Curatorial Postdoctoral Fellowships, Modern and Contemporary Art

The University of Notre Dame is more than a workplace! We are a vibrant, mission-driven community where every employee is valued and supported. Rooted in a tradition of excellence and inspired by our Catholic character, Notre Dame is committed to fostering an environment of care that nurtures the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. Here, you will find a deep sense of belonging, a culture that prioritizes well-being, and the opportunity to grow your career while being a force for good in the world.

Whether contributing to world-class research, shaping the student experience, or supporting the University’s mission in other ways, you will be part of a dedicated team working to make a meaningful impact on campus and beyond. At Notre Dame, your work matters, and so do you!

With funding provided by a grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame invites applications for four postdoctoral research fellowships in its main curatorial areas:
European and American Art before 1900, Indigenous Americas and Africa, International Modern and Contemporary Art, and Photographs.

Fellows will be appointed for two years with the possibility of a one-year extension. Each fellow will work with a collection curator who will direct their research activity. Fellows are expected to be in residence at the University for the duration of the appointment, anticipated to run from September 28, 2026 through September 2028, in order to contribute to the community of scholars on campus.

The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art opened its new building in December 2023. With a collection of over 32,000 objects, it serves a campus with about 10,000 students and 1,500 faculty, in addition to diverse communities in northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan. Its holdings are increasingly recognized nationally and internationally for their breadth and quality.

The Lilly Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for Modern and Contemporary Art will be responsible for cataloguing, researching, and interpreting the Museum's important and growing permanent collection. Global in scope, this portfolio is comprised of painting, sculpture, prints, and limited decorative arts. These objects represent the full spectrum of period, movement, methods, and style. Significant acquisitions over the last eight years have strengthened the collection, making them among the most frequently requested works by University faculty for classroom study.

The Fellow will participate in all the daily activities of an active curatorial department, with the collection at its center. This person will work with the curator and Director to research the permanent collection and devise appropriate strategies for disseminating that research. Affixing physical details of work, exhibition history, and bibliography will be important. This refined information will be registered as digital records within the institution, and for the University database.

This information will also be used in ongoing exhibition labels, and publications like a new collection catalogue. In addition to the aforementioned, aside from rectifying the curatorial record an overriding goal of this project specific to prints and drawings is to organize storage of the collection that allows for better use and future expansion of the collection in anticipation of new Works on Paper center at the Museum detailed below.

The Fellow will assist in researching and processing new acquisitions, and consider purposeful expansion of the collection. The aforementioned cataloging efforts will contribute to the Museum's new database and ongoing collection digitization project, Marble. With increasing partnerships with various institutes and departments across campus, the Fellow may be asked to assist in supporting these classes on a limited basis. Relationships across the museum staff will provide understanding of collections care, exhibition support, and publication.

A chief initiative of the Museum’s strategic plan is to publish a new selected works catalogue. In consultation with the curator, the fellow will help select objects to research and write select entries. The…