Fellow to a meeting of the academic staff of the Institute. Fellowships will be awarded for a fixed term which will be variable and which will not extend beyond two years. Fellowships are not normally renewable. If a fellowship has not been taken up within 2 years due to delays, an new application must be made.
Visiting Fellows, if they are not British nationals or EU citizens, may require a visa, and must ascertain what category of visa is most suitable for them and make all arrangements for their visa. Further details about visa categories can be found at https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration.
Please note the following:
- The Warburg Institute cannot offer Tier 2 or 5 visas for Visiting Fellowships.
- Visiting Fellows requiring visas will usually be eligible to apply for a Standard Visitor visa which permits academics to visit to carry out research – please refer to the UK Gov website for details of eligibility requirements.
- Visiting Fellows using a Standard Visitor visa would probably not be able to stay in the UK for longer than six months.
Please note that only a limited number of Visiting Fellows can be accepted each year. However researchers, who spend time at the Warburg as Library Readers and using the Institute’s other collections, can also join in the intellectual life of the Warburg by attending conferences, lectures and seminars, and by meeting the Institute’s academics, Fellows and students, for example over lunch on Wednesdays and at teatime in the Common Room during term-time.
Current/Upcoming Fellows
Dr Philippe Bernhard Schmid (March 2024 - March 2025) - Wettstein’s Friends: Scribal Exchange and Scholarly Collaboration in Eighteenth-Century Britain.
Dr Charlotte Grant (September 2024 - September 2025) - The Visual Culture of Sensibility
Prof Mari Lending (January 2025 - December 2025)
Prof Gregory Minissale (March 2025 - September 2025) - Dynamism and Stasis in Auerbach’s ‘matter painting’
Dr Kuni Sakamoto (April 2025 - June 2027) - Reading the Bible after the Radical: Defenders and Critics of Dutch Cartesianism, 1666–1677
Mr Lu Xu (August 2025 - August 2026) - The History of Drawing
Prof Jane Alden (September 2025 - September 2026) - Visual Echoes: The Notation of Musical Objects Across Time