CCSRE-Cantor Latinx Art Fellowship Program

Supported by Stanford University’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), and in partnership with the Cantor Museum, the CCSRE-Cantor Latinx Art Fellowship program provides voice, access, and acknowledgement to exceptional thinkers on Latinx art who have the potential to drive meaningful discourse in the field but who, like many Latinx artists, have been denied access to influential spaces.

 

2024 Call for Applications

CCSRE-Cantor Latinx Art Fellowship

The position of Latinx art in the larger art world is an ongoing project of political, historical, and cultural intervention. Latinx is a strategic umbrella through which people who originate from Latin American nations, including the Caribbean, who don’t necessarily identify or fit neatly into the national categories of Latin American countries, and who have strong geographic ties to the United States, can identify their distinctness from Latin-Americans, while at the same time acknowledging their origination from these geographic areas. Latinx is an important project, not as a category of identity, but as an intervention that highlights the essentializing and exotifying tendencies of the art world, tendencies through which Latinx artists have faced omission by not fitting into categories of American art nor Latin American art.

Latinx communities are an integral part of the socio-cultural and political fabric of the United States. Yet, Latinx artists represent the largest majority conspicuously absent from the mainstream art spaces of museum collections and commercial galleries. Historical, racial, and aesthetic narratives within the academy foster this omission as they substantiate the dichotomy of high and low art in their discourse around Latin American art and Latinx visual cultures. The imposed valuation of Latinx Art in the context of American Art not only validates but further perpetuates this erasure, creating a cycle of suppression that has immediate implications for equality within the visual arts and for the kinds of histories and lived experiences that museums and other art spaces are able to platform.

Magnifying the voice of visual art scholars who can advance counter-narratives, whether in the form of publication, lecture, or dialogue, is essential to enlarging the visibility of Latinx artists and their art practices.

 

Fellowship Criteria

CCSRE-Cantor Latinx Art Fellowship program invites applications from visual art scholars interested in conducting short-term onsite research on Latinx art and artists at Stanford University in Fall 2024.

 

Successful candidates will propose projects that contribute meaningfully to one of two priority areas for the Cantor’s collection of contemporary Latinx art: Dwelling – New acquisitions exhibition or Amalia Mesa-Bains archive at Stanford Special Collections.

Fellows are awarded a short residency of no more than 2 weeks to pursue collection-driven research in the Cantor Arts Center. While at Stanford, they will interact with the vibrant community of faculty, students, and staff at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) by participating in fellowship-specific events and attending CCSRE’s cornerstone programming on issues of race, ethnicity, and inequality. They will also have the opportunity to present their research to the curatorial and academic and public programming teams in informal talks.

Fellows may be granted access to additional Stanford resources and facilities (archives; special collections) for proposals that would benefit from the study of other forms of production (texts; creative writings) and/or sources of context (historical documents; newspapers, recordings).

 

Projects

Candidates should propose an in-residence research project that aligns with one of the two priority areas described below. Proposals should identify the specific archives, collections, and facilities for which access is sought, demonstrate the value of the planned work, justify the need for access to any additional resources, and provide a time management strategy that considers the project’s scope and the length of the residency.

Priority Area 1:

Dwelling – New acquisitions exhibition

Fellows will study one or two of the Cantor’s recent contemporary arts acquisitions— ektor garcia, Joey Terrill, Arleene Correa Valencia, and/or Carolina Caycedo, works that will be on view as part of Dwelling, a new acquisitions exhibition opening at the Cantor in Fall 2024. Projects will focus on the specific histories and material practices that these artists engage with in their work. Fellows will deliver a paper that supports museum engagement and can be featured on the museum website.

Priority Area 2:

Amalia Mesa-Bains archive at Stanford Special Collections

Fellows will research work by Amalia Mesa-Bains. Projects will highlight the importance of Amalia Mesa-Bains to the Bay Area art scene and the specific importance of acquiring a work of art by Amalia Mesa-Bains at Stanford. Plans will also incorporate research on both Cantor’s collections portfolios of Latinx art to assess how Amalia Mesa-Bains’ work supports Cantor’s current holdings and the Stanford Special Collections’ holdings of Amalia Mesa-Bains’ archives. Fellows will create a curatorial justification document in collaboration with Jorge Eduardo Sibaja, Curatorial Assistant, Cantor Arts Center.

 

Eligibility

Eligible candidates include faculty of any rank (non-tenured/tenured), post-doctoral scholars, and advanced graduate students from art history, art practice, and adjacent departments, whose research agenda engages Latinx interests and issues.

Independent scholars are not eligible. Candidates from any institution of higher education, including Stanford University, are welcome to apply. Applicants from Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) are strongly encouraged to apply.

 

Awards

Internal fellowships are reserved for eligible graduate students and post-doctoral scholars currently studying at Stanford University.

Open-call fellowships are available to eligible graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and faculty currently affiliated with any higher ed institution. Preference will be given to applicants from Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).

Funding is determined based on the candidate's geographic location and budget / budget justification.

  • Successful candidates already in residence at Stanford University may receive up to $2000.
  • Local Bay Area candidates may receive up to $5000.
  • Candidates traveling long-distance may receive up to $10,000.

Allowable expenses include: travel (e.g., economy airfare, rental car, parking, mileage, train passes), meals ($90 max per diem ), hotel ($450 max per day), research supplies.  Additional budgeted expenses will be considered on a case-by-case basis.   

 

Fellowship Expectations

Fellows should be prepared to:

  • Participate virtually in any pre-fellowship orientation sessions
  • Conduct daily in-residence research
  • Partake in any fellowship specific activities, including onsite orientation sessions and progress / mentorship meetings
  • Actively contribute to the scholarly communities at CCSRE and Cantor Arts Center
  • Attend any regular event programming organized by CCSRE and/or Cantor
  • Lead informal talks and / or deliver public presentations on their research
  • Provide digital copies of all deliverables (research paper or curatorial justification) at the close of the fellowship residency
  • Adhere to all Center, Museum, and University policies

 

Application Process

Important Fall Dates

  • Submit All Application Materials: Sept 20 at 5:00pm (PT)
  • Fall Fellowship Quarter: October 1 - December 15, 2024
  • Residency: up to 2 weeks; dates during the fall fellowship quarter to be negotiated

Submission

Candidates should use these online form(s) to submit the required information and provide links to their supporting materials.

  1. Application Form
  2. Letter of Recommendation Form

Required Materials

  1. Application — online form requesting candidate's information, project details, and links to all supporting documents
  2. Curriculum Vitae — document with the candidate’s professional accomplishments, demonstrating fit for this award; 3 pages maximum
  3. Proposal — short summary of the candidate’s proposed research; 1500 words maximum
  4. Budget — itemized list of expenses (travel, lodging, meals, etc.) with justification for their inclusion and amount
  5. Letter of Recommendation —  required for graduate student and post-doc applications only; one letter of support submitted directly by the graduate student's dissertation chair or committee member, or by the post-doctoral scholar's sponsor or supervisor

Applications are not considered complete until all materials, including any letters of recommendation, have been received.

 

Questions?

If you have  application submission questions or need assistance, please contact Kenia Blanco Álvarez, CCSRE Research Institute Coordinator, at keniab [at] stanford.edu (keniab[at]stanford[dot]edu).

For inquiries about this fellowship opportunity or any Research Institute programming at CCSRE, please contact Dr. Bridget Algee-Hewitt, Senior Associate Director of the Research Institute, at bridgeta [at] stanford.edu (bridgeta[at]stanford[dot]edu).

For information on Cantor's holdings or project-related questions, please contact Jorge Eduardo Sibaja, Curatorial Assistant, Cantor Arts Center, at jsibaja [at] stanford.edu (jsibaja[at]stanford[dot]edu).

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