Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellowship

The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at the NC State University Libraries is excited to offer the annual Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellowship. The fellowship has been established through the generosity of the Culture & Animals Foundation in memory of Tom Regan to promote scholarly research in animal rights. CAF continues to offer annual grants to scholars and artists working on these issues.

The fellowship will support the use of the SCRC’s Animal Rights Archive—the largest scholarly archive of animal rights collections in the country. The SCRC builds collections of rare and unique materials to support the research and teaching needs of the university, emphasizing established and emerging areas at the university and corresponding to strengths within the Libraries’ overall collection. These rich collections serve as a foundation for generations of scholarship in animal protection, impacting and supporting scholars from across the nation.

The fellowship provides a $4,000 stipend awarded to a qualified applicant for research completed in residence at the SCRC for a term of no less than four weeks to begin on or after July 1.

Fellowship requirements

  • Applicants must submit (via email) the researcher’s curriculum vitae, a cover page including name, address, phone, email, institutional affiliation (if applicable), current position/title, a project outline and rationale for use of the collections, the names of three appropriate references, and a detailed budget. Eligible budget expenses include travel (air, train, or bus ticket charges; car rental; mileage using a personal vehicle; and parking fees). Other eligible budget expenses include lodging, meals, and duplication services. The university does not provide housing.
  • Graduate students should also submit a letter of recommendation from a faculty advisor or theses director on the significance of the research topic and abilities of the candidate. Other applicants are strongly encouraged to provide a letter of recommendation from an individual familiar with their work. Undergraduates, graduates, post-docs, and faculty members are all eligible, as are non-affiliated and independent scholars.
  • At the end of the research fellowship, awardees are expected to submit a final report on their research and may be invited to discuss their work at a Libraries event during their stay. Awardees should also submit copies of publications that result from their research to both SCRC and to CAF.

Applications are reviewed and awards made by the Libraries’ Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellowship Committee.

Fellowship deadlines

Applications are due annually by April 30. Awardees will be notified by June 1 for support to begin on July 1 and to be completed by August 15 of the same year.

For more information and to submit applications, please contact:

Gwynn Thayer
Acting Department Head, Special Collections Research Center
NC State University Libraries
Campus Box 7111
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
gathayer@ncsu.edu
(919) 513-3315

About Tom Regan

An internationally recognized scholar, inspiring teacher, and a prolific author, Regan joined the NC State philosophy faculty in 1967, eventually serving as head of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. His 1983 book, The Case for Animal Rights, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and remains a definitive work. Regan’s “War on Vivisection” speech, given at a 1988 rally in Los Angeles, is considered one of the most important animal rights speeches ever delivered, and the Utne Reader named him one of their “fifty visionaries changing the world.”

While on faculty at NC State, Regan also spent time as a visiting scholar at the University of Calgary, Brooklyn College, and Eastern Michigan University, and he received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Humanities Center. After more than 34 years of distinguished service at NC State, he retired in January 2002 to direct the Culture & Animals Foundation, which he and his wife Nancy established to expand understanding and appreciation of other animals and improve the ways in which they are treated. Regan passed away in 2017.