Call for Applications: USC Shoah Foundation Non-residential Scholar Program

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education is pleased to invite applications from scholars of all levels for its Non-residential Scholar Program. The Program is intended to enable full access to the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive (VHA) to support scholarly research with survivor testimonies housed in the archive.

The Program is open to independent researchers and scholars from any university and from all disciplines who do not otherwise have an unrestricted institutional access to the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, but who need such access to successfully complete their scholarly projects, including, but not limited to, dissertations, academic articles, or monographs.

Successful applicants will receive a full, year-long remote access to the Visual History Archive and need-based research support from the Institute staff. The Institute will grant access to the VHA to 10 applicants per year.

The selected applicants will be expected to use and integrate VHA testimonies into their research projects and to inform the Institute of any presentations and/or publications resulting from their research. As part of the Program, the selected applicants will attend an on-boarding session, submit a research report at the end of the Program, and complete an exit survey.

Admittance to the Program will be based on the originality of the proposed research project and applicant’s demonstrated need for access to the VHA.

Applications are due on August 31, 2023. Applicants will be notified about admittance decisions on or before September 15, 2023.

To apply, please fill out this form and attach the following documents:

• CV
• Cover letter (including justification for access to the VHA)
• 1-2 pages long project description, including publication plan

About the Program

The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the growing need within the global research community to have access to the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive. Many scholars around the world are still experiencing restricted access to resources necessary to continue their research and teaching, especially those residing in conflict zones like Ukraine, or those who live in the areas with the lack of full VHA access sites. The Non-residential Scholar Program addresses this problem by providing research support and opportunities on a yearly basis to a selected number of non-residential research affiliates worldwide to aid their research and teaching efforts situated in the areas of the Institute’s strategic focus.

About the VHA

The USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive is a collection of over 55,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides, including the Rwandan, Armenian, Guatemalan, Cambodian genocides, the Nanjing Massacre in China, anti-Rohingya mass violence, and war and genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The majority of testimonies are life history interviews in which interviewees discuss their lives before, during, and after genocide and mass violence. With interviews conducted in 65 countries and in 43 languages, testimonies capture both the individual experience of mass violence and the social and cultural history of the 20th century on a global scale. Learn more about the Visual History Archive and its collections here.