Center for Missouri Studies Fellowship

The Center for Missouri Studies educational initiative seeks to promote and disseminate scholarship about Missouri's past, including the interdisciplinary study of Missouri history and culture. The Center advances SHSMO's mission to collect, preserve, and publish the history of the Show-Me State by having a more complete understanding of the state.

"The fellowships are designed to promote scholarship in underexplored areas of Missouri history and culture. They encourage us to take notice of the lessons that can be found, when we look at our past in new ways and in new places, such as at the intersection of business and sociology or history and science." – SHSMO executive director Gary Kremer

The fellowships program is a competition open to both academic and independent scholars. Each fellowship carries a stipend of $5,000 for a project that results in the completion of a 6,000 to 8,000-word scholarly essay, exclusive of notes, on one of the topics selected each year. Essays must be completed during the calendar year that they are awarded and must reflect significant scholarship in primary sources, evidence familiarity with appropriate secondary sources, and contain endnotes that comply with The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. The finished product will be considered for publication in the Missouri Historical Review, although successful completion of the project is no guarantee of publication. In addition, successful applicants will be asked to make a public presentation based on their project at a mutually agreed upon time and place.

2024 Fellowships

The application period is now closed for Center for Missouri Studies fellowships to begin January 1, 2024. Each fellowship carries a stipend of $5,000 for a project that results in the completion of a 6,000 to 8,000-word scholarly essay, exclusive of notes, on one of the two topics listed below. The competition is open to both academic and independent scholars.

Topics for 2024 Center for Missouri Studies Fellowships:

  • Labor History in Missouri. This fellowship is open to a broad range of explorations considering Missouri laborers, workplaces, industry, occupations, or working-class culture. All time periods and regions of the state will be considered.
  • Missouri Women in the Great Depression or World War II. Proposed projects should examine the experiences and/or accomplishments of a woman or group of women in Missouri during one of these two transformative periods. How did Missouri women respond as economic hardship or war mobilization tested workers, families, and traditional gender roles? What opportunities or struggles arose as women shaped, and were shaped by, the changing times? How were perspectives on womanhood affected?

Deadline for Completion of Application: September 5, 2023

Award Announcement: December 15, 2023

Application Process: Applicants should submit a proposal/application no more than two pages in length that includes the following information:

  • Applicant's name and any institutional affiliation
  • Title of proposed project
  • Brief (250 words or fewer) description of the project
  • List of main primary and secondary sources to be used in completion of the project
  • Proposed timeline for completing the project

In addition to the above requirements, applicants must submit a curriculum vitae no more than two pages in length providing evidence of ability to complete the project.

Send Applications to: The State Historical Society of Missouri, 605 Elm Street, Columbia, MO 65201, or contact@shsmo.org. Write “The Center Fellowship” in the subject line.

Or, complete the form below:


Past Winners

  • 2023
    • Jenny Barker-Devine, Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL
    • Brooks Blevins, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO
    • Sarah S. Jones, Missouri State Museum, Jefferson City, MO
  • 2022
    • Craig R. Amason, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO
    • Connie Yen, Greene County Archives and Records Center, Springfield, MO
  • 2020
    • Greg Olson, Columbia, MO
    • Kelly Schmidt, Loyola University, Chicago, IL
  • 2019
    • Thomas Ringenberg, Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO
    • Huping Ling, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO
  • 2018
    • Heidi L. Dodson, Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History, Chapel Hill, NC
    • Angela Firkus, Cottey College, Nevada, MO
  • 2017
    • Patricia Cleary, California State University, Long Beach, CA
    • Bryan Winston, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO
  • 2016
    • Sarah Lirley McCune, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
    • Diane Everman, St. Louis Jewish Community Archives and Taylor Family Archives/Enterprise Holdings, Inc., St. Louis, MO
    • Luke Ritter, Troy University, Troy, AL
  • 2015
    • Patrick Huber, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO
    • Taylor Desloge, Washington University, St. Louis, MO