Fellowship Opportunities: The musée du quai Branly

The musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac offers every year doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships to support Ph.D. candidates and early career scholars in pursuing innovative research projects.

The academic fields concerned are: anthropology, ethnomusicology, art history, history, archaeology, sociology, performance studies.

The research topics concerned are: Western and non-Western arts, material and immaterial heritage, museum institutions and their collections, technology, ritual performance and material culture.

The projects most likely to benefit from the environment of the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac will be examined with particular attention.

During the year of their fellowship, the laureates will present in the museum’s Research and Higher Education Department’s internal seminar a scientific paper intended for later publication. They will be required to deliver a detailed report to the museum’s research department at the end of the fellowship.

Doctoral Fellowships 
Three doctoral fellowships are offered to support PhD candidates in completing their dissertation; candidates must be at least in the third year (post-fieldwork writing stage) of their doctoral program during the academic year 2017-2018 (in a university in France or abroad). This fellowship scheme is not designed to fund fieldwork or archival research. It specifically concerns doctoral studies on non-Western societies.

The doctoral fellowships are limited to a period of 12 months (non-renewable), from October the 1st to September the 30th of each year. They consist in a monthly allowance which in 2017 will be of 1300 €net and will be awarded after assessment and selection of the applications by the Museum’s Scientific Committee. No condition of nationality applies.
Post-doctoral Fellowships 
Five postdoctoral fellowships are offered to early career scholars to collectively develop a one year research program on the theme “value and materialities”. Each of these terms must be understood in its broader sense to account for all their possible relations, the museum collection being one of its modalities. Thus the economic, aesthetic, religious and political dimensions of value will be considered. These will be associated with different forms of materiality, from objects and places to bodies. The different stages of the valorisation process may be taken together or separately, from the creation/production, to the circulation, exchange, authentication, consumption, conservation or disposal. Insights into the institutional forms of valorisation, such as the market, heritage, ritual or performance will be of equal interest. Beyond the disciplines concerned by the museum fellowships, legal and economic approaches may be included.

The postdoctoral fellowships are limited to a period of 12 months (non-renewable), from October the 1st to September the 30th of each year. They consist in a monthly wage of 2 111,09 € gross in 2017.

They are awarded after assessment of the applications and auditions of a shortlist of ten candidates by the Museum’s Scientific Committee. The audition of the shortlisted applicants will take place at the end of June at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac or by videoconference.

Applicants may apply for this scheme for up to 5 years after having been awarded their doctoral degree, that is after the 1st of January 2012. In order to apply for the postdoctoral fellowships, the candidate’s Ph.D. thesis must be submitted at the latest by the end of 2017. No condition of nationality applies.

Download the application forms:
Doctoral fellowship application form
Post-doctoral fellowship application form

To be registered, the complete application folder must be sent electronically and by post before Monday, the 3rd of April 2017 at midnight:
- electronically to the following address (bourses@quaibranly.fr): the different application documents will be combined in a single pdf file which will be under 5 Mo. The application file will be named following this model: SURNAME_DOC_2017.pdf or SURNAME_POSTDOC_2017.pdf
- by post to the following address (mentioning ‘Candidature Bourse doctorale/postdoctorale’ on the envelope), the application form being dated and signed:

Département de la recherche et de l’enseignement
musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
222, rue de l’Université
75343 Paris Cedex 07
France

The list of all the candidates whose application is eligible will be posted on the museum’s website on the 10th of April 2017. The candidates shortlisted for a post-doctoral fellowship will be contacted mid-June and an interview organised at the end of June.

The list of names of the successful candidates will be posted on the museum’s website during the first week of July 2017.