Graduate Student Fellowships and Grants

Robert S. and Grayce B. Kerr Foundation Fellowship

The Robert S. and Grayce B. Kerr Foundation supports a fellowship for graduate students pursuing advanced study in the Art of the American West and Native American Art History. Students pursue research projects while in residence at the Russell Center during two consecutive academic years.

Current & Former Fellows:

2023-25, Meagan A. Evans (Ph.D. candidate in Art of the American West)

2021-23, Olivia von Gries (Ph.D. candidate in Art of the American West)

2019-21, Francesca Giani (Ph.D. in Art of the American West, 2022, presently Executive Assistant to the Dean, University of Oklahoma Graduate College)

2017-19, Alicia Harris (Ph.D. in Native American Art History, 2020, presently Assistant Professor of Native American Art History University of Oklahoma)

2015-17, Chelsea Herr (Ph.D. in Native American Art History, 2020, presently Jack and Maxine Zarrow Curator of Indigenous Art and Culture, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK)

2014-15, Heather Elizabeth White (student in Art of the American West, presently Lecturer, Baylor University)

2012-14, Tammi Hanawalt (Ph.D. in Art of the American West, 2017? presently Curator of Art, National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY)

2010-12, Melynda Seaton (Ph.D. in Art of the American West, 2015, presently Assistant Professor, Art, Texas A&M University, Commerce)

2008-10, James Peck (Ph.D. in Art of the American West, 2016, presently Director and Curator of the Sears Art Museum at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah)

2006-08, Hadley Jerman (Ph.D. in art of the American West, 2020, presently Eugene B. Adkins Curator, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art)

2005-06, Thomas Brent Smith (MA in Art History, 2006, presently Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art)

Couse-Sharp Historic Site–OU Russell Center Fellowship

Since 2014, the Russell Center has annually sent a graduate student in art history for a summer fellowship at the Couse-Sharp Historic Site in Taos New Mexico, where the fellow works 32 hours per week on short- and long-term research projects at the Site and continues with their own research.

Current & Former Fellows:

2023, Mary DeLeary (Ph.D. in Native American Art History, 2023, presently Mellon Impact Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Native American Studies, University of Oklahoma)

2021, 2022, Olivia von Gries (Ph.D. candidate in Art of the American West)

2020, covid-19 closure

2019, Michelle Lanteri (Ph.D. in Native American Art History, 2021, presently Curator of Collections, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM)

2018, Alicia Harris (Ph.D. in Native American Art History, 2020, presently Assistant Professor of Native American Art History University of Oklahoma)

2016, 2017, Chelsea Herr (Ph.D. in Native American Art History, 2020, presently Jack and Maxine Zarrow Curator of Indigenous Art and Culture, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK)

2014, 2015, Caroline Jean Fernald (Ph.D. in Native American Art History, 2017, presently Executive Director, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology)

OU-ACMAA Graduate Student Fellowship

In 2023-24, the Russell Center is collaborating with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, TX to pilot a graduate student fellowship in Art of the American West. The fellow works on site for six weeks in summer on curatorial projects, followed by continued project collaboration and research in a part-time remote capacity from OU during the academic year.

Current Fellow

2023-24, Jonathan Hacker (Ph.D. Candidate in Art of the American West)

Caroline Schimmel Grant for OU Graduate and Post-Graduate Students working on women and gender non-conforming individuals in the American wilderness 

In 2023, well-known historian, author, and collector of works of women of the Americas, Caroline Schimmel, established a fund through the School of Visual Arts' Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West to support continued excellence in study of the Americas for graduate and post-graduate students across campus who are researching women or gender non-conforming individuals, exploration, and cultural production in the wilderness of the Americas (North, Central, and South) or presenting such research at conferences and workshops.

Deadline for 2024-25 academic year, October 15, 2024

2023-24 winner – Felipe Flores, PhD Candidate in Architecture, “Gender impacts: Westernization of the traditional Achuar house ‘Jea’ in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador”

Please provide a one-page summary of project plan with title, detailed research outcome, budget request of up to $2,000, up to 2 pages of supplemental images, and short cv to russellcenter@ou.edu. The materials will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary faculty committee. With questions, please contact Emily.burns@ou.edu.