Fellowship Programs

The Institute of Jazz Studies supports study and preservation of jazz history via two competitive fellowship programs. Offered on a yearly basis, these fellowships seek to promote the use of the IJS collections while also introducing new archives professionals to the intricacies of caring for and administering jazz archives. 

The Morroe Berger – Benny Carter - Ed Berger Jazz Research Fund at the Institute of Jazz Studies

Each year the Institute of Jazz Studies awards grants of up to $1,000 each to assist jazz researchers with the cost of visiting the Institute of Jazz Studies to use its collections. These grants reimburse the researchers for travel, meals, and lodging to Newark, NJ to visit the Institute. Students in the Rutgers Newark Jazz History and Research MA program are eligible to apply.

Background

This endowment was established in 1987 with a gift by composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter (1907-2003) in memory of Morroe Berger. Berger, a close friend and Carter’s biographer, was a professor of sociology at Princeton University until his death in 1981. Carter’s initial gift was matched by the Berger family, who asked that Carter’s name be added to the Fund’s title. Carter, his wife Hilma, and other donors have regularly added to the endowment over the years. After his passing in 2017, Ed Berger’s name was also included in the endowment to honor his contributions to Carter’s career, the IJS, and jazz scholarship.

To date, over 80 awards have been given to scholars and students worldwide working in a variety of disciplines, including African American history, women and gender studies, American Studies, and ethnomusicology. Previous Berger-Carter-Berger award recipients are not eligible.

To Apply

Submit a two-page resumé and a one-page description of your project. This should expand on how access to IJS will facilitate your research and which materials you’ll be interested in consulting. Include your full contact information (email, telephone, and mailing addresses). The deadline to apply is September 30, 2022.

More information on our holdings is available on the Institute's Archival Collections page.

The resumé and one-page description may be emailed as Word/PDF attachments to:

Adriana P. Cuervo
Head of Archival Collections and Services
ac1167@libraries.rutgers.edu

See a list of previous Berger-Berger-Carter Awardees

IJS Archives Fellows

The Institute of Jazz Studies Archival Fellowship Program was established in 2011 to support archival career development, as well as to promote diversity in the archives profession. Each year, three Fellows are selected from among dozens of applicants, who are either currently enrolled in, or recent graduates of, an MLIS program, have a special interest in jazz and or African American culture, and aspire to careers as archivists. Fellows receive a stipend to cover travel, hotel, and miscellaneous expenses. The Fellowship Program is funded by longtime IJS supporter John Van Rens.

The Fellows spend two weeks on campus working closely with IJS archivists and staff. Participants gain hands-on experience processing one of the Institute’s multi-faceted collections and preparing a related digital project that can be shared with colleagues and prospective employers. There are also seminars with the Libraries as well as Newark campus administrators, who provide an overview of Rutgers-Newark as the nation’s most diverse university, as well as role of an archive within an urban university library. The Program also involves two days of visits to other area archives and institutions, which have included the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library Archival Processing Center, the Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archive, the Jazz Museum in Harlem, the Carnegie Hall Archive, and the New York Philharmonic Archive at Lincoln Center. There are also several social gatherings with IJS staff and area librarians and archivists.