Each year, the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music brings a group of long-term and short-term fellows from around the world to join its community of scholars and artists. Long-term fellows are in residence for one year and pursue interdisciplinary projects and teach at Yale. Short-term fellows are in residence for a period of one to three months and pursue research in Yale’s collections. All fellows work in a variety of academic and artistic disciplines, including, but not limited to, anthropology, architecture, art history, composition, African American studies, area studies, art, creative writing, ethnomusicology, film studies, history of art or architecture, languages and literatures, Latinx studies, literature, liturgical studies, musicology, Native American and Indigenous studies, religion and literature, religious studies, ritual studies, sociology, theater studies, and theology.

Long-term Fellowships
Long-term fellowships fall into two categories. Full-time regular faculty or those with more than six years of related experience following the terminal degree may apply to be a long-term fellow. Candidates with fewer than six years of related experience following the terminal degree may apply as a postdoctoral associate. In both cases, fellows undertake a substantive and original project that relates to the ISM’s mission.

Short-term Fellowships
Short-term fellows are in residence at Yale for a period of one to three months throughout the course of the year to research the aural, material, visual, ritual, and textual features of religious thought and practice. These fellowships are restricted to projects in Yale’s non-circulating collections. 

Fellows may be senior scholars or Ph.D. students working on interdisciplinary projects in sacred music, worship, and the arts.