Fellowship

Terms of the Fellowship

• the Fellowship will run for a period of six months
• Fellows can expect a monthly stipend ranging between SGD2,000 to SGD5,000, depending on qualifications
• Fellows are expected to produce monthly research updates, with a final article submission of between 8,000 to 10,000 words at the end of their tenure
• Fellows’ research must be centred around the collection of the National Museum of Singapore. The National Museum of Singapore collection can be viewed on Roots.sg.

Themes for the 2026 Fellowship

• Healthcare: Studies on infrastructures and institutions of healthcare, healthcare work and caregiving.
• Labour: Studies on unions, industrial relations, productivity and work culture, and vocational training.
• Contemporary photography: Studies on contemporary photograph collections and how they engage with Singapore’s history, heritage and/or contemporary issues.
• Design: Studies on the social history of design in Singapore from the 1950s to the present, including but not limited to studies on women’s contributions to craft and design, design collectives and studios, fashion, furniture/interior design, visual design, architecture, design entrepreneurship, and designing for the digital.
• Any other relevant topics pertaining to the National Museum of Singapore’s collection

How to Apply

To apply, please submit the following to nmsfellowship@nhb.gov.sg by 30 April 2026:

• Application form
• CV
• Detailed research proposal including timeline, research plan, and at least 3 artefacts for study (not more than 10 pages)

Shortlisted applicants will be contacted for an interview stage.

Incomplete applications will not be entertained.

Only successful candidates will be notified.

Applicants who are already funded or being considered for funding by other agencies in Singapore, including other National Heritage Board grants such as the Heritage Grant, are not eligible for funding under this fellowship.

Past Fellows

Dr Emily Soon (PhD, King’s College, London)
Shakespeare and Singapore: 1900–1975

Emily Teo (PhD, University of Erfurt)
A Nineteenth-Century Melting Pot: A Cultural History of William Farquhar’s Natural History Drawings

Grace Teo (MA, Nanyang Technological University)
Certifying Conduct, Character & Competency: Advocate-Solicitors as ‘Qualified Person’ in the Straits Settlements

Dr Pow Jun Kai (PhD, King’s College, London)
Swing!: Filipino Innovations and Popular Music in Singapore, 1939–1959

Rebekah Lim (MA, Nanyang Technological University)
Sarong, Sari, Samfoo: Ethnic Dress as Daily Wear, Costume and Identity Maker

Kong Yen Lin (MA, Goldsmiths, University of London)
Dual Lives Entwined, on Camera and off: Portraying womanhood and nationhood in the visual archives of Wu Sijing

Freya Schwachenwald (PhD candidate, Technical University of Berlin)
Transcultural landscapes of Singapore and Southeast Asia

Yu Xian Jee (PhD candidate, Royal Holloway, University of London)
Donations, Schools and National Salvation: Humanitarian Activity within the Chinese Migrant Community of Colonial Singapore, 1937–1951

Chen En Jiao (MA Candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
If Letters Home Could Sing

Yao Jiang (MA, University of Virginia)
Another Plantation Economy: recovering sedimented pineapple (hi)stories in the first half of the 20th century, Singapore

Dr Lilith Wilson Lee (PhD, University of Edinburgh)
Social Ontologies and Their Representations in and around the Straits Philosophical Society: Constructions and Contestations of Race, Gender, and Aesthetics for the Straits Chinese community in Singapore at the Turn of the 19th Century.

Dr Grace Lim (PhD, National University of Singapore)
Our Home (1972 – 1989) as Pedagogy: Cultural Citizenship in Singapore’s High-Rise Public Housing.