Italian Fellowships

color photograph of a baroque fresco in a Roman palazzo
Detail of an eighteenth-century fresco by Aureliano Milani in the Mirror Gallery of the seventeenth-century Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome (photograph © Konstantinos Papaioannou and licensed through Dreamstime)

Overview

The Italian Fellows are an integral part of the AAR community. Italian artists and scholars live and work in the Academy community, pursuing their own projects, participating in its collaborative, interdisciplinary environment and helping make connections between Rome Prize Fellows and their Italian peers.

Italian Fellows are required to live at the American Academy in Rome. All fellowships include a single room, board, and a stipend. Length of stay varies by the fellowship (see below).

Winners of Italian Fellowships are announced at the annual Rome Prize Ceremony, held every April in New York.

Humanities

The American Academy in Rome is offering a fellowship for scholars working in the field of medieval studies (including scholars of archaeology, history, history of art and architecture, literature, religious studies, and musicology) for the 2025–26 academic year. All academic approaches to the field or combinations of approaches will be considered, as well as historical approaches overlapping with the social sciences. Candidates should indicate how they plan to use resources such as libraries, archives, and museums in Rome and at the Academy.

A postdoctoral fellowship in the humanities will be awarded for a two-month period, from September 2025 to June 2026. The application deadline is February 12, 2025.

Eligibility and Application Requirements

Candidates must:

  • Be Italian citizens (dual citizenship is acceptable)
  • Have completed their PhD between 2018 and September 1, 2025
  • Demonstrate excellent written and spoken English, which will be assessed in an interview if applicable

Applications must be submitted online, including the following materials:

  • A project proposal of no more than 1,000 words in English. The proposal should describe the scope of the project, its relevance to the field, the work already completed, and the type of publication expected (article, monograph, etc.). Bibliographic notes for cited sources should be included (the notes do not count toward the word limit)
  • A sample of academic writing. The text should relate to the proposed field of study and should not exceed twenty pages. The bibliography and notes (both required) do not count toward the page limit. The text can be in Italian or English
  • An updated CV (in Italian or English)

The Academy will acknowledge receipt of the application.

Applications must strictly adhere to the established deadlines.

For further information, please contact if [at] aarome.org (if[at]aarome[dot]org).

Arts

The American Academy in Rome is offering two fellowships for Italian artists for the 2025–26 academic year. Italian fellows are an integral part of the AAR community: they live and work within it, dedicating themselves to their projects within a collaborative and multidisciplinary environment, contributing to building fruitful relationships between American fellows and their Italian counterparts. The Academy is particularly proud to host a fellowship sponsored by the Enel Foundation for architecture and landscape architecture.

Italian fellows will reside in Rome at the American Academy. The fellowships include room, board, and a stipend. The duration of the residency depends on the type of fellowship.

The fellowships are open to artists in the following disciplines:

  • Architecture (including architecture and landscape architecture): four-month period, from September 2025 to June 2026
  • Music composition: two-month period, from September 2025 to June 2026

Eligibility and Application Requirements

The ideal candidate should demonstrate an advanced level of maturity in their artistic research and show promise for further development but should not have yet reached full professional recognition. The candidate should also have at least a basic proficiency in English and be willing to share life and activities with other fellows at the Academy.

Applications must be submitted by February 12, 2025, online here where applicants will need to register under “Applicant Registration” at the top right of the screen and follow the instructions to upload the required materials.

For further information, please contact if [at] aarome.org (if[at]aarome[dot]org).