Bella and Murray Ressler Digital Humanities Fellowship

September 2025–May 2026 Washington, DC

The Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the William Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education are pleased to invite applications for the Bella and Murray Ressler Digital Humanities Fellowship Program, designed for students currently enrolled in a master’s degree program or completing their undergraduate education. Students who have completed more than one year of doctoral work will not be considered.

The Museum welcomes applications from students in the use of digital technology for research and teaching in all academic disciplines, including history, political science, literature, Jewish studies, computer science, psychology, sociology, geography, and others. Students outside the field of history are encouraged to apply.

Program Objective

The Bella and Murray Ressler Digital Humanities Fellowship (DHF) recognizes the increasing importance and use of Digital Humanities (DH) in Holocaust research and teaching and supports its practices, possibilities, and applications for the field and the Museum. This (relatively) young academic specialty seeks to apply the wealth of new digital techniques and technologies to the problems of humanities research and education. With the DHF program, the Museum seeks to increase capacity for expanding the application of digital techniques across the institution and the field of Holocaust and Genocide studies.

While at the Museum, the Bella and Murray Ressler Digital Humanities Fellow will develop and conduct independent research projects under the supervision of a Museum mentor, interact with staff and visiting scholars in residence, and audit special summer seminars and research workshops that explore some of the most challenging questions still to be addressed by Holocaust scholarship. Activities span the Museum’s DC locations and the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections, Conservation, and Research Center in suburban Maryland.

Residency Requirements

The 2025 Bella and Murray Ressler Digital Humanities Fellow is required to be in residence at the Museum for nine months, arriving in September and departing at the end of May 2026. The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the William Levine Family Institute of Holocaust Education will provide a stipend of $5,000/month and a travel stipend of $700 to go toward the cost of your roundtrip transportation to Washington, D.C. The funds provided through this award may be subject to US federal and/or state tax. Please be advised the Museum cannot provide individual tax advice.

Application Materials and Guidelines

All applications must be submitted in English by February 28, 2025, and include:

• Your name, address, current academic institution, GPA, and month/year of earned/anticipated degree.

• A resume.

• A personal statement of no more than two single-spaced pages in length. The statement should explain the applicant’s interest in the Digital Humanities and Holocaust/World War II and how the Fellowship might further encourage their studies in these areas.

• A project concept of no more than two single-spaced pages in length. Each concept should be an application of Digital Humanities that the applicant could potentially pursue as part of the Fellowship.

• One letter of recommendation from a faculty member or dean at the applicant’s institution that speaks to the applicant’s qualifications, scholarship, and work ethic. The letter must be signed and on institutional letterhead. Letters of recommendation should be sent from the recommender, not the applicant, as attachments to future-projects@ushmm.org.

Contact Information

Dr. Robert M. Ehrenreich Director, Academic Research and Dissemination Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Washington, DC 20024-2126 future-projects@ushmm.org