Organizer Information
The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) is an international nonprofit membership organization founded at Harvard University in 1940, originally as the Society of American Architectural Historians. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, SAH serves an international network of roughly 2,300 individual members and 600 institutional members across 54 countries, including architectural historians, architects, landscape architects, preservationists, and students. Its mission is to advance knowledge and understanding of the history of architecture, design, landscape, and urbanism worldwide, carried out through publications such as JSAH, SAH Archipedia, and the Buildings of the United States series, along with conferences, study tours, and a range of fellowships and grants. The SAH IDEAS Research Fellowship is administered by the SAH IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accountability, and Sustainability) Committee, which SAH has charged with addressing structural inequities within the Society and the broader field.
Title & Description
SAH IDEAS Research Fellowship (2027 Cycle)
The SAH IDEAS Research Fellowship was established in 2022 to support a cohort of emerging scholars who self-identify as members of groups historically marginalized by SAH and the academy at large. The fellowship is intended to nurture research that challenges existing paradigms — as defined by applicants themselves — and represents previously under-recognized and/or unsupported directions for architectural history, whether researched, thought, or applied. Beyond research funding, the program is designed to build mentored cohorts: each fellow is paired with a senior colleague from the SAH community for close, year-long mentorship, alongside guided interaction across the cohort to encourage peer support.
Categories
- Architecture
- Fellowship
- Research
- Scholarship
Eligibility
- Open to emerging scholars anywhere in the world
- Applicant must have received a terminal master's degree or Ph.D. on or after June 1, 2021
- Applicant must not be currently enrolled in a program of study, nor applying for further studies, for the duration of the fellowship
- Applicant must self-identify as a member of a group historically marginalized by SAH and the academy at large
- Research should relate to foundational structural inequities tied to the scholar's background or to areas of research not yet well supported in architectural history
- Current SAH membership is not required to apply
Program Benefits & Awards
- One-time award of $1,000
- One year of close mentorship from a senior colleague in the SAH community
- Guided lateral interaction across the fellowship cohort for peer support
- One year of SAH digital membership
Application Fee
None
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 31 August 2026
Location
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Additional Details
Fellows and mentors commit to regular meetings throughout the year, with a shared calendar provided shortly after the cohort is announced. With the fellow's permission, the final report and any accompanying images may be published on the SAH Blog, in SAH Archipedia (where applicable), and in SAHARA, the Society's digital image archive, or another SAH publishing platform. Now in its fifth year, the fellowship has previously supported 14 scholars worldwide whose projects have examined subjects including landscapes of extraction, immigration, gardens and violence, religious cultural heritage, and slave-built architecture.