Call for Applications: 2025-2026 Predoctoral Research Residencies.

The Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” (Centro per la Storia dell’Arte e dell’Architettura delle Città Portuali “La Capraia”) was founded in 2018 as a collaboration between the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas, Franklin University Switzerland, and the Amici di Capodimonte.

Housed in “La Capraia,” a rustic eighteenth-century agricultural building at the heart of the Bosco di Capodimonte, the Center engages the Museo di Capodimonte and the city of Naples as a laboratory for new research in the cultural histories of port cities and the mobilities of artworks, people, technologies, and ideas. Global in scope, research at La Capraia is grounded in direct study of objects, sites, collections, and archives in Naples and southern Italy. Through site-based seminars and conferences, collaborative projects with partner institutions, and research residencies for graduate students, La Capraia fosters research on Naples and the south as a site of cultural encounter, exchange, and transformation, and cultivates a network of scholars working at the intersection of the global and the local.

The Advisory Committee of the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” invites applications for Predoctoral Research Residencies for PhD students in the earlier stages of their dissertation research. Projects, which may be interdisciplinary, may focus on art and architectural history, archaeology, music history, histories of collecting, the digital humanities, or related fields, from antiquity to the present. Projects should address the cultural histories of Naples and southern Italy as a center of exchange, encounter, and transformation, and, most importantly, make meaningful use of local research materials including artworks, sites, archives, and libraries.

2025-2026 Predoctoral Research Residencies will run from 8 September 2025 through 7 June 2026. Research Residents are granted free lodging at La Capraia (private bedroom/study/bath and communal study/living/kitchen spaces) and a modest stipend of 7,000 EUR, administered by the Amici di Capodimonte, to help defray the cost of living. During their time in Naples, Residents are expected to work on their projects full time and in residence, and to participate in scholarly programs that La Capraia organizes over the course of the year. La Capraia advises Residents on access to collections, sites, archives, and libraries as needed for their projects; at Capodimonte, we arrange access to collections and research resources insofar as it is possible during the museum’s current partial closure for renovation. In the spring semester, Residents are expected to present their research in an informal seminar, gallery talk, or site visit. In the summer following the residency period, Residents are invited to contribute a short essay to the Center’s annual research report.

Research Residents are responsible for obtaining appropriate visas (the Center provides official letters of support) and for providing proof of health insurance. Residents must arrange their own travel to and from Naples.

We welcome applications from doctoral students of any nationality, in the earlier stages of research for the dissertation. Applicants are invited to submit a letter of interest, a CV, and a research proposal of 1,000-1,500 words that frames the central questions, methods, and scholarly contributions of project, and describes the resources that will be used while on site in and around Naples. Materials should be sent in a single PDF file, with last name as the title of the file, to Center Coordinator, Dott.ssa Francesca Santamaria (francesca.santamariautdallas.edu). In addition, applicants must invite three recommenders to send letters of support directly to the same email address. All materials, including letters of recommendation, are due by January 31, 2025. Finalists will be invited to interviews held via Zoom with representatives from the O’Donnell Institute and Capodimonte.

Learn more about the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/, where you will also find digital editions of our annual research reports. Download an overview of La Capraia at https://tinyurl.com/La-Capraia-overview. Learn about our Research Residencies at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/residencies/. View past and upcoming scholarly programs at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/programs/.

Download a pdf version of this call at https://tinyurl.com/LaCapraia2025-2026Call.

Centro per la Storia dell'Arte e dell’Architettura delle Città Portuali "La Capraia"
a collaboration between
The Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte
The Edith O'Donnell Institute of Art History
Franklin University Switzerland
and Amici di Capodimonte

Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte / La Capraia
Via Miano 2 Napoli 80131
+39 3494706237
lacapraiagmail.com | https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/