What are the Mary Lily Research Grants?

The Sallie Bingham Center provides travel grants of up to $1000 for researchers whose work would benefit from access to the women's history collections held at Duke's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The grants are named in honor of Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham.

The John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture and the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History also participate in the travel grant program. Please see the main travel grant page for more information

Who is eligible?

Any faculty member, graduate or undergraduate student, or independent scholar with a research project requiring the use of materials held by the Sallie Bingham Center is eligible to apply. All applicants must reside outside of a 100-mile radius of Durham, NC.

Research topics should be strongly supported by the collections of the Sallie Bingham Center. We encourage each prospective grant applicant to discuss his or her research project and the Rubenstein Library collections that might support it with our reference archivist before submitting an application. (Submit an inquiry via our online form.)

What research topics are appropriate?

The Sallie Bingham Center documents the public and private lives of women through a wide variety of published and unpublished sources. Collections of personal papers, family papers, and organizational records complement print sources such as books and periodicals. Particular strengths of the Sallie Bingham Center's collections are the history of feminist activism and theory, prescriptive literature, girls' literature, artist's books by women, lay and ordained church women, gender expression, women's sexuality, and the history and culture of women in the South. More detailed information about our collections can be found on the Collections Overview page or through our Subject Guides. All of our materials are included in the Duke Libraries online catalog.

What expenses does the grant cover?

• Transportation expenses, including air, train, or bus ticket charges; car rental; mileage using a personal vehicle; and parking fees
• Accommodations
• Meals

How do I apply?

1. Download and complete an application form (Word document) and review the application instructions carefully.
2. E-mail completed application and C.V. as attachments to kelly.wooten (at) duke.edu.
3. Graduate and undergraduate students must submit a letter of recommendation from a faculty advisor. The application packet will not be considered complete until this letter is received. The letter may be submitted as e-mail attachment to the e-mail address above or by postal mail to:

Research Grant Program
Attn: Kelly Wooten
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Box 90185
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0185
USA

What dates do I need to remember?

• Deadline for applications: March 29, 2013 by 5:00 PM EST.
• Announcement of grant recipients: by April 30, 2013.
• Grants must be used between May 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014.
• Rubenstein Library reference services will be limited from January 7-February 15, 2013 while we relocate our reading room. Read more about this transition. Please plan your travel accordingly. Other holiday closings and regular hours are posted online.

2013-2014 Award Recipients

Valerie Behrer, Ph.D. candidate, English, University of Minnesota, for dissertation research on the connections between girls’ subjectivities, autobiographical practices, and the development of American radical feminism from the late 1960s to the 1970s.

Erin Leigh Durban-Albrecht, Ph.D. candidate, Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Arizona, for a set of related projects—including a film and her dissertation—that use Kathy Acker’s Kathy Goes to Haiti to explore racialized gender and sexuality, cultural production, and U.S.‐Haiti relations in the 20th and early 21st century.

Lauren Gutterman, Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, Columbia Law School, for a book that will examine the personal experiences and public representation of American wives who desired women, 1945 to 1979 .

Monica Miller, Ph.D. candidate, English and Women’s & Gender Studies, Louisiana State University, for dissertation research on the use of ugly women as characters that defy the stereotype of the beautiful belle in the work of 20th century Southern women writers.

Michelle Pronovost, master’s student,  Fashion Institute of Technology, for research on the confrontational fashion of riot grrrls in zines from the 1990s.

Andrea Walton, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Indiana University Bloomington, for research supporting an article and book chapter on philanthropist Eleanor Thomas Elliott.

Kelly Weber, Ph.D. candidate, History, Rice University, for dissertation research related to the politics of daughterhood in the New South, 1880 to 1920.

Stacy J. Williams, Ph.D. candidate, Sociology, University of California, San Diego, for dissertation research on how social movements have affected feminist discourse about cooking, 1874 to 2013.

Mary Ziegler, Assistant Professor, St. Louis University, for a book about how abortion providers helped define lay understandings of the constitutional, statutory, and common law concerning abortion in the United States.

List of All Grant Recipients, 1999 - Present

• About the Center
• Finding Materials
• Subject Guides
• News and Events
• Research Grants
• Visiting the Center
• Newsletters
• Collections Overview
• Ask a Question
• Center Staff