Application Guidelines

The 2021 Harvard Oceanic Collections Engagement Fellowship is a community-driven fellowship for adult members of the Oceanic diaspora (including the Pacific Islands, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and West Papua) living in Utah to engage with the extensive collections from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. The pilot will fund two participants to produce a reflection on, or examination of, select museum collection materials of their choice (heritage objects, photgraphs, and/or archives). Museum staff will provide three months of assistance in learning how to research and look at the collection in different ways. Two awardees will each be given an honorarium of $2,500 USD for their projects which must be completed by January 2022. Final projects will be publically shared in March 2022 as a presentation, performance, or exhibition in Salt Lake City and online.

This fellowship program specifically takes into consideration the various travel and social restrictions in place due to the current state of the country's coronavirus pandemic, including the closure of the Peabody Museum. This year awardees will not be able to travel to visit the collections. Physical exhibition of projects in Salt Lake City may also be affected, and may be limited to online presentation pending public safety advice.

Learn more about the Fellowship and the Peabody Museum's Oceanic Collections in the information session recording below!

The application deadline has now been extended from JULY 1ST to JULY 15TH.

The deadline for applications is July 15, 2021, and all application materials must be submitted by this date at 11:59pm MST. Late submissions will not be accepted. Proposals will be reviewed immediately and notification of awardees will be sent in August 2021. We strongly encourage applicants to submit drafts of their proposals well in-advance of the due date. Peabody Museum staff are happy to review and give feedback prior to (re)submitting an official proposal. 

Applications can be submitted in 2 ways.

1. Via our web application form.
2. Via our fillable PDF form that can be completed and sent to us with additional materials (elements 2 and 3 in Proposal Requirements below) via email to hocef@fas.harvard.edu.

If you are submitting via the web form, we suggest you draft all your material in a separate text document and cut and paste it into the form online. That way you won't lose any information if you have internet problems.

Do you need help filling out, printing, or submitting this application? Email us at hocef@fas.harvard.edu or get in-person assistance at:

This fellowship is open to all peoples over the age of 18 identifying as part of the Indigenous Oceanic community living in the wider Salt Lake City area, or elsewhere within the state of Utah. 

To be considered by the review committee, a proposal must contain the following elements:

1. Contact and basic project information
2. Project Description 
3. Background Information

If you are submitting via the web form, all of these elements can be completed online, including a spot for uploading additional materials such as videos, images, or other media that support your project application. 

Note: You are only able to submit ONE FILE online, so if you have multiple files to submit, ZIP them together and upload the ZIP folder as a single file (100MB maximum). Email us at hocef@fas.harvard.edu if you are experiencing problems with this process.

If you are submitting via email, you will need to submit any additional materials (videos, images, or other media) via email along with your completed PDF form. 

1. Contact and Basic Project Information

This section requests basic information about your proposed project, including your contact details and a short overview of the project. 

Since projects are expected to engage directly with Peabody Museum collections, we ask that you identify the specific collection pieces you are interested in. We require that you include the catalog numbers for these specific pieces in your application. You can find those numbers by searching our collections online (Check out our Guide to Searching the Oceanic Collections for instructions and tips). When you find a piece that you are interested in, click on it and you'll find the catalog identification number listed as the Peabody Number. In this example, the catalog number is 46-78-70/2443.

Having difficulties finding things? Reach out to us at hocef@fas.harvard.edu and let us know what you're looking for. We are here to help!

2. Project Description

The information in the project description should give more details about why you have chosen the collections you have, as well as how you plan on working with them, your goals for the project, and what you propose to say, make, do, or otherwise express through this project. The following questions should be answered in this section:

1. Why have you selected these collection peieces in particular?
2. In what media or format will your project be (painting, photography, performance, essay, etc.)?
3. Will you be working with any relatives or other community members for your project?
4. Why do you think this project can be important? Why does it matter to you?
5. Who will be the targeted audience for this work and how will the project reach them?
6. What impact will this project have on your community, in Utah and/or beyond?

The Project Description is limited to 2,000 words in our web form. If you would to submit your detailed project description in another format, such as a video (limit 10 minutes), or a visual presentation via pdf or images, you can upload those materials in your online application, or via email to hocef@fas.harvard.edu.

3. Background Information

This information is a way for us to get to know you better and why you're a good fit for this fellowship. Remember, this fellowship is not just for established artists or researchers. We strongly encourage people of any skill and experience level to apply, especially emerging artists and curious minds. 

Your are required to submit the following information in this section:

1. Please share a short biography about yourself, your expertise, and what skills you bring to the project. Please submit this information for each person, if applying as a group.
2. What else would you like us to know about you or your project? For example, do you have any samples of related work you've done to share? Have you ever exhibited, performed, or otherwise publicly shared your work before?*

*Question 2 is not required but is an optional opportunity for to share more about you, your interests, and your work or vision as an artist, researcher, or community member. You can even include other people's work that you admire.

This Background Information is submitted on our web form (limit 1,000 words). If you would like to submit in another format, such as a video (limit 3 minutes), or a visual presentation via PDF or images, you can upload those materials in your online application, or via email to hocef@fas.harvard.edu.

Fellowship applications will be evaluated by the HOCEF Advisory Committee which is made up members of the Harvard Peabody Museum, the Harvard Alumni for Oceania group, the University of Utah's School for Cultural and Social Transformation, and several members of the Salt Lake City Oceanic diaspora community.

Applications will be evaluated in terms of project feasibility, engagement with collections, originality, and resonance for the diaspora community. Specific elements that will be used in our evaluation rubric include:

• Does the proposal have a clear vision with clear goals and methods?
• Does the proposal properly identify specific collections it will engage with?
• Are those collections suitable for the project at hand and reasonably accessible remotely?
• Is the project capable of being undertaken remotely and in the time allotted?
• Does the project offer an original perspective and insight into the collections?
• Does the project offer an original perspective and insight ito the diaspora experience?
• How does the project engage with the local Oceanic community?

Applicants that make it through the first round of evaluation may be asked for the names and contact information of two people that you know well and can speak to your skills and interests to help in finalizing decisions. Applicants may also be contacted for additional information, proposal clarification, or other discussion as needed.

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