Kierkegaard House Foundation Fellowship

Kierkegaard House Foundation Fellowship

The Kierkegaard House Foundation considers applications once a year. The deadline for applications is November 1 of the year before the beginning of the Fellowship term, which is normally September 1. We expect that we can announce awards no later than December 15th.  Scholars from the United States and from around the world are invited to apply.  Also, when space is available, housing for appropriate periods of time for qualified scholars is often available.  We encourage you to apply to be a Visiting Scholar in the Kierkegaard Library. More information can be found here:  https://wp.stolaf.edu/kierkegaard/visiting-scholars

Fellows sponsored by the Foundation receive a stipend of $1,500 per month and guest housing at the Kierkegaard House typically from the beginning of September through the end of August. Shorter stays will be considered. As the board seeks to support a balance between emerging and established scholars, both pre-doctoral and postdoctoral candidates are invited to apply.

In addition to the usual scholarly qualifications, the Foundation looks for applicants who will bring Kierkegaard into conversation with St Olaf undergraduate students and with the wider college community. At the conclusion of the fellowship, the Foundation will receive a written report from the Fellow that summarizes their work completed at the Hong Kierkegaard Library.

The criteria the Board uses in selecting KHF Fellowship winners can be found in the following

APPLICATION PROCESS

To apply:
All application materials for the KHF Fellowship 2024-2025 must be submitted via email to Eileen A Shimota, Assistant Director, at shimota@stolaf.edu by Wednesday, November 1, 2023. Please list “KHF Fellowship” in the subject line.

1. 1-2 page cover letter with the proposed dates of residence and a brief personal narrative about the applicant’s background and how it relates to the proposed project.
2.  An updated curriculum vitae, including information about language competence relevant to the research project.
3. A 3-5 page description of the research project, including plans for the use of library resources and a timetable for the completion of the project. Attach a bibliography.
4. Two letters of recommendation sent directly to Eileen Shimota from the recommender.
5. If available and appropriate, a brief list of relevant writings by the applicant submitted electronically by links or attachments.

Current KHF Fellowship recipient:

Meet Presley Martins, a Kierkegaard enthusiast from Passo Quatro, Brazil. Through the KHF Fellowship, Presley will live in Northfield and reside in the Library from September to August 2024. In his year on campus, Presley is hard at work researching the relationship between faith, love, and hope in Kierkegaard’s writing. He feels that in order to fully understand faith, love, and hope we must understand the three in relation to each other.

Martins loves the opportunity to connect with other scholars and students interested in discovering more about Kierkegaard. One of our new scholar’s favorite things about his residency at the Kierkegaard Library is having the exciting ability to work with all of the resources the library provides, including the HKL Rare Book Room. The hundreds of texts and materials hosted here are rare or fragile, and require a climate-controlled environment. Included in the Rare Book Room are hundreds of books published during Kierkegaard’s lifetime (pre-1856), including first editions of his own texts. Contact shimota@stolaf.edu if you would like to visit the Rare Book Room.

Former KHF Fellowship Recipients:

All Kierkegaard House Foundation Fellows since the year 2004 can be found in the following

Prior to this period (1998 – 2003), The Kierkegaard House Foundation provided what was referred to by Howard Hong as “residencies for visiting scholars.” This involved providing rooms at the Heath Creek apartments or at the Hongs’ home as needed for scholars using the Kierkegaard Library.

In 1999, Howard Hong reported on 9 “residencies” for Kierkegaard scholars. Some were very short-term; some were longer stays. These stays did not involve formal fellowship stipends from the Foundation.