AAR invites applications for the annual Rome Prize competition!

Before beginning your application, be sure to thoroughly read the application guidelines for your discipline.

Please note that eligibility and submission requirements differ for each category. All materials must be submitted in English, including letters of recommendation.

You may submit applications to multiple categories for an additional fee. If applying in multiple categories, a separate online application is required for each category. Applicants may not submit more than one application in any one category.

The Academy invites pre- and postdoctoral applicants to submit proposals in archaeology, classics, history, the history of art and architecture, economic and political policy, literature, musicology, theory, and other relevant fields. Please note that these categories are not intended to be exclusive. Any approach or combination of approaches to these disciplines will be considered. Cross-cultural projects that share Rome and its influences are also welcome. We welcome interdisciplinary work on historic and contemporary issues across the humanities that include one or more of the chronological periods listed below:

Ancient Studies

Through the sixth century.

Medieval Studies

The sixth through fourteenth centuries.

Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

The fourteenth through eighteenth centuries.

Modern Italian Studies

The eighteenth century to the present.

Predoctoral Fellowships

The Academy offers full-term predoctoral Rome Prize fellowships (of approximately ten months) in the categories listed above. These fellowships are meant to provide scholars with the necessary time to research and write their doctoral dissertations. Applicants for predoctoral fellowships must have fulfilled all predissertation requirements; they should also have preferably completed a draft of the first chapter of their dissertation, by the application deadline.

Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Academy offers full-term (approximately ten months) and half-term (approximately five months) postdoctoral fellowships in the fields listed above. All applicants for postdoctoral fellowships must hold a PhD at the time of application.

Two types of postdoctoral Rome Prize fellowships are available: Academy postdoctoral fellowships and National Endowment for the Humanities postdoctoral fellowships.

Applicants for the Academy postdoctoral fellowships must be US citizens, are often scholars at an early stage in their academic careers, and may be assistant professors, associate professors, or independent scholars.

Applicants for NEH postdoctoral fellowships must be US citizens or foreign nationals who have lived in the US for the three years immediately preceding the application deadline; they may hold any academic rank or be independent scholars.

Required Application Materials

The required application materials for pre- and postdoctoral candidates include a completed online application form and the following three documents, to be uploaded to your online application as three separate digital files:

1. Current résumé/curriculum vitae. Please include languages read and spoken and level of fluency.

2. Four-page proposal describing the project to be undertaken. Please be sure to address the following points/questions in your proposal:

• Explain how the proposed project and your own professional development will benefit from a residency within a multidisciplinary community in Rome
• Explain what guides or motivates your work
• Rome is a modern city powerfully stamped by the material remains of the past. Is this past important to your present? If so, why?
• What, if any, resources in Rome or Italy will be significant to the completion of your proposed project?
• What kind of workspace do you need in Rome?

Please include bibliographical notes for any sources cited (not counted toward the four-page limit). Your proposal should be double-spaced with 10- to 12-point typeface and one-inch margins.

3. Writing sample: this may be up to twenty pages and should be in the proposed field of study. Please include bibliography and footnotes (not counted toward the page limit).

Also needed are three reference letters from professionals acquainted with you and your work. Recommenders will be asked to submit their letters electronically through our online system.

Finally, you must submit an application fee* paid by credit card through our online payment option or by check or money order made payable to American Academy in Rome and mailed to the following address: 

American Academy in Rome
Attention: [Field of Application]
535 West 22nd Street, Third Floor
New York, NY 10011

Applicants wishing to be considered in more than one field must complete an online application for each category.

* There is no application fee for those applying solely for NEH postdoctoral fellowships.

Full-term and half-term Rome Prize Fellowships are available to professionals in historic preservation and conservation who are actively engaged in their fields.

These awards are intended for a broad range of individuals who work on the conservation and historic preservation of works of art, manuscripts, or cultural properties (including architecture, engineering, planning and design, urban design, or landscape architecture), and those who work in cultural policy. Applicants are encouraged to submit materials that best express the quality of what they do and how they think.

Required Application Materials

The required application materials include a completed online application form and the following three documents, to be uploaded to your online application as three separate digital files:

1. Current résumé/curriculum vitae. Please include languages read and spoken and level of fluency.

2. Four-page proposal describing the project to be undertaken. Please be sure to address the following points/questions in your proposal:

• Explain how the proposed project and your own professional development will benefit from a residency within a multidisciplinary community in Rome
• Explain what guides or motivates your work
• Rome is a modern city powerfully stamped by the material remains of the past. Is this past important to your present? If so, why?
• What, if any, resources in Rome or Italy will be significant to the completion of your proposed project?
• What kind of workspace do you need in Rome?

Please include bibliographical notes for any sources cited (not counted toward the four-page limit). Your proposal should be double-spaced with 10- to 12-point typeface and one-inch margins.

3. Work Sample (e.g., portfolio, essay, publication, etc.) of up to forty pages in PDF format which characterizes the applicant’s approach to their work. Work submitted should be the sole product of the applicant, or substantially the product of the applicant with the applicant’s role in the work clearly noted. The jury has limited time, so applicants should make their portfolio succinct and easy to understand. If the PDF exceeds the 10 MB upload limit, please send the work sample on USB drive to the address listed below.

Also needed are three reference letters from professionals acquainted with you and your work. Recommenders will be asked to submit their letters electronically through our online system.

Finally, you must submit an application fee paid by credit card through our online payment option or by check or money order made payable to American Academy in Rome and mailed to the following address: 

American Academy in Rome
Attention: Historic Preservation and Conservation
535 West 22nd Street, Third Floor
New York, NY 10011

If required, USB drives should be mailed to the same address above.

This full-term fellowship supports a scholar working on the historical intersection of China and the Mediterranean in arts and ideas, with particular attention to comparative research about philosophical worldviews and their cultural expression.

We are interested in projects that explore existential questions that cross cultures and time periods and are relevant to all humanities subjects. Philosophical tenets animate the world around us and are evident in art, architecture, and literature, as well as in the writing of history itself.

Proposed projects should contribute to the history of ideas, to a better understanding of the connections between East and West, and draw on the experience of Rome as a crossroads.

Both predoctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars are eligible for this fellowship. Preference will be given to the most compelling project that would benefit from time in Rome.

Required Application Materials

The required application materials include a completed online application form and the following three documents, to be uploaded to your online application as three separate digital files:

1. Current résumé/curriculum vitae. Please include languages read and spoken and level of fluency.

2. Four-page proposal describing the project to be undertaken. Please be sure to address the following points/questions in your proposal:

• Explain how the proposed project and your own professional development will benefit from a residency within a multidisciplinary community in Rome
• Explain what guides or motivates your work
• Rome is a modern city powerfully stamped by the material remains of the past. Is this past important to your present? If so, why?
• What, if any, resources in Rome or Italy will be significant to the completion of your proposed project?
• What kind of workspace do you need in Rome?

Please include bibliographical notes for any sources cited (not counted toward the four-page limit). Your proposal should be double-spaced with 10- to 12-point typeface and one-inch margins.

3. Writing sample. This may be up to twenty pages and should be in the proposed field of study. Please include bibliography and footnotes (not counted toward the page limit).

Also needed are three reference letters from professionals acquainted with you and your work. Recommenders will be asked to submit their letters electronically through our online system.

Finally, you must submit an application fee paid by credit card through our online payment option or by check or money order made payable to American Academy in Rome and mailed to the following address: 

American Academy in Rome
Attention: Tsao Family Rome Prize
535 West 22nd Street, Third Floor
New York, NY 10011

Applicants wishing to be considered in more than one field must complete an online application for each category.

This year the American Academy in Rome introduces a pilot Rome Prize dedicated to the Environmental Arts & Humanities, designed specifically for collaborative efforts. We encourage applications from artists and scholars working jointly on projects that help expand our understanding of the way human beings relate to, experience, or process their encounters with the natural world. Collaborative pairs may include artists of any sort (visual, digital, architectural, musical, literary, textile, performance) and scholars in any field (past, present, future, natural world, human world). The two winners of this Rome Prize will each receive a full stipend, their own individual living space, and will be invited to join the Rome Sustainable Food Project for meals. The winners will share a workspace. Applicants must demonstrate a preexisting working partnership to be considered for this fellowship and, as with all Rome Prize Fellowships, applicants have to make clear why this work needs to be done in Rome.

Applicants may apply for a full-term fellowship (about ten months) or a half-term fellowship (about five months.)

Required Application Materials

The required application materials include a completed online application form and the following three documents, to be uploaded to your online application as three separate digital files:

1. Current résumé/curriculum vitae. Please include languages read and spoken and level of fluency.

2. One- to four-page proposal describing the project to be undertaken. Please be sure to address the following points/questions in your proposal:

• Explain how the proposed project and your own professional development will benefit from a residency within a multidisciplinary community in Rome
• Explain what guides or motivates your work
• Rome is a modern city powerfully stamped by the material remains of the past. Is this past important to your present? If so, why?
• What, if any, resources in Rome or Italy will be significant to the completion of your proposed project?
• What kind of workspace do you need in Rome?

Please include bibliographical notes for any sources cited (not counted toward the four-page limit). Your proposal should be double-spaced with 10- to 12-point typeface and one-inch margins.

3. Work sample. If your work is primarily text based, please submit a writing sample–published or unpublished–of up to twenty pages. Be sure to include a bibliography and footnotes (not counted toward the page limit). If your work is a mixture of text and images, sound, and/or video, please submit a portfolio of up to forty pages with links to online video and audio files.

Also needed are three reference letters from professionals acquainted with you and your work. Recommenders will be asked to submit their letters electronically through our online system.

Finally, you must submit an application fee paid by credit card through our online payment option or by check or money order made payable to American Academy in Rome and mailed to the following address: 

American Academy in Rome
Attention: Environmental Arts & Humanities
535 West 22nd Street, Third Floor
New York, NY 10011