Research Grants
Apply now for 2026-27 research grants
The Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and Virginia Tech’s Special Collections and University Archives invite applications for the 2026-27 Virginia Center for Civil War Studies Research Grants. Each grant recipient will visit Virginia Tech’s Special Collections and University Archives in order to conduct research on some aspect of the American Civil War era. An honorarium of $200 per business day will be provided, up to a maximum of $2,000. (Typical awards are for 2-5 days.) Recipients may also have the opportunity to give an informal presentation on their projects during their visit. Graduate students, faculty members, and independent scholars are all eligible. Preference will be given to applications that discuss a feasible number of non-digitized collections with direct connections to the proposed research project.
Virginia Tech’s Special Collections and University Archives contain one of the largest concentrations of Civil War-related research materials in the world, including 10,000 rare printed sources, and hundreds of manuscript collections containing diaries, letters, ledgers, official papers, and other formats. Highlights include soldiers’ accounts from both the Union and the Confederacy; printed memoirs and regimental histories; correspondence from the homefront; primary sources focused on slavery and abolitionism; papers documenting political change in Virginia and the South; and records of postwar groups focused on memorializing the Civil War.
Access tools to Civil War collections include:
http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/search?smode=browse;f1-subject=Civil%20War
https://aspace.lib.vt.edu/subjects/1
Selected digitized Civil War materials are available online at: https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/AmericanCivilWar
Applicants should submit the following as pdf files to VCCWS Program Coordinator Rachel Stanley (rcstanley@vt.edu): (1) a brief C.V.; (2) a summary of their research aims, including the relevance of specific holdings of Virginia Tech’s Special Collections and University Archives, and the length of visit desired (no more than two pages); (3) one letter of reference, which may be sent directly from the reference writer. Applications are due by 5 p.m. on February 23, 2026. Successful applicants will be notified by March 27, 2026, and will be expected to complete their visit before July 31, 2027.
Questions? Please contact Paul Quigley, Director of the VCCWS (pquigley@vt.edu; 504/231-9090) or Aaron Purcell, Director of SCUA (adp@vt.edu; 540/231-9672). The Virginia Center for Civil War Studies is housed in the History Department of Virginia Tech. The Special Collections and University Archives department of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech maintains analog and digital research collections related to the American Civil War.
2025-26 Research Grant Recipients
Dr. Jewel Parker’s research project, “The Intercultural Origins of Health Care in the Antebellum South,” explores how interactions between American Indians, Africans, and Europeans influenced medical practices and shaped the development of medicines in the southern United States from the 1600s to the 1800s. Euromerican doctors actively sought out knowledge from other cultures to find the most effective treatments. Recognizing these diverse contributions to southern medicine helps highlight the important roles American Indians and Africans played in that history and opens the door for exploring other ways that different cultures shaped life in the South prior to and during the American Civil War. Parker is a full-time lecturer at Appalachian State University.
Madelaine Setiawan is a PhD student at Texas A&M University. Her research aims to construct a complete picture in the ways Southern Unionist women contributed to the wartime effort and were honored, remembered, or forgotten afterward. She explores how Union soldiers, prisoners of war, politicians, and the collective public commemorated Southern Unionist women.
