Fellowship

Terms of the Fellowship

• the Fellowship will run for a period of six months
• Fellows can expect a monthly stipend ranging between SGD2,000 to SGD5,000, depending on qualifications
• Fellows are expected to produce monthly research updates, with a final article submission of between 8000 to 10,000 words at the end of their tenure
• Fellows’ research must be centred around the collection of the National Museum of Singapore. The National Museum of Singapore collection can be viewed on Roots.sg.

Themes for the 2025 Fellowship

• Environment: Studies on land reclamation, deforestation, depictions of changes to the landscape, cultivation of the land, cultural or religious beliefs towards the environment.
• Language: Studies on language policies, changing language practices, language diversity, the vernacular use of language, dialects, and Singlish.
• Design: Studies on the social and visual history of design, including design trends and aesthetics through film, theatre and entertainment collaterals (1980s-2000s), postwar women's contributions to Singapore craft and design, the practices of Singapore designers/design studios, typography of non-Latin scripts, the evolution of furniture or interior design in Singapore, the influence of design entrepreneurs on markets, audiences and discourses.
• Any other relevant topics pertaining to the National Museum of Singapore’s collection

How to Apply

To apply, please submit the following to nmsfellowship@nhb.gov.sg by 30 April 2025:

• Application form
• CV
• Detailed research proposal including timeline, research plan, and at least 3 artefacts for study (not more than 10 pages)

Shortlisted applicants will be contacted for an interview stage.

Incomplete applications will not be entertained.

Only successful candidates will be notified.

Applicants who are already funded or being considered for funding by other agencies in Singapore, including other National Heritage Board grants such as the Heritage Grant, are not eligible for funding under this fellowship.

Past Fellows

Dr Emily Soon (PhD, King’s College, London)
Shakespeare and Singapore: 1900–1975

Emily Teo (PhD, University of Erfurt)
A Nineteenth-Century Melting Pot: A Cultural History of William Farquhar’s Natural History Drawings

Grace Teo (MA, Nanyang Technological University)
Certifying Conduct, Character & Competency: Advocate-Solicitors as ‘Qualified Person’ in the Straits Settlements

Dr Pow Jun Kai (PhD, King’s College, London)
Swing!: Filipino Innovations and Popular Music in Singapore, 1939–1959

Rebekah Lim (MA, Nanyang Technological University)
Sarong, Sari, Samfoo: Ethnic Dress as Daily Wear, Costume and Identity Maker

Kong Yen Lin (MA, Goldsmiths, University of London)
Dual Lives Entwined, on Camera and off: Portraying womanhood and nationhood in the visual archives of Wu Sijing

Freya Schwachenwald (PhD candidate, Technical University of Berlin)
Transcultural landscapes of Singapore and Southeast Asia

Yu Xian Jee (PhD candidate, Royal Holloway, University of London)
Donations, Schools and National Salvation: Humanitarian Activity within the Chinese Migrant Community of Colonial Singapore, 1937–1951

Chen En Jiao (MA Candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
If Letters Home Could Sing

Yao Jiang (MA, University of Virginia)
Another Plantation Economy: recovering sedimented pineapple (hi)stories in the first half of the 20th century, Singapore

Dr Lilith Wilson Lee (PhD, University of Edinburgh)
Social Ontologies and Their Representations in and around the Straits Philosophical Society: Constructions and Contestations of Race, Gender, and Aesthetics for the Straits Chinese community in Singapore at the Turn of the 19th Century.