The Emily Winfree Fellowship
The Emily Winfree Fellowship supports doctoral candidates and independent researchers in collections-based research to advance the study and interpretation of African American history in Virginia.
Funder: Virginia Museum of History & Culture
Due Dates: October 30, 2026 (Application deadline)
Funding Amounts: $8,000 stipend for a minimum six-week residency
Summary: Supports collections-based research advancing the study and interpretation of African American history in Virginia.
Key Information: Open to doctoral candidates and independent researchers; fellows must participate in a colloquium and present their research publicly.
Description
The Emily Winfree Fellowship for African American History in Virginia supports research in the Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s collections. The museum holds nearly nine million items, with substantial holdings from the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries documenting the lives and contributions of free and enslaved African Americans. Fellows conduct research primarily at the E. Claiborne Robins, Jr. Research Library.
First awarded in 2025, the fellowship was made possible by a gift from Jan Meck, Ph.D., co-author of The Life and Legacy of Enslaved Virginian Emily Winfree. It honors a Black Virginian who kept her family united through slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. Priority goes to projects promising significant publication, including in the Virginia Magazine of History & Biography.
