Mayborn Museum
BaylorMayborn MuseumCollection & ResearchBryce C. Brown Research Fellowship

Bryce C. Brown Research Fellowship

To generate new knowledge of the museum’s collections through original research and to provide opportunities for collections-based research, Baylor University’s Mayborn Museum Complex is pleased to announce two Bryce C. Brown Research Fellowships during the summer of 2023.

The Mayborn Museum invites applications from all Baylor University faculty as well as graduate students. One Fellowship will be awarded to a researcher using the natural history collection and one Fellowship will be awarded to a researcher using the cultural history collection.

The research must be conducted over a four to six week period during the summer of 2023. Fellowship winners will be awarded a stipend of $2,000.
*This stipend is considered financial aid and will effect total monies received.


The Mayborn Museum will provide Fellows with access to:

  • Collection objects and data associated with the Fellow’s research
  • Collection Staff expertise

Fellows are expected to make a tangible contribution to the Mayborn Museum during the period of their stay. Examples of contribution may include: Fellows presenting work-in-progress or research outcomes to the public through programs offered at the Museum, contributing to object records, or writing articles for publications. Publications and presentations that result from a Fellow's research will acknowledge the Bryce C. Brown Research Fellowship Program at the Mayborn Museum for its support.

Applicants must submit a proposal, a curriculum vitae, and two letters of recommendation. The proposal (please limit to two pages) should include: name, contact information, description of proposed research, expected work to be completed during the summer, anticipated contribution to the Mayborn Museum, and estimated dates to be in residence. Eligible research projects must benefit from access to collections held by the Mayborn Museum. Projects that require destructive analysis require submittal of a separate Destructive Sampling Application which must be approved prior to submittal of the Fellowship application.

The scope of the Mayborn Museum’s collections includes objects from the fields of history, ethnography, archaeology, zoology, botany, geology, paleontology, and archives, with an emphasis on objects from central Texas. The Museum also has many objects worldwide in scope associated with the early years of the Museum’s collecting history, which goes back to a teaching collection started in the mid-1850s that was developed into the Baylor University Museum in 1893.



Application materials are due March 17, 2023.
Recipients will be notified by April 14, 2023.



Application materials may be sent by e-mail or hard copy to:

Sabrina Thomas, Assistant Collections Manager
Mayborn Museum Complex
One Bear Place #97154
Waco, Texas 76798-7154
Sabrina_Thomas@baylor.edu

Contact Sabrina Thomas at 254-710-1478 or Sabrina_Thomas@baylor.edu if there are any questions regarding the Mayborn Museum Collection holdings or the application process.

Past award recipients and their projects have included:

2022

  • Sarah Tharp, PhD Student, Department of English: project designing lesson plans than connect objects from the museum's collection of scientific artifacts with literary texts.


2021
  • Sarah Kienle, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology: research project examining convergence in mammalian skull morphology across ecological, life history, and evolutionary gradients.
  • David Criscione, PhD Student, Department of History: research project on the cultural context of the museum’s ethnological and natural history collections brought to Texas by Baptist missionaries.


2019
  • Kaz Hayashi, PhD Student, Department of Religion: research project and presentation on the museum’s archaeological collection from the ancient Near East.
  • Farzaneh Mansouri, PhD Student, Environmental Science Department: project on the reconstruction of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope cycle in baleen plate as an indicator of seasonal movement and feeding.

2018
  • Chase Smith, PhD Student, Department of Biology: research and organization of the Freshwater mussel collection
  • Nicholas Werse, PhD, Temporary Full-Time Lecturer, Department of Religion: research and book project on Central Texas history and culture, with emphasis on rural Texas

2017
  • Guilherme Almeida, Lecturer in Musical Theater and Collaborative Pianist, Department of Theatre Arts: research project on Brazilian collection.
  • Bracy V. Hill II, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Department of History: book project “Scattering the Morning Dew: An Exploration of Hunting in the Lone Star State”
  • Daniel Peppe, PhD, Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director, Department of Geosciences: resource project on TEKS-based curriculum materials for Earth and Space Sciences along with a teacher training workshop