Deadline:
January 04, 2026
Location(s)
Netherlands
Amsterdam
Overview
The Rijksmuseum Fellowship Programme gives successful candidates the exceptional opportunity to conduct part of their research at the museum. Our aims here are to support first-rate academic research, to strengthen ties between the Rijksmuseum and universities, and to contribute to the exchange of knowledge.
Details
Our fellows have access to our collections, library and laboratories, and to the expertise of our academic staff. They also get the opportunity to participate in workshops and field trips.
We look forward to hearing from you if you have a proposal for high-quality research offering new perspectives on the Rijksmuseum’s collection, history or activities.
RESEARCH FIELDS
We are offering a maximum of six fellowships for the 2025-2026 academic year, across four fields of research. For more information about each of the fellowships, please see below:
- Mellon Fellowship for research in art and cultural history, particularly object-oriented research
- Dr. Anton C. R. Dreesmann Fellowship art history research specifically conducted by PhD candidates from the University of Pennsylvania
- Johan Huizinga Fellowship historical research on objects from the Rijksmuseum collection
- Migelien Gerritzen Fellowship conservation and scientific research on works of art and historical artifacts.
The Terra Foundation Fellowship in American Photography
The Terra Foundation for American Art offers early career scholars the opportunity to conduct photo-historical research into American photography in the Rijksmuseum collection. Since 2005, it has been the Rijksmuseum’s photography acquisition policy to predominantly collect American photographs. This has naturally prompted the desire to make the Rijksmuseum’s collection of American photographs more accessible and widely known.
Currently, the team of Photography Curators of the Rijksmuseum is preparing a major exhibition of its collection of American photographs—from the birth of the medium in 1839 to the present—in a wider context. A number of important themes has been selected as a foundation for the exhibition: American landscapes, portraits, the private use of photographs, the application of photography in advertisement, fashion, politics, (decorative) utensils, and a number of social themes – from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement and from poverty to the experience of wars in the Homeland, as well as the relation of photography to modern art (especially after World War II).
Candidates are invited to submit a research proposal that links to the themes that were chosen for the upcoming exhibition. This could be an in-depth study of one photograph or photo book and/or its distribution; on a series of photographs or part of an oeuvre; on the aesthetic or technical aspects of photography; on the wider context of a photo book or album; or on combinations of art-historical research and research on materials and techniques. Terra Foundation Fellows are encouraged to reach out to the international network of experts and scholars outside the museum, with the aim of activating, broadening and strengthening it. Part of the Fellowship will therefore be an international Study Day at the Rijksmuseum, to which the Fellow will actively contribute. The Fellowship will preferably result in a publication, the content and form of which will be decided by the Fellow and his/her academic supervisors in consultation with the Rijksmuseum. The Rijksmuseum will provide joint working space for the Fellows and access will be given to all relevant resources in the museum, such as the Research Library Collections, collection documentation and the Rijksmuseum’s archives.
Opportunity is About
Eligibility
Candidates should be from:
Description of Ideal Candidate
Eligibility
- The Terra Foundation Fellowship in American Photography is open to PhD students and post-doctoral candidates specialised in American photography. PhD Fellows are those applicants whose proposal is embedded in the research plans of their forthcoming PhD dissertation, postdoctoral Fellows must have completed their dissertation and obtained their PhD degree on the date of application.
- Fellowships are open to candidates of all nationalities.
- Candidates should have proven research capabilities, academic credentials and excellent command of the English language – both written and spoken. Proficiency in a second language (ideally Dutch or German) is preferred but not required.
Dates
Deadline: January 04, 2026
Cost/funding for participants
WHAT WE OFFER
- Financial support and the time and space to conduct high-quality, object-oriented research
- The opportunity to work with a world-class international collection and in the largest historical library in the Netherlands
- Intensive engagement with the working processes of a major museum
- In-depth, expert-led training for presenting and speaking for a broad audience
- A grant for research-related travel (limited to specific fellowships)
- The possibility of staying at Haga House, a listed building within walking distance of the Rijksmuseum (three fellows max.)
- International network of Rijksmuseum fellowship alumni connected on both academic and personal levels.
Un-save Opportunity
Internships, scholarships, student conferences and competitions.
