Call for Applications: 2024-2025 Cold War Archives Research (CWAR) Institute

Call for Applications

Applications from graduate students for the 2024-2025 Cold War Archives Research (CWAR) Institute are now being accepted. The deadline to apply is 11:59 PM ET, Sunday, September 1, 2024.*

*Letters of recommendation will be accepted until Friday, September 13 at 11:59 PM ET.

The CWAR Institute uses innovative and collaborative approaches to train next generation Cold War historians in archival research methodologies. The institute has two goals: to stimulate original scholarship on the interplay between soft and hard power in the cold and hot wars between 1945 and 1991, and to demonstrate the power of cooperative scholarship through innovative archival practices.

The two-semester long CWAR Institute fellowship program trains M.A. and Ph.D. level students through a combination of online seminars, discussions, and in-person research experience at Cold War archives and culminates in conferences and publications. Competitively selected applicants will join the institute as CWAR Fellows to hone critical research skills in historical and archival methodologies, further their own research agendas in Cold War history, improve their communication and presentation skills, and develop a network of supportive professional contacts.

The CWAR Institute builds on the success of the Cold War Archives Research Fellowship previously organized by the European Institute at Columbia University and the Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research (SICAR) previously organized by the Wilson Center and The George Washington University.

Click here to learn more about the CWAR Institute.

Program Schedule

The 2024-2025 CWAR Institute will consist of online meetings and seminars focused on Cold War history, archives, and research methodologies; presentations from fellows; a week-long in-person trip to an archive; and an optional opportunity to participate in a Cold War history conference.

Sessions of the online meetings will rotate between presentations by CWAR Fellows and lectures and seminar-style discussions with invited archivists, historians, and other practitioners. Invited speakers may include archivists from the U.S. government, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations; historians working in the fields of Cold War history, diplomatic history, and international history; and experts on specialized topics such as the Freedom of Information Act, conducting oral history interviews, and digital research tools.

All CWAR Fellows will be required to give a 10-15 minute presentation on the state of their research during one of the online meetings. These are not intended to be formal paper presentations; rather, they are opportunities for CWAR Fellows to share, with a supportive group of peers, more about themselves, their research interests and ideas, and challenges they anticipate in the course of conducting archival research and writing a dissertation.

The CWAR Institute will conclude with an in-person research trip to the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives in Budapest, Hungary. CWAR Institute Fellows also have an optional opportunity to participate in the 15th Annual International Student Conference of the Cold War History Research Center at Corvinus University.

While subject to change, the anticipated schedule is as follows:

Online Meetings and Seminars:

• Friday, November 8, 2024, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, November 22, 2024, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, December 6, 2024, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, January 10, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, January 24, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, February 7, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, February 21, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, March 7, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, March 21, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, April 4, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, April 18, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, May 2, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET;
• Friday, May 9, 2025, from 12:00PM-1:30PM ET.

In-Person Component: 

• Arrive in Budapest: Saturday May 17, 2025
• Research at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives: Monday, May 19, through Friday, May 23, 2025
• (Optional) 15th Annual International Student Conference of the Cold War History Research Center at Corvinus University: Tuesday, May 27-Wednesday, May 28, 2025
• Depart from Budapest: Monday, May 26, 2025 or Thursday, May 29, 2025

The Wilson Center will provide airfare/rail fare, hotel accommodations, and a modest meal subsidy for CWAR Fellows for any activities held in person.

Eligibility & Selection Criteria

M.A. and Ph.D. students and candidates in history, international relations, government, journalism, sociology, and public policy, as well as area and regional studies are eligible to apply.

The Wilson Center anticipates awarding 10 to 12 CWAR Fellowships in 2024-2025. The conveners will review all of the applications and make selections based on the strengths of the individual proposals. Preference will be given to candidates with a serious historical dimension to their work that is grounded in Cold War studies, and to those who demonstrate a strong commitment and/or need to conduct in-person collaborative research at the Open Society Archives. Applicants are encouraged to review the website and collections of the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives before applying. We will also seek to assemble a diverse group of students with complementary research interests and agendas.

Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. Applicants must be available to actively participate (cameras turned on) in all virtual components of the CWAR Institute, and must be available to travel to Budapest for in-person collaborative research in May 2025. Applicants are required to explicitly commit to the attending the virtual sessions and the field trip in their applications.

The selection committee anticipates announcing the results of the call for applications by early October 2024.

Application Materials

All application materials should be submitted to happ@wilsoncenter.org by the deadline: 11:59 PM ET, Sunday, September 1, 2024.* Please include your last name (family name) in the subject of the email as well as in any attachments that you include with your application.

*Letters of recommendation will be accepted until Friday, September 13, 2024, at 11:59 PM ET.

Your application should include the following:

• a completed application cover sheet;
• a brief curriculum vitae (3 pages max);
• a one-to-two-page (12 pt. font, double spaced, 1” margins) proposal outlining how participation in the program (including the research trip to the Open Society Archives) will benefit your studies;
• a brief writing sample in English (seminar paper, published article, thesis/dissertation chapter, etc.).

In addition, one letter of recommendation should also be submitted directly by a recommender to happ@wilsoncenter.org. Letters of recommendation submitted by the applicant themselves will not be reviewed. Letters or recommendation will be accepted until Friday, September 13, 2024. 

Questions about the program may be submitted to happ@wilsoncenter.org prior to the application deadline.

Click here to learn more about the CWAR Institute.