Fellowships and Other Financial Support Opportunities

Departmental Support

The Solomon B. Hayden Fellowship

Established in 2020 with the generosity of artist and Columbia University MFA graduate, Hugh Hayden, in memory of his father Solomon B. Hayden, and Lisson Gallery (London, New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Beijing), in conjunction with a matching award from the University, the Solomon B. Hayden Fellowship permanently funds a fellowship for an incoming MODA student to offer tuition support, and potential mentorship with the Lisson Gallery. The recipient, who is named a Solomon B. Hayden Fellow, is selected by a faculty committee that evaluates eligibility based on any of the following criteria: from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background; demonstrated experience in or commitment to working with historically underserved or underprivileged populations. Priority is given to a student whose area of focus resides in the history of art of the African and African-American diaspora.

Past Fellows:

2020-21 Adekoyejo (Kojo) Abudu

2022-23 Brooke Finister

2023-24 Zoe Hopkins

2024-25 Emma Nuzzo

Caleb Smith Memorial Fellowship

This fellowship is intended for MA in Art History and MODA students whose research methods (including for but not exclusive to the thesis) necessitate the use of analogue and/or digital photographic techniques, including: performance documentation; video; documentary photography; and the deployment and/or incorporation of digital media. The proposed photographic or other forms of documentary work has to be executed by the applicant and cannot be subcontracted to third parties.

The Caleb Smith Memorial Fellowship is named after Caleb Smith, who served as the Director of the Media Center of Art History from 2009 until his untimely passing in February 2013. The fellowship recipient(s) will be known as the Caleb Smith Memorial Fellow(s). All second-year MA in Art History and MODA students in the Department of Art History and Archaeology are eligible to apply as long as they are in good academic standing and have no pending Incompletes by the time of application.

Past recipients:

Victoria Almiron Hazell: “Picturesque Aesthetic and Enslaved Labor in Nicolas-Antoine Taunay’s Brazilian Landscapes” (2024-2025)

Roma Patel: “Looking for Ourselves: Gauri Gill’s The Americans, 2000-2007” (2023-2024)

Victoria R. Horrocks: Photography at the Border: Exploring Presence and Loss in Border Cantos and Lost Children Archive” (2022-2023)

Michelle Huynh Chu: "Figure/Ground: Matter and Void in Victorian Media" (2020-2021)

Marina Rastorfer, “Provenance Research and The Many Chasms: The Case of Gurlitt, An Ongoing Search” (2019-2020)

Jean Wong, “Resisting Isolation and Building Community in Postwar Singapore— A Critical Study of Infrastructure, Surveillance Technology, and Educational Institutions in Ho Rui An’ DASH” (2019-2020)

Mo Zhang, “Visual and Poetic Imagination in The Four Seasons, a Ming Dynasty Handscroll in the Metropolitan Museum of Art” (2018-2019)

Sarah Bigler, “A Turn-of-the-Century Tastemaker: Frederick Keppel and American Print Collecting” (2017-2018)

Jeffrey Paul, “Printing Poetics: Wade Guyton’s Index of Translation” (2017-2018)

MA Thesis Research Fellowship

MODA students in their first year or beyond are eligible to apply for a thesis research fellowship, provided that they plan to register for the MA thesis course in the semester that immediately follows their application. The fellowship is typically intended for travel related to thesis research, within or outside the United States.

MA Language Fellowship

MODA students in their first year or beyond are eligible to apply for a Summer language fellowship, provided that they are in good academic standing and have no pending Incompletes by the time of application. The fellowship is intended to cover tuition/costs associated with a Summer language program or another form of language learning.