Fellowships

Students applying to the Comparative Biology Ph.D. Program at the Richard Gilder Graduate School are automatically eligible for fellowship support from the school, provided in part by the generous support of Richard Gilder and the Gilder Foundation, Norma Hess (Hess Foundation, Inc.) and Sibyl Golden Family Foundation.

Students who plan to apply to both the RGGS Comparative Biology Ph.D. Program and to the Graduate Student Ph.D. Fellowship Program complete one single application, indicating on the application the program(s) to which they wish to apply. 

Deadline: December 

Applications currently CLOSED.

Download and follow the Doctoral Program and Fellowships Instructions.

*Late applications and applications that do not conform entirely with our specifications will not be considered.

The AMNH Ph.D. Student Partnership Fellowship is an educational partnership with selected universities, dedicated to the training of Ph.D. candidates in those scientific disciplines practiced at the Museum.

Our current collaborations are with:

• Columbia University
• City University of New York (CUNY)
• Cornell University
• Stony Brook University
• New York University (NYU). 

The host university in which the student enrolls exercises educational jurisdiction over the students and formally awards the degree.

In these partnership programs, at least one Museum curator must serve as a graduate advisor, co-major professor or major professor, and adjunct university faculty member. Each student benefits by having the staff and facilities of both the university and the Museum to support his/her training and research.

To be eligible for the AMNH Graduate Ph.D. Fellowship, students must apply to both the host University’s Ph.D. program and to the AMNH Graduate Student Ph.D. Fellowships Program. Students already matriculated in a Ph.D. program are not eligible to apply; only new, first-time Ph.D. applicants will be considered. 

Students applying for the Graduate Fellowship must also apply for admission to at least one PhD Program at one of the Museum's Partner Institutions. 

Application Deadline to apply for Fall 2025 admission: December 2024

Download and follow the Doctoral Program and Fellowships Instructions.

*Late applications and applications that do not conform entirely with our specifications will not be considered.

Annette Kade Fellowship Program

Since 2002, the Annette Kade Fellowship Program has provided the opportunity for graduate students of any nationality who are enrolled at French and German institutions to study at the Museum for 3 months, and for American Museum of Natural History graduate students to study at institutions across France and Germany for 3 months.

With the support of the Annette Kade Charitable Trust Fund, an extraordinary array of talented international students have taken advantage of the Museum’s cutting-edge facilities and technology, world-class collections and the expertise of our curatorial faculty and scientific staff. At the same time, graduate students at the Museum have gained invaluable experience working with expert scientists at top institutions abroad. The Annette Kade Fellowship Program strengthens the Museum’s institutional partnerships and helps to build a better trained and more interactive international scientific community.

Application Deadline: November 15

Download application instructions.

Apply for the program.

The Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Programs of the Museum are designed to advance the training of each participant by having them pursue a specific, time-limited project in association with Museum professionals in the museum setting. The applicant's project must fit into one or more of the main research areas of interest in the Museum's Scientific Divisions: Anthropology, Invertebrate Zoology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences (Astrophysics and Earth & Planetary Sciences), or Vertebrate Zoology.

Postdoctoral Fellows are expected to conduct their work at the Museum. Applicants are encouraged to contact potential curatorial sponsor(s) prior to applying. Appointments are typically made for two years. In addition to a competitive salary and benefits, limited relocation, research and publication support is provided. Newly graduated or soon-to-graduate Ph.D. students may apply. Fellows must have received their degrees or deposited their dissertations before they can begin their appointments. There are no citizenship or geographic requirements to apply.

The expected salary for these post-doctoral positions is $67,095. Astrophysics candidates may be eligible for supplemental funding up to a maximum of the level of a NASA Hubble Fellowship (currently $77,690), subject to funding availability. All post-doctoral appointment salaries may vary based on funding sources.

Main Postdoctoral Fellowship Application 

Deadline: CLOSED for the 2024-2025 application cycle

Download and read the Postdoctoral Fellowship Application Instructions available below BEFORE starting the online application.

Late applications and applications that do not conform entirely with our specifications will not be considered. For help with application process after you have read the instructions, please contact [email protected]

Applications for Special Programs and Funds

• Applicants are required to apply simultaneously for co-funding from the following special programs and funds below when applicable to their proposed research.
• When proposals relate to more than one co-funding opportunity, applicants must submit multiple abstracts, one for each fund/program. 

One- and two-year Fellowships are awarded for research in avian systematics, evolution, and biogeography to be performed in residence at the American Museum of Natural History. These grants include a stipend and a budget that depends on the nature of the research. These Fellowships are highly competitive and normally only one or two are awarded per year. The single yearly competition has a submission deadline of November 15.

Normally, an applicant to this program must have prior discussions with one or more members of the Ornithology Department concerning the research project; successful applicants to this program will work with and be mentored by one of the Curators in the Department of Ornithology. Chapman Fellowships are normally awarded to recent recipients of a doctoral degree in avian systematics. Such Fellowships, however, are also occasionally available to senior researchers on sabbatical leave from their home institutions. Contact should be made with a Museum Curator to discuss such circumstances. The Frank M. Chapman Fellowships are awarded in early to mid-April.

If you have questions about when the next positions will be posted please contact Dr. Brian Smith.

Looking for Frank M. Chapman Ornithology Grants?

The Black Rock Forest (BRF) is seeking postdoctoral fellows to advance the study of forest ecology. This two-year fellowship will provide postdoctoral scholars the opportunity to deepen their expertise in a key area of terrestrial forest ecology while enhancing their research through cross-disciplinary interaction with scientists in other life science and earth science fields.

As the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a member of the BRF consortium, applicants can express an interest in also collaborating with the Museum/an AMNH-RGGS faculty mentor during their BRF postdoctoral fellowship.

Interested candidates should apply directly with BRF. View information about the BRF application process. For any questions, contact Dr. Scott LaPoint, BRF Director of Research, at [email protected].

*Currently on Hiatus*

The Bard Graduate Center (BGC) and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) support a postdoctoral fellowship devoted to exploring, on a rotating basis, different parts of the AMNH Anthropology Division's vast ethnographic holdings. A major purpose of the Bard Graduate Center-AMNH Fellowship is to promote mutual scholarly interest and interaction among our fellows, faculty, and students, and the broader Richard Gilder Graduate School-AMNH academic community.

• Applicants must hold a Ph.D. in Anthropology or a related field.
• For each fellowship cycle, a new Anthropology theme will be announced for which applicants may apply. The project will make use of the AMNH Anthropology collections and will involve both teaching and mounting an exhibit.

Past Themes and Alumni Fellows:

Hadley Welch Jensen (Fall 2018-Summer 2020)

The BGC-AMNH fellowship project will explore the effects of intercultural exchange and colonial encounter on the material worlds of Native North America, as expressed in and through textiles.  This project will draw upon the exceptional Southwestern textile collections at AMNH, specifically the historic Navajo blankets donated by Mrs. Russell Sage and J. Pierpont Morgan, as well as the U.S. Hollister Collection.

Ph.D., Bard Graduate Center
M.A., Bard Graduate Center
B.A., Colorado College

Research statement: My research addresses the intersections between art, anthropology, and material culture. My doctoral dissertation, Shaped by the Camera: Navajo Weavers and the Photography of Making in the American Southwest, 1880-1945, examines the visual documentation of Navajo weaving through various modes and media of representation. I believe in the close examination of objects as an integral part of learning about their material qualities and methods of production, and I am particularly interested in advancing interdisciplinary methodologies to better understand processes of making. In addition, I have hands-on experience learning indigenous weaving & natural dyeing practices (Navajo and Zapotec), which have strengthened and enlivened my work as an academic researcher, curator, and teacher. I have developed my interests in museum anthropology, textiles, and ethnographic media in a variety of fellowship positions and research opportunities, including at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, de Young Museum, Otsego Institute for Native American Art History, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, and the Autry Museum of the American West. My work has also been supported by the Textile Society of America, The Center for Craft, and the Peter E. Palmquist Memorial Fund for Historical Photographic Research.

Urmila Mohan (Fall 2016–Summer 2018)

The current BGC-AMNH fellowship project focuses on a specific area of material culture: Southeast Asian textiles, including textiles from Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Brunei, East Timor, Philippines. Past areas of specialization have included the indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest, Oceania, South American textiles, and Australian Aboriginal cultures.

Ph.D., University College London
M.F.A., Pennsylvania State University
B.A., Victoria University of Wellington
B.F.A., National Institute of Design

Research statement: My research involves a knowledge of South and Southeast Asia, a theoretical foundation in the study of material and visual culture, and an intimate knowledge of how materials work based on experience as an artist and ethnographer. My background in art, design, and anthropology has provided me with an applied knowledge of praxis and sensoriality. My doctoral dissertation dealt with cloth and clothing as materiality and sociality in a contemporary Hindu group. I discussed how techniques of embellishment and draping that were produced in one region traveled to other parts of the world to create a transnational identity. My BGC-AMNH postdoctoral project explores how cloth and clothing, collected by anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson in Bali, Indonesia, in the 1930s, act as embodied means of transformation and power through their symbolic, aesthetic, and praxeological value. I have organized conferences and panels on the use of materials and visual imagery in relation to diverse issues such as ornament, nationalism, and subjectivation. I am a founder and editor of the Material Religions blog and am currently editing a journal special issue on religious materiality. Recent publications include “Dressing God: Clothing as Material of Religious Subjectivity in a Hindu Group” in The Social Life of Materials: Studies in Materials and Society (2015). My teaching philosophy draws on a cross-disciplinary approach across the social sciences and arts and humanities.

Shawn C. Rowlands (Fall 2014–Summer 2016)
Focus Project Exhibition: Frontier Shores: Collection, Entanglement, and the Manufacture of Identity in Oceania, April 22–September 18, 2016

Nicola Sharratt (Fall 2012–Summer 2014)
Focus Project Exhibition: Carrying Coca: 1,500 Years of Andean Chuspas, April 11–August 3, 2014

Erin Hasinoff  (Fall 2010–Summer 2012)
Focus Project Exhibition: Confluences: An American Expedition to Northern Burma, 1935, April 4–August 4, 2013

Aaron J. Glass (Fall 2008–Summer 2010)
Focus Project Exhibition: Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast, January 26–April 17, 2011