Call for Applicants
Application Form: The application period is open now and closes at noon on April 7th 2026.
Info Session Registration: There were four info sessions on March 10th, 12th, 16th and 18th, 2026. We strongly encourage applicants to watch the recordings below of one or more of these sessions to learn more about this opportunity.
- Recording of March 10th Info Session with presentations by archivists from Brooklyn College, Baruch and College of Staten Island
- Recording of March 12th Info Session with presentations by archivists from City College of New York, Dominican Studies Institute and the Graduate Center
- Recording of March 16th Info Session with presentations by archivists from Queens College, the Haitian Studies Institute and Hunter College.
- Recording of March 18th Info Session with presentations by archivists from LaGuardia Community College, LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, Centro, Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, and Hostos Community College.
This document, accessible to anyone with CUNY login credentials, includes links to the slide show about the fellowship as well as the presentations shared by CUNY archivists during our Info Sessions.
Fellowship Facilitators
- Natalie Milbrodt, CUNY University Archivist
- Bridget Day, CUNY Digital Archivist
- Regina Carra, CUNY Outreach and Processing Archivist
- Richard Knipel, CUNY Wikimedian-in-Residence
Overview
The 2026 Summer Archives and Open Knowledge Faculty Fellowship aims to support 14 full-time teaching faculty members with $5000 of summer salary to expand the use of CUNY archival collections and Wikimedia platforms in the Fall 2026 semester. Fellows are required to participate in three day-long workshops at the Office of Library Services 57th Street offices and to use the remaining weeks before the start of the Fall 2026 semester to produce either of the following:
- Lesson plans, openly licensed and delivered in a reusable format, for a course they teach in the Fall 2026 semester using CUNY archival collections and/or integrating Wikimedia platforms
- Public programming that centers CUNY archival collections or Wikimedia related topics. This could be a speaker series, hands-on workshops, walking tours, interactive exhibitions, or other projects that present archival collections and wiki content and practices in meaningful and engaging ways in public environments.
OLS staff will document and disseminate all fellowship projects with funders and the public. The fellowship deliverables (whether lesson plans, recordings of public events, or guides) will be collected in CUNY Academic Works and displayed as part of the CUNY Central Archives website. We also ask Fellows to produce a brief (400 word) blogpost with reflections on their experiences developing their projects and their learning outcomes. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to discuss proposing a project that could only be produced after the Fall 2026 semester. We understand that some courses, for example, are not offered every semester, and want to work with you if possible.
Suggestions as you formulate your project proposal
You are welcome to develop your proposed project using CUNY archival collections and/or Wiki applications of your own choosing. CUNY archives are a rich and diverse collection of primary source materials that can inspire thousands of courses and public programs. If you would like to use CUNY archival collections in your project, please reach out to the campus contact person listed on our site of CUNY archives to discuss your proposal. That archivist must complete this approval form to let us know they support your project.
Your project may include:
- Using reproductions of primary source materials (photos, correspondence, etc.) in class that you find through research in a CUNY archival collection
- Hosting a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon on a theme connected to your scholarship
- Collaborating with a CUNY archivist to host classroom session(s) where students interact with primary sources through document analysis or other hands-on activities
- Developing a publication or speaker series based on historical records you have researched in a CUNY archives
- Conducting a data analysis project with students using Wikidata
- Using archival collections as creative prompts for writing or artworks by students
- Exploring contemporary activism through comparisons to historical activist movements documented in CUNY archival collections
- Teaching research skills and primary source literacy using CUNY archival collections
- Developing department or campuswide event or activity that uses Wiki platforms or CUNY archives
Please note that you must also discuss your proposal with your department chair and ask them to complete this approval form to let us know they support your project.
Application
Applications for Archives and Open Knowledge Faculty Fellowship open on March 19th and close at 12:00pm (noon), Tuesday, April 7, 2026. Selection decisions will be made by April 21, 2026, and notifications will be sent to applicants.
Online Info Sessions are available to familiarize you with CUNY’s archival collections and answer your questions as you generate your proposal. Each of the four sessions (held on March 10th, 12th, 16th and 18th) will feature guest archivists from across CUNY who will share information about their collections and answer your questions.
Selection criteria will include the feasibility of project completion and potential for greater impact, along with considerations such as the diversity of CUNY institutions, discipline areas, and faculty rank. See the rubric below for application criteria.
| HIGHEST PRIORITY FOR FUNDING (4) | HIGH PRIORITY FOR FUNDING (3) | MODERATE PRIORITY FOR FUNDING (2) | LOW PRIORITY FOR FUNDING (1) | |
| Criterion: Articulation of Interest | The proposal describes a clear, specific activity or assignment that the applicant is committed to developing for the Fall 2026 semester. | The proposal describes an activity or assignment lacking in detail but with potential to be developed sufficiently to incorporate into the Fall 2026 semester. | The proposal somewhat describes an activity or assignment, but it is unclear about its focus and does not include a plan to incorporate it in the Fall 2026 semester. | The proposal does not describe an activity or assignment, nor a plan for the Fall 2026 semester. |
| Criterion: Articulation of Goals | The applicant clearly outlines learning objectives, has an assessment plan, and a realistic time-management plan for carrying out the project. | The applicant refers to goals, assessment, and time-management plans but does not articulate them clearly. | The applicant provides one or two of the following: project goals, assessment plan for the project, time- management plan. | The applicant does not provide any of the following: project goals, assessment plan for the project, time- management plan. |
| Criterion: Articulation of Impact | The proposal demonstrates the importance of the work to engage participants in high impact research-based coursework or programming that is freely accessible and replicable. | The proposal somewhat demonstrates the importance of the work to engage participants in high impact research-based and replicable coursework or programming. | The proposal is limited in demonstrating the importance of the work to engage participants in high impact research-based and replicable coursework or programming. | The proposal provides no evidence of the importance of the work to engage participants in high impact research-based coursework or programming and is not replicable. |
The application form for the 2026 Archives and Open Knowledge Faculty Fellowship will ask for the following information:
- Your name, email, academic rank, discipline, department, and college information.
- A description of the proposed project that the applicant seeks to develop for incorporation into a Fall 2026 course or programmatic offering, including a plan for implementing and assessing the project. Must include how you will incorporate CUNY archival collections and/or Wikimedia applications.
- The intended learning outcomes for participants.
- The potential impact of the project for direct participants and others who might use the materials you have created in the future.
Expectations
If selected, faculty fellows commit to actively participating in all three in-person workshop days at OLS offices on 57th Street in Manhattan. They will be responsible for coordinating with campus archivists as needed for research appointments over the summer as they develop their projects. Fellows will implement their teaching and programs in the Fall 2026 semester and will be invited to present a brief overview of their project at a public capstone event in February 2027.
In-person dates:
- June 9, 2026
- June 16, 2026
- August 25, 2026
- February 5, 2027 (optional)
Timeline and Deliverables for Faculty Fellows
March 10, 12, 16 and 18, 2026: Info sessions, recordings available afterward
March 19, 2026: Fellowship application opens for submissions
April 7, 2026: Fellowship application due date
April 21, 2026: Decisions finalized. Notice of acceptance emailed by April 22nd
June 9 and 16, 2026: Participation in day-long workshops held at OLS offices
August 25, 2026: Day-long workshop for internal cohort presentations of final materials and plans developed by fellows for their projects, about to be implemented during the fall 2026 semester
Fall 2026: Implementation and documentation of fellows’ projects
February 5, 2027 (optional): Day-long symposium with presentations from faculty fellows on their projects
Funding Details
This fellowship is an initiative of CUNY’s Office of Library Services and made possible through the Cultivating Archives and Institutional Memory project funded by the Mellon Foundation and the Wikimedian-in-Residence project, funded by Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
It is intended for full-time teaching faculty eligible to earn summer salary. This will be paid through the Research Foundation.
For more information, please visit Faculty Fellowship FAQs
