Private Collection, Hajji Baba Club Member
The Hajji Baba Club has announced the 2026–2027 cycle of its Research Fellowship in Carpet Studies. Established in 2018, the fellowship is intended to promote original scholarship in the field and to support emerging scholars and independent researchers engaged in primary research on historical carpets and textiles.
“The Hajji Baba Club Research Fellowship was created to encourage serious, original research and to give scholars both financial support and visibility,” says Mary Jo Otsea of the Hajji Baba Club Research Fellowship Committee, to Jozan Magazine.
Open to pre-doctoral candidates, PhD holders, and professionals with equivalent experience, the fellowship offers a maximum award of USD 8,000 for the 2026–2027 period. The program is competitive and does not support commercial projects, tuition fees, or institutional overhead costs.
Applications must be submitted in PDF format by 5:00 PM EST on May 1, 2026. The Research Fellow will be announced in June 2026 and will present their work as part of the Hajji Baba Club lecture series during or following the fellowship period.
The current Hajji Baba Club Research Fellow is Kristen Pearson (September 2025–June 2026), whose research focuses on contemporary Kazakh pastoralists in Western Mongolia and their engagement with felt carpets as living expressions of tradition, identity, and social relationships.
Further details and application instructions can be found on the Hajji Baba Club’s official website.