2026 Virtual Scholar Ukraine Stipend Program

2026 Virtual Scholar Ukraine Stipend Program

Application Deadline: April 30, 2026 Program Date: July 2026

The Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies announces the Virtual Scholar Ukraine Stipend Program for researchers and faculty who are currently living in Ukraine. The program aims to advance Holocaust research and education by supporting research projects with a focus on Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust and the development of university-level courses with the same scope. 

The program is designed for scholars at all levels of their careers. The program is open to scholars and to university faculty who are teaching and based in Ukraine. We particularly encourage doctoral students (aspirantura) and post-doctoral level scholars involved in Holocaust research to apply. Applicants should submit a statement as a part of their application form describing the current stage of the research project, how they plan to develop it, and the anticipated completion date. Applicants should also submit a research proposal outlining the project’s focus, research questions, methodology, and discuss existing scholarship relevant to the research topic and the significance of their project. 

University faculty who intend to develop and teach new Holocaust courses at Ukrainian universities are also invited to apply. Faculty applicants should describe the intended audience of the proposed course, for example, indicating students’ level (undergraduate or graduate) and their specialization. University faculty should discuss their teaching methods and sources in the proposal. Faculty applicants should also indicate whether they have institutional or departmental support to teach the proposed course. 

Awards are granted on a competitive basis. The applications are welcomed from all relevant academic disciplines, including but not limited to anthropology, archaeology, art history, comparative genocide studies, film studies, geography, history, Jewish studies, law, material culture, religious studies, philosophy, political science, psychology, and others. 

Program Details

The program will begin in July 2026. The stipend recipients are expected to attend online programming, as well as present their own research or discuss their sources and pedagogical approaches to teaching Holocaust history at the university level in Ukraine. Researchers will become part of a community that meets virtually on a weekly basis to discuss their research and teaching and utilizes the Museum’s extensive digital collections to further their work. 

The stipend recipients will be able to use selected resources, including digitized Ukrainian archival collections (accessible at ushmm.org/ukrainearchive) and teaching materials (accessible at ushmm.org/teach), while pursuing their research or developing course curricula. 

Each award is for up to three months with a stipend of $2,000 per month (not to exceed  $6,000). These research stipends are virtual, non-residential, and do not require travel and/or visas. 

Application Details

 Applications consist of the following documents: 

• An online application form

• A curriculum vitae (in PDF format, not to exceed two pages)

• A project proposal (in PDF format, not more than 2000 words)

Applications can be submitted in English or Ukrainian. The deadline is April 30, 2026. Applicants will be notified about competition outcomes in May 2026.

Program participants may not hold other funded awards concurrently with this scholarship. During their award period, stipend recipients may not conduct other paid work for the Museum.

For more information about the virtual stipend program, please contact Natalya Lazar, Program Officer, International Academic Programs, at nlazar@ushmm.org.

This program is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Piotr and Basheva Polsky Memorial Initiative for the Study of Ukrainian Jewry.