Research Fellowships
Join Our Community of Scholars
SAAM hosts a number of fellows each year through the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP), and also awards its own named fellowships to candidates from this general pool. The deadline for applications is November 1, 2022. Residencies are available at the graduate, doctoral, postdoctoral, and senior levels.
In this informative how-to video, SAAM Chair of Academic Programs, Amelia Goerlitz, introduces prospective fellows to SAAM's fellowship program and demystifies its application process.
SAAM Fellowships: Celebrating Fifty Years
For fifty years, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has fostered new scholarship through its preeminent fellowship program, the oldest and largest in the world for the study of American art.
SAAM has hosted fellows and visiting scholars from more than 230 institutions in 43 states and 26 foreign countries. The alumni directory is searchable by year, type, and affiliation.
See Where Our Scholars Are Now
SAAM fellows and visiting scholars go on to shape the global art world as museum directors, curators, professors, critics, artists, and conservators. Alumni of our program are active in 30 foreign countries, 40 US states, and the District of Columbia. Learn how SAAM’s fellowship program impacted their scholarship and career paths.
Established in 1970 by former director Joshua C. Taylor, the museum’s fellowship program traces its origins to the dynamic leadership of Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley. Learn more about the program’s 50-year-long history and the events and figures key to its formation and development through our interactive timeline.
Research and Scholars Newsletter
Make A Gift To The Next Generation
Contribute to SAAM’s 50th Anniversary Fellowship Campaign and help advance the study of American art—now and for the future.
Annual Fellows Lectures
Each year, SAAM's research fellows present new scholarship on a range of topics and time periods, media and messages. The 2021–2022 fellows presented their talks online due to the continuing COVID-19 global pandemic. Listen to presentations by this new generation of American scholars.
For More Information
Amelia Goerlitz, Chair of Academic Programs
Telephone (202) 633-8353
Email SAAMFellowships@si.edu