Open call: M+ / Design Trust Research Fellowships 2023

Application deadline: September 26, 2022

In order to encourage innovative curatorial research into the histories and procedures of design and architectural production in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and Asia through a transnational perspective, the M+ / Design Trust Research Fellowship was founded in 2015. The research from the fellowship has improved our understanding of the M+ Collections and guided our approach to creating exhibitions, future purchases, and other public programs in addition to adding to the body of knowledge already known in these fields. Past Fellows include architects, designers and historians Fan Ling, Joseph Grima, Juliana Kei, Daniel Cooper, Hugh Davies, Fan Lok Yi, Sampson Wong, Oliver Elser, Yasmin Tri Aryani, Jason Lau, Mark Wasiuta, Farzin Lotfi-Jam, Emily Verla Bovino and Anouchka van Driel.

By taking into account the region’s cultural, social, economic, and political conditions as well as its global and cross-cultural knowledge networks, applicants for the Fellowship should conduct advanced research on historical or modern topics connected to either a single discipline (such as architecture, graphic design, industrial design, or urbanism) or cross-disciplinary developments. Although 1950s and later topics are favored, outstanding submissions that concentrate on issues from the early twentieth century will also be taken into consideration.

The 2023 edition will support two types of Fellowships:

Fellowship I back a Hong Kong-based researcher’s initial investigation into design and architectural-related subjects specifically drawn from the M+ Collection Archives. The proposed research topics should have resonance with themes relating to design and architectural developments and discourse in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, even if the archives reflect the works of designers and architects throughout Asia and elsewhere. The preservation and cataloging of the archives is still a labor-intensive continuous task. Currently, 43 fonds have been cataloged, with the majority of them being accessible online. For those interested in this Fellowship, the archives and those yet to be published online can be accessed at the M+ Research Centre. For supplementary information on the M+ Collection Archives, please click here.

Fellowship II provides financial assistance to a scholar or practitioner working on historical or practice-based research that advances understanding of the approaches, procedures, and effects of design and architectural practices in or throughout Asia, the Greater Bay Area, and Hong Kong.

The chosen candidates will work for M+ for three to six months in 2023, undertaking their own research, ideally full-time. Fellows are urged to interact with the museum’s curators and take part in M+ programs. The fellowship should lead to 1) a paper of at least 5,000 words, or an equivalent product in another format, to be published digitally or in print by M+ and Design Trust, and 2) a lecture as part of the museum’s public programs.

Each Fellow will receive a lump-sum stipend of up to 40,000 Hong Kong dollars per month for three to six months (determined on a case-by-case basis) to cover living, insurance, and research-related costs.

The deadline for submitting the application is September 26, 2022 (Monday). Please send all application materials digitally and address enquiries to [email protected]. For more information, please visit here.

On June 25, “Research on the Move: Dialogues with M+ / Design Trust Research Fellows” brought together Fellows from 2015-2019 in dialogue with Hong Kong-based practitioners. For more information, please visit here.