Fellowships

The Mary Baker Eddy Library awards annual short-term research fellowships. The program is designed to support original contributions to scholarship.

Relevant areas of research in the Library’s collections include the life of Mary Baker Eddy and the history of the Christian Science movement, as well as fields that include women’s studies; spirituality and health; religious studies; nineteenth- and twentieth-century history; cultural and social history; architecture; and journalism.

Researchers who accept fellowship positions are required to submit a report of their research at the Library, within 90 days of their last visit. They are also required to give a short talk at the Library during their tenure. We encourage applicants whose research promises to result in significant publication to adapt their findings for presentation on our Seekers and Scholars podcast series.

If you are interested in submitting an application, please be in touch with us first at [email protected], to discuss your proposed research, including additional holdings that may be relevant.

Application guidelines:

  • Criteria: Fellowships are granted on the basis of the applicant’s scholarly qualifications, the merits of their proposals, and the appropriateness of their topics, as demonstrated by citation to specific sources in our collections.
  • Eligibility: Scholars, students, and independent researchers
  • Stipend: $900 per week
  • Term: One week to two months
  • Research: To review the Library collections, click here. To discuss additional holdings that may be relevant to your proposed research, please write to us at [email protected]

To apply:

  • The deadline for all 2023 application materials, including letters of recommendation, is March 6, 2023.
  • Online application form: click here
  • Application instructions: click here

Note: Please be sure to include the following materials with your application form:

  • Cover letter
  • Current CV
  • Writing sample
  • Two letters of reference from academics familiar with your work should be submitted directly to: [email protected]

The Library is also a member of the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium (NERFC). For more information, including how to apply for a NERFC fellowship, click here.

Fellowship Recipients

 2022


 

Barry Huff

Genesis: The Foundational Exegesis of Christian Science

 

Anne Stiles

Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science Novel, 1900–1910

 

Sue Humble

Key to the Scriptures: Mary Baker Eddy’s Spiritual Interpretation of the Bible

Aine Poland

The role of western women in late Qing China

 

 2019


 

Melanie Khuddro

The influence of faith among Members of British Parliament after the advent of the Qualification of Women Act, 1919

 2018


Alexandra Prince

Religion and Madness: Perceptions of Insanity at the Fringe of Religious Life, 1830-1920
Ph.D. Candidate in History, University at Buffalo (SUNY)

 2017


 

Rolf Swensen, Ph.D.

The Christian Science Movement in Transition: 1908-1925
Professor/Social Sciences Bibliographer/Reference Librarian, Queens College, City University of New York

 2016


 

Daniel Graham

Spectral Speculations: The Political Economy of American Spiritualism, 1848-1905
Ph.D. Candidate in English, University of Connecticut at Storrs

 

Louise Zamparutti

Mary Baker Eddy: Rhetorician and Neoplatonist
Ph.D. Candidate in English, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

 

 2015


 

Anne Stiles, Ph.D.

Recovering the New Thought Novel
Associate Professor of English, Saint Louis University

 

Andrew Ventimiglia

“Christian Science Is Not Copyrighted”: Mary Baker Eddy and Intellectual Property
Ph.D. Candidate in Cultural Studies, University of California at Davis

 

 2014


 

 K. Paul Johnson, MLA

From Mary Baker Eddy’s Boston to California
Independent Researcher

 

Catherine Mas

Mary Baker Eddy’s Massachusetts Metaphysical College: A Study of Gender, Health, and Scientific Expertise in the Late Nineteenth Century
Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University

 

 2013


 

 Lynne Bundesen, MA

The Bible in its Spiritual Meaning, Mary Baker Eddy’s Notes on Genesis
Author and Scholar

 

 David Holland, Ph.D.

Wonders: Ellen Gould White, Mary Baker Eddy and Nineteenth-Century America
Associate Professor of North American Religious History,

Harvard Divinity School,
Harvard University

 

 Paul Ivey, Ph.D.

Building Respectability: Christian Science Architecture in the British Commonwealth and Europe, 1910-2010
Associate Professor of Art, University of Arizona

 

Joshua Paddison, Ph.D.

Correspondence between Aizire Chevaillier and Mary Baker Eddy
Visiting Professor in Religious Studies, Indiana University

 

 Ashley Squires, Ph.D.

Connections to Christian Science: Gertrude Stein, Sara Stein, Mina Loy, and others
Postdoctoral Fellow of English, University of Texas at Austin

 

 Paul Stob, Ph.D.

Intellectual Populism in American Thought and Culture, 1875-1915, including a chapter on Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science Board of Lectureship
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Vanderbilt University

 

 2012


 

Jean-Louis Marin-Lamellet

Regenerating America(ns): Benjamin O. Flower, Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy
Ph.D. Candidate, Université Lumière Lyon 2

 

 Timothy Noddings

Between the Pulpit and the Press, Media representation of five religious figures, including Mary Baker Eddy
MA Candidate in Religious History, University of Victoria

 

 

Ronit Stahl

God, War, and Politics: The American Military Chaplaincy and the Creation of Modern American Religion
Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of Michigan

 2011


 

Paul Ivey, Ph.D.

Christian Science church architecture in Britain, Canada, South Africa, and Australia
Associate Professor of Art History, University of Arizona

 

 

 

G. Kurt Piehler, Ph.D.

A Religious History of the American G.I. in World War II
Associate Professor of History, University of Tennessee

 

 

 

L. Ashley Squires

Religious Healing in the Progressive Era: Literary Responses to Christian Science
Ph.D. Candidate in English, University of Texas at Austin

 

 

  2010


 

Jennifer Reeder

Dissertation on Culture and Collective Memory among Mormon Women
Ph.D. Candidate in History and Art History, George Mason University

 

 

Lisa Stepanski, Ph.D.

Telephone Myth/Mary Baker Eddy and Bronson Alcott
Associate Professor of English, Emmanuel College

 

 

Amy B. Voorhees

Mary Baker Eddy and the Major Editions of Science and Health
Ph.D. Candidate in Religious Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara

 

 2009


 

Eva Payne

Laura Lathrop
MA Candidate, Harvard Divinity School

 

 

 

Brandy Scalise

Dissertation on Seventh-day Adventism, Christian Science, and the Emmanuel and New Thought Movements
Ph.D. Candidate in English (Rhetoric), Penn State University

 

 

 

Lisa Stepanski, Ph.D.

Mary Baker Eddy and Bronson Alcott
Associate Professor of English, Emmanuel College

 

 

 Rolf Swensen, Ph.D.

Occupational Survey of Early Christian Scientists
Reference Librarian/Social Sciences Bibliographer, Rosenthal Library, Queens College, City University of New York

 

 

 

  2008


Nancy Alexander, MA, MBA

Mary Baker Eddy’s Church Buildings as Feminine Sacred Space
Adjunct Lecturer, Southern Connecticut State University

 

 

 

Lance Carden, MFA

The Forgotten Poetry of Mary Baker Eddy
Independent Researcher, Bible Research Editor

 

 

 

Diane Hanover

The Early Growth of Christian Science Congregations in the Western United States, 1880s-1940s
Independent Researcher, Textbook Editor

M. Michelle Robinson

Christian Science and Labor Radicalism in Lynn, Massachusetts
Ph.D. Candidate in American Studies, Boston University

2007


Christopher Langton, D. Min.

Religion 332 — The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Upper Division College Course)
Professor of Religion, Principia College

Peter Skafish

Mary Baker Eddy’s views on Quimby, Mesmerism, and Spiritualism
Ph.D. Candidate in Medical Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

2006


Claire H. Badaracco, Ph.D.

Media, Medical and Religion News, American Spirituality and Health
Professor, Marquette University College of Communication

Robin Elizabeth Harragin, M.Th.

Women and Healing in Christian Science in Context of Contemporary Spirituality in Great Britain
Ph.D. Candidate, Bath Spa University College

Eric Lyons Thomas, Ph.D.

Christian Science and the Beginnings of Pastoral Pyschotherapy
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, College of Charleston

Pamela Walker, Ph.D.

Christian Science in Victorian and Edwardian Britain
Assistant Professor of History, Carleton University

2005


Gina Rose Marie Armer, MBA

Mary Baker Eddy’s Contribution to Adult Education through the Massachusetts Metaphysical College
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Idaho, Business Technologies Instructor, Eastern Idaho Technical College

Heather D. Curtis, Th.D.

Faith Healing, Christian Science, and Kindred Phenomenon: Mary Baker Eddy and the Evangelical Divine Healing Movement in Late Nineteenth Century America
Lecturer on American Religious History, Harvard Divinity School

Annette Kreutziger-Herr, Ph.D.

Mary Baker Eddy’s Interpretation of the Book of Genesis
Professor of Musicology and Cultural Studies, College of Music, Cologne, Germany

2004


 

Sarah Gardner Cunningham, Ph.D.

Spiritual Building: Augusta Stetson and the Organization of Christian Science
Faculty, Upper School, Department of History, Marymount School of New York

Robert S. Fogarty, Ph.D.

‘Mighty Works’: Anglo-American Faith Healing, 1870-1930
Editor, “Antioch Review,” Antioch University

Paul Eli Ivey, Ph.D.

Building Respectability: Influences from the American Christian Science Building Boom in Britain 1897-1930
Associate Professor of Art History, University of Arizona

Jean Halgren Kilde, Ph.D.

Maternalism, Materialism and Mary Baker Eddy: The Enigma of The Mother Church of Christian Science and the Extension
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Macalester College

Amy Marie Kittelstrom

From Revealed to Relative Truth: Christian Science and Radical Religion at the World’s Parliament of Religions
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Boston University

Amy Elaine Lorion, ABD

Molten in the Furnace of Affliction’: Mary Baker Eddy and the Public Sphere, 1875-1910
Visiting Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Robert John Rockabrand, Ph.D.

Mary Baker Eddy’s Relationship with and use of The Book of Psalms in her Daily Work as Discoverer and Leader of the Christian Science Movement
Professor Emeritus, Musical Arts, Principia College

Susan M. Setta, Ph.D.

A Cloud of Witnesses: Varieties of Perceptions of Mary Baker Eddy’s Charismatic Authority
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Northeastern University