CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Society for Caribbean Studies/Stuart Hall Archive Project Summer Research Fellowship (2026)
Deadline: 9 February 2026
The Society for Caribbean Studies (SCS) and the Stuart Hall Archive Project (SHAP) at the University of Birmingham, UK, invite applications for a short-term graduate research fellow for Summer 2026. The Fellowship will run for 2 weeks, at the end of June, to enable on-site research in Birmingham and participation at the annual SCS conference. PhD students and early career researchers based in the Caribbean are eligible to apply.
Stuart Hall Archive Project Overview
Stuart Hall (1932-2014) was a Jamaican-British academic, writer, cultural studies pioneer, public intellectual and teacher who made major interventions in cultural and political life: in theorizing race, class and nationhood; in working to establish the field of Cultural Studies; in his distinctive pedagogical practices and work as a public intellectual; and much more.
Hall’s papers were deposited at the Cadbury Research Library at Birmingham in 2018 and consist of 102 largely untouched boxes of unpublished reports, essays, scripts and speeches; teaching material; correspondence; editorial material; notes; ephemera and cuttings; and audio recordings and video cassettes.
The Stuart Hall Archive Project (2023-26), based at the University of Birmingham (UK), aims to use these archives as a catalyst to explore Hall’s intellectual and political legacies today and we want to collaborate with graduate fellows to do so. We want to support your projects and interests in the archive–please look at the website to see examples of current and previous projects. Possible areas for research study might include:
- Using Digital Humanities (or AI) approaches to generate new knowledge from, or reading against, the Black Archive.
- Situating Stuart Hall in his geographical (and temporal) contexts, whether Birmingham, the Caribbean, or internationally.
- Hall’s role in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) movement in the 1950s and 1960s and its relationship to the Civil Rights and decolonisation movements.
- Under-explored or unknown relationships between Hall and other leading political figures and public intellectuals (such as Walter Rodney, C.L.R. James, or Edward Said).
Additionally, graduate fellows may consider a variety of forms and outcomes for their own research, including but not limited to:
- Community engagement projects to facilitate use of the archives by people and groups outside of the academy
- Development of finding aids, or other resources that enable wider access to the archive
- Visualization of the geographies, temporalities, and relations of Hall to individuals, groups, and institutions as revealed by archive metadata
- A journal article (staff at SHAP are happy to mentor fellows in this area) or thesis work based on research findings
- Qualitative reports on discrete parts of the archive — specific projects, campaigns or critical work engaged by Hall; particular media holdings in the archive (audio, video, photographic, handwritten material); or, particular media that Hall engaged as evidenced in the archive (public broadcast radio or television; public street campaigning; or contributions to government inquiry or policy)
Fellowship Terms and Expectations
The Fellowship will run for the second half of June 2026 (2 weeks) when the fellow will travel to Birmingham and conduct on-site research at the Cadbury Research Library. The fellow will be expected to:
- Pursue an individual project, but will be part of a ‘Stuart Hall summer school’ cohort of fellows coming from various institutions from around the world. Numerous events will run as part of the summer school, which the fellow is encouraged to attend. Depending on your interests, SHAP faculty can also facilitate possible visits to other archives and organizations important for Stuart Hall’s legacy, such as the Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA) and George Padmore Institute in London.
- Attend and present at the 49th annual Society for Caribbean Studies (SCS) conference, which will take place virtually 1-4 July 2026.
The fellowship, which is being offered to a PhD student or early career researcher who is based in the Caribbean, will cover the following costs:
- Roundtrip travel to the UK
- 2 weeks of international student housing in Birmingham.
- A stipend of £1000
- SCS conference registration
How to Apply
To apply, please send the following to societyforcaribbeanstudies@gmail.com by 9 February 2026.
- A brief outline of the project you would like to pursue at SHAP. Please review the suggested topics above for ideas. To formulate a viable project, we ask that you consult with this list of archive holdings and refer to specific materials you would like to explore in the fellowship proposal.
- A 250-word abstract for your SCS conference paper. The call for papers can be found here
- Your CV
- Official confirmation from your supervisor or a referee that you are eligible for the fellowship. (No reference letter required.)
We are prepared to do what is possible and reasonable to address students’ visa and immigration needs in order to ensure that they are able to travel abroad to conduct their research under the appropriate visa status.