Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowships

Applications for 2026–2027 year grants will open in early July 2025.

For 2025-2026, Getty invites scholars and arts professionals to apply for a residential fellowship on the topic of repair, a theme that bridges time periods, world geographies, and professional practices. Situated between the forces of creation and destruction, the act of repair can be deeply transformative, with the potential to heal, alter, and renew the material environment. Scholars are asked to think critically about repair, questioning interpretive assessments about the ideal state of any object or site, in addition to querying what constitutes damage or whether to repair the ruined or the broken. Beyond such physical interventions, art and sites of commemoration are often mobilized to heal a fractured social fabric. Indeed, art itself may be offered as reparation to address past wrongs or to recuperate loss. The issue of repair has deep bearing for the arts, conceived in the broadest sense, and especially for institutions that aim to preserve and share global cultural heritage.

Guiding Questions

• Although often considered an ameliorative process, what are the limitations of repair? Which questions or considerations emerge when efforts to repair fail or fall short?
• How might the notion of repair lend itself to transdisciplinary and/or collaborative methods that expand understudied or precarious practices in art history or open onto new forms of understanding between various arenas of knowledge and practice?
• Acts of repair—material, infrastructural, environmental, and social—require intensive efforts on the part of workers in many fields. How do we account for human labor and agency in the act of repair?
• Efforts to repair or rehabilitate art and cultural heritage have catalyzed debate and contention among scholars, conservators, archaeologists, and the public. What can we learn from these discussions?
• How can the concept of repair help us think in new ways about the networked relations between living things and their environments?
• How can the concept of repair be conceptualized in order to make way for new forms and the possibility of radical alteration?

Under the umbrella of the annual theme, dedicated grants are available via the African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI). This residential program, which welcomed its first cohort of scholars in fall 2021, provides financial support and housing to scholars who are expanding critical inquiry of African American art and its frameworks. AAAHI invites scholars working on topics that align with the annual theme. As part of the scholar year cohort, AAAHI scholars have opportunities to present their research and receive feedback from an interdisciplinary group of peers. AAAHI scholars can also expect additional programming with Getty staff supporting the study of African American art.

We invite applications from scholars who focus on African American art and visual culture in all time periods and media and in a broad range of theoretical and methodological traditions. Projects that propose engagement with Getty’s growing collections of archival and primary source material related to African American art history are welcome. However, relevance to Getty holdings is not a project requirement. Applicants should indicate in their project proposal how their project would align with AAAHI's aim to make African American art history more visible to the public and accessible to the scholarly community worldwide.

There will be a virtual information session for interested AAAHI applicants in September 2024. More information will be forthcoming.

For postdoctoral scholars interested in being in residence at the Getty Villa, see the Getty Scholars Program at the Villa page for information about their theme. Postdoctoral applicants for that program will still apply via the Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowship application form (see “How To Apply” below).

Predoctoral Fellowship applicants must have advanced to candidacy in their doctoral program by the application deadline and should expect to complete their dissertations during the fellowship period.

Applicants who received their doctoral degree within the past 5 years (after September 1, 2021) should apply for a Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Applicants who received a PhD more than 5 years ago (before September 1, 2021) should apply for a Scholar Grant at the Getty Center or Getty Villa.

After a waiting period of 6 years, previous Getty Residential Grant recipients in any category are eligible to reapply for another grant in whichever category they are eligible for and interested in. See FAQs for more information.

Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellows are in residence for nine months from late September to late June. Predoctoral fellows may be in residence at the Getty Center, while Postdoctoral fellows may be in residence at the Getty Center or Getty Villa.

• Getty Predoctoral Fellowship recipients receive a stipend of $30,000.
• Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship recipients receive a stipend of $35,000.

The grant also includes a workstation at the Getty Research Institute or Getty Villa, a travel stipend, an apartment in the Getty scholar housing complex, and an available healthcare option. These terms apply as of July 2024 and are subject to future changes.

See the overview of the Getty Residential Scholar and Fellow Program for further details about stipends, housing, healthcare, and more.

Applications are submitted through the Getty Foundation Grant Portal. You will need to create or update your account and password, log in, and begin a new application. We strongly recommend using Google Chrome, though you may also use Firefox or Safari. The Internet Explorer (IE) browser is not compatible with our portal.

You may return to your work at any time by visiting the portal at the link above and logging into your account.

Note: Once you have created and saved an application form, you may return to work on the same form by selecting the "Applications: In Progress" link. Otherwise, you may inadvertently create multiple versions of the same application.

The project proposal should not exceed 5 pages typed and double-spaced. The proposal should include:

1. Project description
2. How the project addresses the annual theme
3. How the project meaningfully contributes to the applicant’s field of scholarship
4. Proposed plan for study and research
5. Benefits to the project from the resources at the Getty (if applicable)
6. For AAAHI Grants: also include how the project will generate new knowledge in the field of African American art history

Include a bibliography of selected scholarly works, other than your own, that are important to your project and that situate it in its intellectual framework. This document should not exceed 2 pages, typed and single-spaced.

Provide a brief summary of your dissertation research, no more than 2 pages, single-spaced, including images and citations.

The curriculum vitae (CV) should include education, honors, grants and awards, languages, professional experience and activities, and publications or other relevant accomplishments.

Each fellowship applicant must submit one writing sample of no more than 25 double-spaced pages. This may be a sample of your dissertation and should best represent your project’s methodological concerns.

Predoctoral applicants must submit a letter from their academic institution confirming that they have passed their qualifying exams and have advanced to candidacy.

Postdoctoral applicants must submit confirmation from their academic institution that their doctoral degree has been awarded.

The application will prompt you to request 2 confidential letters of recommendation through the system. After providing the names and emails of your references, a link will be sent to them automatically that will allow them to upload their confidential recommendations. Recommenders should upload an original letter to the Fluxx portal. Once you request this information, you will be able to monitor your account to confirm that the letters have been submitted. Alternatively, you may use Interfolio to submit your letters in the Fluxx portal.

Getty Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis. Applications are evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Overall quality of the application, including adherence to the annual theme
2. How the project would contribute to the advancement of the applicant’s field of scholarship
3. Applicant's past achievements
4. Applicant's qualifications to undertake the project

Applicants will be notified of their application outcome approximately 6 months after the deadline.