Admission

Applicant Profile

I envisage vigorous discussions across disciplines that will facilitate collaborative scholarship.

I hope the Institute will attract an excellent group of NEH Summer Scholars who will quickly bond as an intellectual community. NEH Summer Scholars will come from different backgrounds, training, institutions, and career stages, but they will share the vision of an integrated approach to Renaissance culture that takes into account the role of images and of visualization in the construction and transmission of knowledge.

The program is designed to invite a span of disciplinary perspectives, including art history, history, history of science, literature and comparative literature, architectural history, philosophy, and religious studies. This heterogeneous group, which reflects the interdisciplinary culture of the Renaissance itself, will explore Renaissance art and science through a multi-faceted and sustained analysis of Leonardo's paintings, drawings, and writings.

All readings will be in English. Knowledge of Italian will be helpful, but it will not be necessary for participation in the Institute.

It is my hope that NEH Summer Scholars will return to their research interests with a greatly enhanced understanding of Leonardo da Vinci's thought processes and works so that they can better address with their classes and in their research the historical contexts of the relations between art and science in the early modern period.

— Francesca Fiorani
     Associate Professor of Art History
     University of Virginia

Apply

 

Please review carefully the NEH application and eligibility and guidelines instructions. The components of an application and the criteria for review are detailed in this document.

A complete application includes:

  1. Essay (up to 4 pages)
  2. Curriculum vitae
  3. Two reference letters

The NEH Summer Institute review committee will be especially interested in your:

  • Essay: this should be a thoughtful statement that addresses your reasons for applying to the NEH Summer Institute Leonardo da Vinci | Between Art and Science
  • Qualifications, including ongoing research interests
  • Outline of your individual project
  • Indication of the relation of the topic to your teaching

I will accept applications either electronically or through the mail. If you are submitting electronically, the deadline is midnight, 1 March 2012; if by mail, that is a postmarked deadline and you should include three complete collated copies of the required components.

Two reference letters will need to be signed across seal and submitted with the application. All mailed materials should be addressed to:

Francesca Fiorani
Associate Professor of Art History
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400130
Charlottesville, VA 22904