Attend our HOP 101 Info Sessions about the program at the Macksey Seminar Room (Brody Learning Commons, M-level) on Thursday, August 27th, 2026 at 3:30 – 4:15 PM and 4:30 – 5:15 PM.
Application
Apply to be a First-Year Fellow
Launched in 2016, First-Year Fellows (originally known as Freshman Fellows) is an academic opportunity designed to introduce students to conducting research with rare books, manuscripts, and archival material during their first year at The Johns Hopkins University. Limited to only four students a year, the successful applicant will:
- Conduct research with rare books, manuscripts, and archival collections;
- Analyze items of cultural significance and improve their research skills;
- Be partnered with a mentor in Special Collections who will provide them with individualized research plans;
- Create an end-product of their choosing that focuses on their research, such as an academic talk, a poster presentation, a work of fiction, or an online exhibition;
- Receive a $3,000 research award ($1,500 at the end of the fall semester, and $1,500 at the end of the spring semester).
Research outcomes may include creative writing or artwork inspired by your discoveries, a visual essay or webinar, or other project that showcases your research in an accessible and interesting manner. This is a nice opportunity to expand your skill set beyond the standard research paper! Please contact Heidi Herr (hherr1@jhu.edu), the program manager, for questions about the program or for guidance with the application process. You are also encouraged to directly contact the mentor associated with the topics(s) you are interested in researching.
2026/2027 Research Topics
Propaganda in Historic Sheet Music
Mentor: Sam Bessen
Before radio and television, popular songs helped shape public opinion on everything from women’s suffrage to prohibition to war. Choosing a topic of interest, such as World War I, temperance movements, labor activism, or political campaigns, you’ll dive into our sheet music collections to explore how music became a powerful tool of persuasion through lyrics, cover art, celebrity performers, and pop culture. Ability to read music not required!
The Crime of the Century
Mentor: Heidi Herr
In 1932, the young son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh was abducted from the family home in Hopewell, New Jersey. Dubbed “the crime of the century,” the Lindbergh case spawned conspiracy theories (many of which are still debated today), innovations in forensics, and a souvenir market that shows parasocial relationships didn’t begin with social media. Explore the legacy of the case by examining original press photographs taken during the trial and of the crime scene, conspiracy pamphlets, original FBI posters, sensational popular literature, and much more!
Translating Untranslated Works
Mentor: Mack Zalin
The author Italo Calvino once called the translator his “most important ally” who “introduce[d] [him] to the world.” By translating hitherto untranslated works in German, French, Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, Italian, or Classical Greek held in Special Collections at Johns Hopkins University, you, too, can introduce readers to the world and be introduced to the libraries at Hopkins in turn. No matter what your interests or intended major may be, your working knowledge of any one of these languages can be applied to translating a host of texts on a variety of subjects that have never been rendered into English.
