Now entering its 12th year, the CWAR Institute is a selective, international initiative that supports graduate-level Cold War research and collaborative scholarship. CWAR was previously sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in the United States, and is now associated with Wolfson College, Oxford University, UK. Each year, they bring together graduate students from top universities around the world to engage in collaborative archival research and to develop methodological and conceptual approaches to Cold War studies.

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

For the 2025-26 cohort year, CWAR seeks applicants whose work promises to make an original contribution to Cold War historical scholarship. In recognition of CWAR’s collaboration with the Oxford Centre for Life Writing at Wolfson College, Oxford, preference will be given to applicants who can also show how their work intersects with the practice of life-writing, particularly in the investigation of “Cold War Lives.”

Life-writing encompasses a broad range of subjects. While the focus of research in life-writing can be a person, it can also explore groups, movements, places, ideas, and material objects. Life-writing embraces a myriad of frameworks and methodologies. CWAR asks that applicants consider how they might conceive of their project as the telling of a “Cold War life.”

 

KEY DATES:

Applications are due September 15, 2025.

Notifications will be sent out by October 5, 2025.

 

ELIGIBILITY AND SELECTION CRITERIA

 M.A. and Ph.D. students and candidates in history, international relations, government, journalism, sociology, and public policy, as well as area and regional studies are eligible to apply.

Applicants must be available to actively participate (cameras turned on) in all bi-monthly virtual components of the CWAR program, and must be available to travel for in-person collaborative research in July 2026. Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. 

CWAR anticipates awarding 8 to 10 CWAR Fellowships in 2025-2026. The conveners will review all applications and make selections based on the strengths of the individual proposals. Preference will be given to candidates who:

• Display an original and compelling historical dimension to their work, grounded in Cold War studies;
• Demonstrate a strong commitment to collaboration among scholars;
• Argue for the need to conduct in-person research at one of the following archives: (1) the Open Society Archive in Budapest, Hungary (2) The Mitrokhin collection at the Churchill Archive in Cambridge, UK,  or (3) The archives surrounding Oxford University (Bodleian, British National Archive in Kew), UK,  including a plan for how you intend to use the archive;
• Explore how your work intersects with life-writing, broadly construed to encompass the lives of people, objects, places, ideas, and;
• Explicitly commit to attending bi-monthly virtual sessions and the archival trip/workshop/conference in July, 2026.
• If applying to work in the Mitrokhin archive, attest to sufficient language ability for work with handwritten Russian materials.

The selection committee anticipates announcing the results of the call for applications by early October 2025.

 

APPLICATION MATERIALS

All application materials must be submitted as a PDF to Max Ferrer at mferrer@cwar-institute.org by the deadline: 11:59 PM EST, Monday, September 15, 2025. *Please include your last name (family name) in the subject of the email as well as in application attachments (i.e. PHILIPS_Writing Sample.pptx)

*Letters of recommendation will be accepted until Monday, September 15, 2025, at 11:59 PM EST.

Please note that CWAR cannot consider incomplete applications. 

Your application must include the following:

• a completed application cover sheet;
• a brief curriculum vitae (3 pages max);
• a one-to-two-page (12 pt. font, double spaced, 1” margins) proposal outlining how participation in the program (including the research trip) will benefit your studies. Refer to the selection criteria above for direction on writing your proposal;
• a brief writing sample in English (seminar paper, published article, thesis/dissertation chapter, etc.);
• a letter of recommendation submitted by a recommender directly to Max Ferrer at mferrer@cwar-institute.org. (NB: letters of recommendation submitted by the applicant themselves will not be reviewed). 

Questions about the program may be submitted to Max Ferrer at mferrer@cwar-institute.org prior to the application deadline.

 

You can find more information, well as the Program Schedule, here.