Background
The Paul Klemperer Fellowship in the History of Medicine supports research using the Library’s resources for scholarly study of the history of medicine. The recipient will use the Library’s collections while in residence at the NYAM Library. Applications from researchers whose projects engage with the history of health equity or healthspan are encouraged.
The Klemperer Fellow is expected to spend at least four weeks in New York City, conducting research in the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Fellows are required to make a public presentation about their project at NYAM, to contribute a post for our blog, and to submit a final report on the research conducted in the Library by the end of the award period. All fellowship obligations must be completed during the calendar year for which the fellowship is awarded.
Eligibility Requirements
We invite applications from individuals of all backgrounds, academic disciplines, or academic status. Preference will be given to (1) those whose research will take advantage of resources that are uniquely available at NYAM, and (2) individuals in the early stages of their careers. To ensure a smooth fellowship experience, applicants must have independent legal authorization to remain in the United States for the full duration of the fellowship. Please note that NYAM is not a visa-granting institution and cannot provide visa sponsorship or immigration assistance. Applicants with any potential via or immigration concerns are encouraged to review their eligibility carefully before applying.
Application Process and Instructions
Please read the instructions below to assist you in completing the application form. If you have questions about the instructions, the application process, or the Library’s collections, please call 212-822-7313 or send email to [email protected]. Applicants are encouraged to call or email for more information about the collections.
A complete application includes:
- One copy of the materials requested in the application
- Two letters of recommendation
Please submit your application electronically.
Email your materials as attachments to [email protected].
Attachments must be in Word, Adobe PDF, or Rich Text Format.
Please include the appropriate extension in filename and give your application an easily understood name, i.e. “YourNameFellowshipApp.pdf”
Letters of recommendation should be emailed as attachments to [email protected] by the recommender, not by the applicant.
Deadline
Current applications are for fellowships that may be used between January 1 and December 31, 2026. Applications are due by the end of the day on Friday, August 22, 2025. Letters of recommendation are due by the end of the day on Monday, August 25, 2025. Applicants will be notified of whether or not they have received a fellowship by Friday, October 10, 2025.
Award Information
Each Klemperer fellow receives a stipend of $5,000 to support travel, lodging and incidental expenses for a flexible period between January 1 and December 31, 2026. The Klemperer Fellow is expected to spend at least four weeks in New York City, conducting research at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Besides completing a research project, each fellow will be expected to make a public presentation at NYAM, contribute a post to our blog, and submit a final report. All fellowship obligations must be completed during the calendar year for which the fellowship is awarded. Applicants should provide specific information in their proposals about the collection items they plan to use by including a separate bibliography of resources they intend to consult with their application materials.
The selection committee, comprising prominent historians and medical humanities scholars, will choose the fellow from the pool of applications. These fellowships are awarded directly to the individual applicant and not to the institution where he or she may normally be employed. None of the fellowship money is to be used for institutional overhead.
Publications
Any publications resulting from work supported by the fellowship must acknowledge the assistance received from the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Copies of such publications should be submitted to the Library.
Contact information
Historical Collections
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 212-822-7313
Current & Previous Recipients
2025
Leigh Alon, “The Rise of Jewish American Hereditarian Thought from the Mid-Nineteenth into the Twenty-first Century”
2024
Dr. Michael Robinson, “‘Opposite Extremes’: The US and UK Experiences of Post-War Trauma and Invisible Disability during the Great Depression, 1929-1939”
2023
Anastasiia Zaplatina, “The American-Soviet Medical Society (1943-1947): Academic Exchanges between Allies
and their Cold War Legacy”
2022
Jamie Marsella, “Religion, Eugenics, and the New York Babies Welfare Association, 1908-1919”
2021
No Klemperer Fellow
2020
Eileen Wallis, “Textbook Cases: American Medicine, Institutionalization, and the ‘Feeble-Minded’, 1870-1920”
2019
Tina Peabody, “Wretched Refuse: Garbage and the Making of New York”
2018
Andrew Seaton, “The British National Health Service in Anglo-American Debate, 1948 to the Present”
2017
Lauren MacIvor Thompson, “Suffrage is not the Goal: Medicine and Law in the Early Birth Control Movement”
2016
Jaipreet Virdi, “Collegiality & Alliances: The Transforming Landscape of Otology and Hearing Loss, 1900-1950”
2014-2015
Heidi Knoblauch, “Medical Photography, Record Keeping and the Doctor Patient Relationship: The Photographic Department at Bellevue Hospital, 1868-1906”
2013-2014
Nick Wilding, “Reading William Harvey in Naples: the Loeb copy in context”
2012-2013
Benjamin Breen, “Tropical Transplantations: Medicine, Globalization and the Drug Trade in the Portuguese and British Empires, 1640-1750”
2011-2012
Katherine Arner, “Making Yellow Fever Atlantic: Relocating America in the Geopolitics of Disease and Disease Knowledge in the Atlantic World, 1790-1830”
2010-2011
Heiko Pollmeier, “The German Medical Community in New York City, 1857-1917. Networks — Media — Institutions.”
2009-2010
Andrew Curran, “The Anatomy of Blackness: Preternatural Histories of the African in the French Enlightenment Life Sciences”
2008-2009
Adrienne Phelps Coco, “A Brooklyn Enigma: The Controversial Disabilities and Mystical Abilities of Mollie Fancher”
2007-2008
Delia Gavrus, “The Crisis in Neurology, 1920-1940: The Rhetoric of Therapeutic Superiority in the Construction of Professional Boundaries”
2006-2007
Frederick W. Gibbs, “The Natural Philosophy of Poison: Medical Treatises on Poison and Their Influence Circa 1300-1600”
2005-2006
Daniel Margocsy, “The Commerce of Natural Philosophy: Scientific Secrets in Early Modern Europe”
2004-2005
Britta McEwen, “Viennese Sexual Knowledge as Science and Social Reform Movement, 1900-1934”
2003-2004
Sarah Tracy, “From Vice to Disease: Alcoholism in America, 1870-1920”
2002-2003
Lynda Ellen Payne, “Bodysnatching, Dissecting, and the Sensibilities of Medical Men in Eighteenth-Century Britain”
2001-2002
Kenton Kroker, “The First Modern Plague? An Historical Examination of the Role of Epidemic Encephalitis in the Development of Neurology and Public Health in the United States, 1919-1939”
2000-2001
Carla Bittel, “‘The Creation of a Scientific Spirit’: Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Politics of Gender and Science in Late Nineteenth-Century New York”
1999-200:
Eric Schneider, “Drugs and Drug Use in Mid-Twentieth Century New York”
1998-1999:
Chandak Sengoopta, “The Glands of Life: Endocrine Research and the Redefinition of Masculinity and Femininity, 1840-1940”
1997-1998
Elisa Becker, “Forensic Psychiatry in Late Imperial Russia”
1996-1997
Russell Viner, “Early Social Medicine in New York City: Abraham Jacobi and the German Community”