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MIT Libraries’ Department of Distinctive Collections (DDC) is seeking applicants for its 2025 Women@MIT Fellowship. We invite artists, activists, musicians, writers, and scholars who are engaged in the expansion and expression of knowledge to help inform the understanding of women in MIT’s history and the history of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We are particularly interested in those who will apply the interdisciplinary lenses and methodologies of women’s studies, gender studies, and/or race and ethnic studies to their work.
The selected Fellow(s) will work with the Women@MIT project archivist and other staff within the MIT Libraries’ Department of Distinctive Collections. Successful candidates must be willing to engage in archival research either in person or in a remote environment. The fellowship is supported by a stipend of $5,000 for each project. Up to two projects will be selected per year.
Fellows will focus on the creation and sharing of knowledge and history present in the Women@MIT collections in informative and engaging ways within the scope of the interdisciplinary fields of women’s studies, gender studies, and ethnic studies. Participants will help inform the narrative of women’s history at MIT and contribute to the greater understanding of the history of women at the Institute and in STEM.
Fellows are encouraged to produce work in fields outside of traditional academic research and publication. A few examples of possible projects include
Artistic performance (musical, theatrical, etc.)
Comic book, graphic novel, or zine
Develop a video game prototype
Essay, group of poems, or work of fiction
Sculpture, installation, or other artwork
Short film or podcast
Curation of digital exhibit
Participants will spend 10 to 15 hours a week engaged in research (either in person or using digital copies of materials) or other work related to their project
Participants will spend 1 to 3 hours a week taking part in meetings, programs, and opportunities for collaboration with other MIT Libraries staff
All participants must complete a project that will be shared with the public within 60 days of the completion of the fellowship
Applications are due by midnight on January 17, 2025 with expectations of reaching out to candidates for next steps by February 28, 2025.
The process will include a review by committee members, selection of finalists, with interviews scheduled for early April.
Fellowship dates are flexible but should take place between July and September 2025.
Each Women@MIT Fellowship project will receive a stipend in the amount of $5,000.
Other benefits include extensive research support from DDC staff as described above, with opportunities to build connections with librarians, archivists, and curators in other local libraries and museums.
The Fellowship is open to applicants 18 years or older.
In order to make the archives more accessible to researchers from a wide range of interests and practices, we encourage people to apply regardless of their educational, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
A 1500-1800 word project proposal detailing the applicant’s plan for the fellowship’s work product and commitment to interdisciplinary methodologies of women’s studies, gender studies, and/or ethnic studies.
Curriculum Vitae/Resume or Statement of Experience
Applicants should provide a detailed description of the proposed research and resulting project. The description should:
outline the major question, problem or themes to be explored
identify archival collections at MIT which will be used in the project
summarize the plan for carrying out the project, including an estimated timeline
describe how this proposal intersects with your work and area of expertise
discuss how this work will inform a greater understanding of women in STEM
summarize how you are equipped to complete this project and what unique experience or skills you bring to it
The 2025 Women@MIT Fellows will be selected based on the quality and consistency of work samples, the potential of the proposed project to be accessible and interesting to a diverse audience, and the connections between the proposed project and the MIT Libraries’ Department of Distinctive Collections’ materials.
Using generative AI for preparing Fellowship proposals is permissible for initial research, brainstorming your ideas, and as an editorial aid. However, your submitted proposal must not be substantially written by generative AI. We will be able to tell.
View recording of Fellows' presentations
Mapping Migration at MIT is a StoryMap highlighting the voices of eighteen international women from the MIT community, using oral history interviews from MIT's Department of Distinctive Collections and the Science History Institute's Digital Collections. These eighteen women come from all over the world and their experiences at MIT span the twentieth century. "Mapping Migration at MIT" is an opportunity to shed light on the diversity of people who do science at MIT and to feature the stories of international women at MIT in their own words.
Rachel Lane is a historian and writer who holds a BA in history and Spanish from Hillsdale College and an MA in history with an emphasis in public history from Norwich University.
Sisters in Making: Prototyping and the Feminine Resilience works to explore and reveal the multi-level efforts of women surrounding the invention and implementation of Core Rope Memory and Magnetic Core Memory in the Apollo Guidance Computer that put man on the moon in 1969. From their use in early NASA Mars space probes to becoming an integral component of the Apollo 11 Moon Mission, MIT dedicated a tremendous workforce, alongside its commercial and federal partners, to perfecting its implementation of Core Memories.
Soala Lolia Ajienka designs artifacts that have their bearing in material forms and transformations that cut across the disciplines of architecture, textiles and art.
Deborah Tsogbe is a design researcher and holds a Masters in design computation from MIT.
A Lab of One’s Own: An Immersive Virtual Installation is a video game in which participants play an unnamed researcher living on a small island scattered with several observation stations. As players interact with the environment, including laboratory equipment, paper ephemera, and other objects, they will activate a pop-up user interface through which different characters tell stories about their life and discoveries.
Mariana Roa Oliva creates fiction, performance, and installation works and holds an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University.
Maya Bjornson is a multimedia artist and a graduate of the Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Dual Degree program.