The Consortium was established in 2007 as a regional network of ten institutions in the Philadelphia area. Since then, it has grown into a highly successful international collaboration of universities, museums, professional organizations and libraries. The Consortium fosters a rich and varied community which includes teachers, students, researchers, curators, librarians, archivists, conservators and others who care deeply about science, technology and medicine, both past and present. Consortium Fellows and other scholars who participate in our programs come from fields including: Science Studies; History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine; Anthropology; Architecture; varieties of Area Studies; Art and Art History; Museum Studies; Cultural Studies; Media and Film; English and Comparative Literature; Library and Information Science; Music; Political Science; Psychology; and Sociology, among others.

Highlights of Consortium programs include:

  • Fellowship programs provide funding for research projects that make use of members’ collections. Support includes research travel grants, dissertation fellowships, and postdoctoral fellowships.
  • Seminars engage leading and emerging scholars from around the world. Each year, nearly 4,000 attendees from six continents attend more than 250 online working group meetings for discussions of specialized topics in history of science, technology and medicine.
  • Perspectives offers a growing online library of podcasts, videos and essays, along with resources for further learning, and opportunities to engage in ongoing conversations. It features discussions with leading scholars, interviews with authors, and highlights from the collections.
  • Online resources for research, teaching and learning with:
    • A search hub provides a simple, unified search interface of more than six million catalog records for rare books and manuscripts housed in Consortium members’ collections, as well as 41,000 finding aids. The search hub accepts collections data in wide variety of standards and is easily updated.
    • A calendar of events in the history of science, technology and medicine at the Consortium and its member institutions.
    • A weekly newsletter that shares news and events with nearly 10,000 scholars around the world.
    • The website provides detailed updates on members’ collections and news about the Consortium and its community.

The Consortium welcomes new members dedicated to working together to more effectively promote scholarly and public understanding of the history of science, technology and medicine.

The Consortium:

  • funds fellows’ research in members’ collections of rare books, manuscripts and artifacts
  • includes members’ collections in the Consortium Search Hub
  • promotes members’ events and collections on the Consortium website and mailing list
  • solicits the input of scholars at member institutions about fellowship applications
  • invites scholars at member institutions to help oversee and evaluate Consortium programs.

The member institutions:

  • pay annual dues as set by the Consortium Board of Directors
  • co-sponsor and publicize events
  • promote Consortium fellowships and other programs
  • make resources available to the Consortium as mutually appropriate and agreeable.

Annual dues are set by the Board of Directors, and are based on a member’s total budget.

 

Total Annual Institutional Budget

Annual Membership Dues

Less than $1M

$2,200

Between $1M and $10M

$3,300

Between $10M and $100M

$4,400

Greater than $100M

$5,500

 

Responsibility for dues at university members is often shared between the libraries, the administration and one or more departments.

An application for membership is a letter that:

  • commits to helping the Consortium pursue its mission of promoting academic and public understanding of the history of science, technology and medicine, and describes the applicant’s resources for pursuing that mission
  • commits to encouraging participation in Consortium activities, facilitating fellows’ access to research collections, collaborating on academic and public programs as appropriate, and paying membership dues.

The Consortium is a growing and evolving collaborative project of institutions and individuals around the world. We look forward to working with new partners and participants. For more information, please contact Babak Ashrafi, Executive Director, at ba@chstm.org.