2026-27 IDRH Digital Humanities Fellows Competition

2025-27 IDRH Digital Humanities Fellows Competition

Deadline: May 19, 2026; 11:59pm.

The Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities invites applications for the 2026-2027 cohort of Digital Humanities Fellows.  

The Digital Humanities Fellows are a cohort of faculty members, post-docs, and graduate students from across the university committed to thinking and working together for an academic year. The cohort is designed to form the foundation of an ongoing, institution-wide conversation about issues in the public and digital humanities. Fellows will be provided extensive training in a range of DH tools and methods and targeted support for their own digital projects. The goals of the fellowship are twofold:  

  1. We aim to create a cohort of scholars who are well versed in the digital humanities and familiar with a range of digital methods.  

  1. We want the resources of the IDRH to allow each fellow to make considerable progress on their own digital project.  

The IDRH anticipates a cohort of 4 to 6 fellows for AY26-27. The precise number of fellows (and the ratio of faculty to grad student fellows) will be determined by budgetary needs and the particular pool of applicants.  

Eligibility

University of Kansas faculty (at any rank, on or off the tenure track), graduate students, and post-docs are eligible to apply 

Award

Fellows who are teaching faculty will receive a course release in the spring 2027 semester. In the event faculty are unable to accept a course release, they may opt for the same stipend and research account as non-teaching faculty, staff, and grad students (described below).  

Graduate student fellows and other non-teaching fellows will receive a $2500 stipend plus a $500 research account that can be used to reimburse approved expenses related to their digital project.  

In addition, fellows will enjoy regular consultations with IDRH staff, a cohort for networking and collaboration, and technical support targeted to maximizing progress on digital projects.  

Requirements 

DH Fellows are required to: 

  1. Attend and volunteer at THATCamp. August 28, 8am – 3pm. THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp) is a time-tested unconference where humanists of all skill levels gather to discuss digital scholarship. The IDRH will provide leadership and fellows will volunteer.  

  1. Attend and participate in bi-weekly meetings on Fridays, 10am - 12pm. Starting on September 4.  

  • In Fall 2026, these meetings will focus on gaining hands-on experience in a range of digital tools and methods. The foci of the meetings will be determined in consultation with the fellows, but may include such topics as:  
    • What is DH? 
    • Planning your Digital Project.  
    • Data for humanists 
    • Grant writing for DH 
    • Mapping your project 
    • Intro to GitHub  
    • Types of Digital Projects  
    • Critical DH  
    • Sustainability and Accessibility in the Digital Humanities  

  • In Spring 2027, meetings will focus on project development. Fellows will report their progress, confront challenges, and plan next steps.  

  • Some of these meetings will be exclusively for fellows; others will be combined with DH Scholars, still others will be open to a wider audience.  

  1. Pending space and schedule, present their work-in-progress publicly at one of three Digital Humanities Lunches hosted by the Hall Center for the Humanities. These are short, lightning-talk-style introductions, not full research talks.

    • DH Lunches are scheduled for mid-fall and early spring.  

  2. Present their work publicly at a final Digital Humanities Fellows Symposium to be held in May 2027. 

  3. Submit a final survey about how the fellowship has advanced their own research. We are interested in how the Fellowship led to progress on a specific project, new collaborative relationships, and/or future grant opportunities. 

Application Process 

For an application to be verified as complete, and thus considered by the review committee, applicants must: 

Submit applications via email to idrh@ku.edu by May 19, 2026. 11:59 PM. Send the following materials as a single PDF file using the filename: “2026-dh-fellows-application-LASTNAME-FIRSTNAME.pdf” 

  1. A cover sheet that includes the following information:  

    • Title of project 

    • Name and contact info of the applicant  

    • A statement that puts in writing the commitment of the applicant to the meetings listed above and, for faculty applicants, their ability to accept the spring 2027 course release.  

  2. Project Proposal not exceeding two double-spaced pages, with one-inch margins and twelve-point type. Endnotes are included in the page limitations. This narrative should focus on a specific digital project and indicate how the fellows program outlined above will advance it. Identify the purpose of the project, your qualifications for pursuing it, the end-goals of the projects, and, critically, the steps you will take with the fellowship to move you closer to your end goals. If the project has particular DH-related needs, be sure to mention these as well.  
     
    Projects may relate to any aspect of the digital humanities, including but not limited to research, teaching, public-facing work, data-management, etc. & etc. We take a broad view of the digital humanities and invite you to envision your project as part of a big-tent DH enterprise. If you don’t have an established project, please identify a potential project or digital humanities idea you’ll pursue with the resources of the Fellowship.   
     

  3. Curriculum Vitae (not to exceed 2 pages) that includes: 

    • Record of applicant's education, including the dates when degrees were awarded; 

    • Record of applicant's employment; 

    • List of applicant's publications, creative work, digital scholarship, or public scholarship in the last five years; and 

    • List of applicant's awards and grants received during the last five years. 

  4. Faculty seeking a course release should include a brief note from their chairperson indicating the department’s support of the fellowship. This note should not be a recommendation of the applicant or their project, but simply an indication that the applicant’s department supports the course release. Departments will be given $6,500 for their instructional budget. This note may be an email addressed to the applicant but should be included in the application as part of the PDF.

Criteria and Selection Process 

A panel composed of IDRH co-directors and staff will select DH fellows according to the following criteria: 

  • Quality of the conception, organization and description of the Project Proposal; and the participants' potential for engaging in collaborative digital humanities work. 

  • The quality of the fit between the proposed project and the resources of the IDRH.  

  • Likelihood that the applicant's participation will advance their professional development or lead to a significant contribution to a digital project.  

The committee will also aim to create a cohort of fellows that spans a range of academic backgrounds. 

Questions?

Please consider attending a DH Fellows information session:  

Applicants should direct all questions about the DH Fellows program to IDRH co-director Dave Tell (davetell@ku.edu).