Dumbarton Oaks

Dumbarton Oaks is a Harvard University research institute, library, museum, and garden located in Washington, DC. The institution is the legacy of Robert and Mildred Bliss, collectors of art and patrons of learning in the humanities. The museum houses world-class collections of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art, two areas of interest to the Blisses. A third revolves around the historic garden, which Mildred Bliss created in close collaboration with renowned landscape designer Beatrix Farrand. Since 1940, when the Blisses gifted the estate and collections to Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks has supported research in Byzantine Studies. Later it embraced Pre-Columbian and Garden and Landscape Studies. The support takes the form of fellowships and other awards, scholarly conferences, publications, and digital initiatives. In recent years, Dumbarton Oaks has also developed educational programs focusing on its collections and garden.

Since 1940, Dumbarton Oaks has supported scholarship in the Humanities through its fellowships and grants, library and special collections, and publications. More than 2,000 awarded researchers have advanced their projects in the areas of study supported by Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss: Byzantine Studies, including related aspects of late Roman, early Christian, western Medieval, Slavic, and Near Eastern Studies; Pre-Columbian Studies of Mexico, Central America, and Andean South America; and Garden and Landscape Studies, including garden history, landscape architecture, urban landscape design, and Plant Humanities.

Fellowships for an academic year, semester, or summer are awarded in all three areas of study, as well as in urban landscape studies, to scholars from around the world. Fellowships and Junior Fellowships are normally awarded for the academic year. During this time, recipients are expected to be in residence at Dumbarton Oaks and to devote full time to their study projects without undertaking any other major activities. Awards may also be made for a single term (fall or spring).

Fellowships are for individuals holding appropriate terminal degrees (e.g., PhD, MLA) at the time of the application deadline. Junior Fellowships are for degree candidates who at the time of application have fulfilled all preliminary requirements for a PhD or appropriate final degree and will be working on a dissertation or final project at Dumbarton Oaks under the direction of a faculty member at their own university.

Summer Fellowships are for Byzantine and Pre-Columbian scholars on any level of advancement beyond the first year of graduate (post-baccalaureate) study. Summer Fellowships are awarded for a period of eight weeks.

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The application deadline is November 1.

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More information can be found on the Dumbarton Oaks website: https://www.doaks.org/research/fellowships-and-awards/research-fellowships