Summer Short-term Fellowship Program
The Summer Short-term Fellowship Program, through an international competition, provides one-month residential fellowships in Chicago to scholars, artists, writers, and public historians. Fellows create new, original research and art that illuminates the national and international importance of Chicago’s African American community. Fellows conduct their research at BMRC member institutions using collections featured in the BMRC’s searchable database, including collections from the Survey Initiative and Color Curtain Processing Project.
Fellows also give public presentations of their research projects. Since the program’s first Fellows cohort in 2009, the BMRC has awarded over 107 fellowships resulting in dissertations, articles, documentary films, photographic exhibitions, musical compositions and over twenty published books. The program has received support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.
In October 2018, the BMRC hosted the first Summer Short-term Fellows Reunion and National Gathering of African American Studies Scholars. Former Fellows from Chicago, throughout the US, Canada and France, and scholars of Black Chicago converged in Indianapolis in concurrence with the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. A special edition of selected Former Fellows’ essays is forthcoming in the BMRC’s first publication, Revisiting the Black Metropolis: New Histories of Black Chicago.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
As a Fellow, Marcus Shelby conducted research at BMRC member institutions with collections that shed light on Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in the Chicago Freedom Movement and the successes and failures of civil rights activism in Chicago. Shelby’s research led to this album, a compilation of original compositions and arrangements of civil rights-era spirituals performed by a 15-piece jazz orchestra.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
An accomplished bassist, composer, bandleader and educator, Marcus Shelby was a 2009 BMRC Fellow.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Carlos Javier Ortiz, a visual artist and documentary filmmaker, was a 2015 BMRC Fellow. As a Fellow, Ortiz explored the Great Migration through photography and engaged how the hopes and dreams of Blacks fleeing the South for greater economic, political and social freedoms matched up with the realities of life in Chicago and northern urban cities for generations to come.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Dr. Amy Mooney, a 2013 BMRC Fellow and Professor of Art and Design at Columbia College Chicago conducted research on African American-owned and operated portrait studios in Chicago from 1890 to 1930. Dr. Mooney’s study explored how artistic expression through photography reflected and drove Black cultural consumerism and race consciousness. This program was a part of Art Design Chicago, a Terra Foundation initiative.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Attendees at the Reunion included former Fellows, BMRC Board members, BMRC staff, ASALH members and guests.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Led by former Executive Director, Andrea Jackson-Gavin, the BMRC held a reunion in conjunction with ASALH’s 2018 Annual Meeting. The reunion featured presentations by former Fellows, guest speakers and scholars of Black Chicago. The gathering provided an opportunity for attendees to network, provide feedback on the fellowship experience and its impact on their scholarly endeavors.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Panels included former Fellows, scholars of Black Chicago and archivists from BMRC member institutions.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
A 2019 BMRC Fellow, photographer Sasha Phyars-Burgess’ project blended archival research on housing segregation and economic inequality with photographic exploration of contemporary Black residents in Austin. Phyars-Burgess' photography contrasts systemic disinvestment in Austin, one of Chicago’s largest neighborhoods, with scenes of Black daily life and community.
Courtesy of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium
