Dianne Woest Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities is sponsored by Kemper And Leila Williams Foundation. Supports scholarly research on the history and culture of Louisiana and the Gulf South.

Woest Fellowships | Historic New Orleans Collection Fostering new scholarship on Louisiana and Gulf South history through funded research residencies, offered annually. Every year, HNOC selects three scholars to receive the Dianne Woest Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities, designed to support research on the history and culture of Louisiana and the Gulf South.

Fellows can schedule their visits for any time between April 1 and March 31, and most fellows opt to spend at least two weeks in residence at HNOC. The fellowship includes a stipend of $4,000. While HNOC resources should play a central role in the proposed research agenda, fellows are also encouraged to explore other research facilities in the Greater New Orleans area.

The Woest Fellowship is open to graduate students, academic and museum professionals, and independent scholars. United States citizenship is not required, but applicants should be fluent in English. Fellows are encouraged to schedule visits of at least two weeks in order to optimize research time at HNOC and other local repositories.

Fellows will be expected to acknowledge HNOC in any published work drawing on fellowship research. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, or any other protected status.

The Historic New Orleans Collection gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Dianne Audrey Woest (1935–2003), a graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University, former president of the New Orleans Council for International Visitors, and true friend of the arts. Through a planned giving arrangement, Woest designated HNOC as a beneficiary of her estate.

HNOC is excited to congratulate and welcome this season’s fellows, whose projects reflect the breadth of our institutional holdings and sustain the tradition of scholarly merit established by previous fellowship recipients.

“Reconstruction through Rifles: The Role of Violence in Black Americans’ Fight for Liberty in the Postemancipation Era” “Bitterness and Power: The Making of Coffee into an American Staple” Morehead State University “Storyville: Discourses in Southern Musicians’ Autobiographies” Applications for the 2026 Woest Fellowship are now closed. Applications for the 2027 fellowship will reopen in August of 2026. Questions?

Read our Frequently Asked Questions, below, before applying. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, or any other protected status. Frequently Asked Questions Who is eligible to apply?

The Woest Fellowship is open to doctoral candidates, academic and museum professionals, and independent scholars. US citizenship is not required, but applicants should be fluent in English. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, or any other protected status.

Close relatives of the board or staff of the Kemper and Leila Williams Foundation or the Historic New Orleans Collection are not eligible to apply for the Woest Fellowship. What will I need to submit? Your application packet must include the following: 1.)

a completed copy of our fellowship application form; 2.) a current vita; 3.) a 100-word abstract of the project; and 4.)

a research proposal, not to exceed six double-spaced pages, in which you outline the scope of the project, discuss the relevance of research materials at The Historic New Orleans Collection, and discuss the anticipated product of your research (book, dissertation, exhibition, etc.). Additionally, you must submit letters of recommendation from two scholars familiar with your work. These letters may be sent under separate cover.

How should I prepare to apply? Prospective applicants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with HNOC’s resources by visiting the Research & Collections page . Fellowship applications may be downloaded from the website.

Is there an application fee? No, we do not charge any fee to apply for the fellowship. When are applications due?

Applications for the 2026-27 Woest Fellowship are due November 15, 2025. All materials must be received by us no later than 5 p. m.

(CST) on the deadline date. Out of fairness to all of our applicants, we cannot consider applications that are incomplete at our submission deadline. Can I send my application or letters of recommendation electronically?

Yes. Please use our electronic form on this page to apply. Supporting letters of recommendation, preferably in PDF format, can be submitted via the form, or may be emailed directly to Rebecca Smith, Woest Fellowship Committee chair .

Do I need to send multiple copies of my application packet? No, we require only one copy of the application—which may be either paper or electronic. Will I be informed about the status of my application?

The Woest Fellowship Committee notifies applicants via email when their applications are received and complete. We also make good-faith efforts to alert applicants of missing letters of recommendation in advance of the submission deadline. If selected as a Woest Fellow, when must I come to New Orleans to conduct my research?

Fellows may select their period(s) of residence, but all research must commence and conclude during the specified fellowship term (April 1, 2026–March 31, 2027). Fellows are encouraged to plan on two weeks for their visit, to allow ample time for research at HNOC and other local repositories. What kinds of projects are typically supported by the Woest Fellowship?

We are looking for projects that would substantially benefit from research access to our institutional holdings. We encourage prospective applicants to familiarize themselves with our holdings, whether by perusing our online catalog, or connecting with our research staff by email (reference@hnoc. org).

The most successful research proposals are those that complement our institutional mission and sustain the tradition of scholarly merit established by previous fellowship recipients. Must I do all of my research at the Williams Research Center of the Historic New Orleans Collection?

While HNOC resources should play a central role in the proposed research agenda, fellows are also encouraged to explore other research repositories in the Greater New Orleans area. These may include libraries or archives at local universities, museums, or other institutional collections, as well as private collections. Are creative projects eligible for the fellowship?

The Woest Fellowship Committee is happy to consider creative projects, such as novels, plays, screenplays, poetry, essays, or personal narratives that pertain to or draw upon the history and culture of Louisiana and the Gulf South. All such projects should have a significant research component. I’ve noticed a check box on the application that refers to LSU Press.

Can you tell me more? The Historic New Orleans Collection is a publisher as well as a research center and museum. We actively seek book proposals on topics related to our institutional mission— and yet we cannot publish all of the manuscripts that come to our attention.

If you plan for your research project to result in a book-length manuscript, we will be happy to share your application with our colleagues at Louisiana State University Press. They will be in touch with you if they see publication possibilities. Are international scholars eligible to apply?

US citizenship is not required, but applicants should be fluent in English. Do international scholars require a visa to participate in the fellowship program? International scholars visiting the United States to conduct research as part of a fellowship program, and who receive stipend funds while in this country, are required to obtain a J-1 visa, regardless of the length of their stay.

This visa type requires a sponsoring organization that is approved by the US Department of State. In the past, the Historic New Orleans Collection has worked with a sponsor organization called International Arts and Artists to make such arrangements. Please be advised that all fees associated with the sponsoring agency and visa will be the responsibility of the applicant.

The Historic New Orleans Collection cannot undertake to be responsible for the payment of visa-related fees. Does the fellowship include housing, or assistance finding housing, in New Orleans? We do not offer housing as part of the fellowship, and we generally refer prospective fellows to local real estate listing websites that offer short-term rentals of rooms or apartments, whether by the week or the month.

We can certainly offer advice as to specific areas of the city that may be more convenient in terms of public transportation and other amenities. What is the fellowship’s grant award amount? The fellowship includes a one-time stipend of up to $4000 to help cover travel, housing, and living expenses associated with the fellow’s research project.

What is required of Woest Fellows once they are in New Orleans? Aside from utilizing their time doing intensive research, each fellow is asked to make an initial, brief presentation to our staff regarding the nature and scope of his/her research project and anticipated results. A second presentation about the project and results is delivered at or near the end of the fellow’s residency.

We also ask each fellow for a brief, concluding written report summarizing research activity and findings. This documentation helps HNOC to ensure that its Woest Fellowship program is fulfilling its intended purpose. Are there any post-fellowship requirements?

Fellows will be expected to acknowledge HNOC in any published work drawing on fellowship research. We also hope fellows will consider donating a copy of their published work to our research library, for the benefit of other scholars. For whom was the Woest Fellowship named?

The Woest Fellowship was named in honor of Dianne Audrey Woest (1935–2003), a graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University, former president of the New Orleans Council for International Visitors, and true friend of the arts. Through a planned giving arrangement, Ms. Woest designated HNOC as a beneficiary of her estate. How do you pronounce “Woest”?

Good question! Ms. Woest’s surname is pronounced like the direction, “west. ” If I am not awarded a fellowship, can I reapply next year?

The Woest Fellowship is a highly competitive program that draws applicants from around the world. We encourage interested scholars with eligible projects to reapply, particularly if their research agenda has evolved since the previous year's submission. I submitted an application last year.

Do I have to ask my references to resubmit their letters? Yes. The Woest Fellowship Committee does not transfer letters from previous years’ application files.

University of South Alabama Remaking New Orleans: Beyond Exceptionalism and Authenticity University of Western Ontario “Plantation Women and the Urban South, 1790–1860” “Citizens of the World: Sephardic Jews in Early Louisiana” Washington and Jefferson College “All on Board: Slavery and Shipping on the Brig Orleans ” “Mahalia Jackson’s Gospel, According to Bill Russell” University of California, Santa Cruz “New Orleans’ Girl Problems: The House of the Good Shepherd and Juvenile Justice” “The Strange History of the American Quadroon” “Belonging in the Borderlands: Anglo-American Newcomers and the Making of ‘Undesirable Immigrants’ in Spanish Louisiana, 1783–1803” University of Toulouse–Le Mirail “Jean Boze, Chronicler of New Orleans” Louisiana State University “A History of the Shotgun House in New Orleans” “Building the Land of Dreams: The American Transformation of New Orleans, 1795–1820” Bard Early College, New Orleans “A Culinary Adventure!

: A History of Food and Drink in New Orleans” “Reading Under Occupation” Louisiana State University “‘A Nursery for Revolution’: Franco-Afro-Creole-Catholic Education in New Orleans, 1803–1867” University of East Anglia “The Frederic Ramsey Jr. Papers” Wentworth Institute of Technology “Neighborhoods, Buildings, and the Historic Preservation Movement in America” “‘German services will be held’: Revisiting the German-American community of New Orleans during World War I.

” “Americans on Paper: Documents and Identity in the Early United States” “Freest Soldiers of the Civil War: Enslaved Southerners’ Emancipation in Army Camps, Courts, and Prisons” “Monotony, Misery, and Mutiny: The Culture of Garrison Service during the Civil War” “1837: Anatomy of a Panic” Louisiana State University “‘There is an Abiding Air of Fantasy Here’: New Orleans Culture in the 1960s” “Technology, Society, and the State in the Steamboat Era” “The United Confederate Veterans in History and Memory” (subsequently declined) University of Pennsylvania “Cosmopolitan Republics: The Gulf South between 1783 and 1836” University of Southern Mississippi “The Man Who Saved New Orleans: George Towers Dunbar and the New Orleans Flood of 1849” University of Pennsylvania “Mahalia Jackson’s Vocal Craft and the Fashioning of Gospel Music Mastery” “ The Synecdoche of Slavery: The Elision of Slave Labor in the Building of New Orleans, 1770–1852” University of South Florida “The Ballad of Robert Charles: Race, Violence, and Memory in the Jim Crow South” “Visible Hands: Customhouses, the National Market and Federal Power in Antebellum America” University of California at Santa Cruz “Contested Memories and New Terrains: A Comparative Study of the Production of Cultural Memories Surrounding September 11 and Hurricane Katrina” “‘The Habitants’: A Novel of Walt Whitman in New Orleans” Université du Québec À Montréal University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee “The Stage and the City: Exploring New Orleans through its Theatrical World, 1840–1860” “The Ledger and the Chain: The Men Who Made America’s Domestic Slave Trade into Big Business” “The Battle of New Orleans: New Perspectives on an Epic” “Under the Dome: Enclosed Multi-Use Stadiums and the Metropolitan Landscape, 1965–2005” University of Wisconsin, Madison “Education for Imprisonment: School Desegregation and the Roots of Mass Incarceration in the World’s Prison Capital” University of Texas at Austin “Entangled Knowledge, Expanding Nation: Local Science and the United States Empire in the Southeast Borderlands” University of Southern California “Elliptical Passages: Boat Refugee Histories and Narratives of Non-Arrival” Supporting new historical research through funded scholarships and awards Explore paid opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in museum studies and archival research.