Apply for funding

The Centre supports members in applications for research funding and welcomes external funding applicants as capacity allows.

Skyscrapers in America

Funding schemes

We are able to support applications to the following schemes in limited numbers:

Apply for a funding scheme

To apply for one of these funding schemes through the Centre for American Studies, email Natalia Cecire n.cecire@sussex.ac.uk and Lawrence Webb l.webb@sussex.ac.uk and attach:

our expression of interest form [DOCX 19.40KB]
a copy of your most recent CV.

Visiting researchers

The Sussex Centre for American Studies is happy to host visiting researchers with a terminal degree. Find out more about visiting fellowships hosted by the School of Media, Arts and Humanities Research Institute.

We also host visiting doctoral researchers. All visiting doctoral researchers must come through one of the Sussex Research School’s pathways.

American Studies PhD research

The University of Sussex offers PhDs in American Literature and American History.

Find out how to apply to do a PhD at Sussex.

We receive AHRC/UKRI Landscape Awards doctoral funding as a member of the South East region. To apply to do a PhD with a member of the Centre for American Studies, it's recommended you write to a prospective supervisor with a draft proposal to inquire whether the project might be suitable for their supervision. Potential supervisors can be found on our People page. For guidance on writing a proposal, visit the Sussex Researcher School.

Selected funded projects

Angelo, Anne-Marie, participating advisor. Activating the Photographic Mass: Identity & History in the National Trust’s Photography Collections. Birkbeck, University of London and the National Trust, Paul Mellon Centre, 2020-22.
Bates, Chris. “Dendrocapitalism: Political Economies of Wood in American Literature, 1765-1865.” AHRC/CHASE Doctoral Award, 2023–2028.
“Dendrocapitalism: Political Economies of Wood in American Literature, 1765-1865.” Melville Society Walter E. Benzanson Archive Fellowship, 2023–24.
Carlin, Molly. “How to jail a revolution: Tracing the strategic penal suppression of American political voices, 1964-2020.” AHRC/CHASE Doctoral Award, 2021–24.
“Investigating carceral methods of political suppression in Jessica Mitford’s prison papers.” AHRC International Placement Scheme Grant, 2023-24.
Cecire, Natalia. “The Embryology of the Closet: Biology and Queer Women’s Poetics, 1885–1946.” Leverhulme Research Grant, 2021–2023.
Dobson, Louise. “Janet Flanner and the Politics of Anti-Communism at the New Yorker.” AHRC/CHASE Doctoral Award, 2023–2028.
Haddon, Mimi, and Bethany Klein (Leeds). Music for Girls. AHRC Network Project, https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/media-arts-humanities-institute/research/project/theatre-music-performance/music-for-girls 2022–2023.
Jonik, Michael. “Thoreau’s Radical Ecologies: Philosophy, Politics, Collective Agency.” British Academy Midcareer Grant, 2023–2024.
Pawlik, Joanna. “Draw the line: Figuring anti-fascism in American art, 1945–1980.” Leverhulme Research Fellowship, 2020-22.
Rietzler, Katharina. “Women and the History of International Thought.” Leverhulme Research Project, 2018–2023. Co-I with Patricia Owens (PI) and Kimberly Hutchings (Co-I).
Rietzler, Katharina. “The International Thought of Women on the US Right, 1920 to 1960.” British Academy Small Grant, 2023–2025.
Rietzler, Katharina. “Women’s International Thought in U.S. Public Culture: A Divided History.” Leverhulme Research Fellowship, 2025.
Webb, Lawrence. “Advertising, Film and Visual Culture in the 1960s.” British Academy Grant, 2023-24.
Wright, Tom F. “Speaking Citizens: The Politics of Speech Education 1850-Present.” AHRC Grant, 2020–2023.
Wright, Tom F. “Challenging Oracy and Citizenship Myths.” AHRC Grant, 2023–24.

Image credit: Carol Highsmith, Chicago Federal Center, 2017 Library of Congress