The WongAvery Visiting Scholar Exchange Programme 2026
Generously supported by the Avery-Tsui Foundation
Cambridge University Library (CUL) is delighted to announce the launch of the 2026 WongAvery Visiting Scholar Exchange Programme. Generously supported by the Avery-Tsui Foundation and in collaboration with the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), this initiative will enable a Visiting Scholar from UC San Diego to spend between four and six weeks undertaking research focused on the Chinese Collections held at Cambridge University Library (Chinese Section, Department of World Collections).
This programme is a collaboration between the University Library Research Institute, Trinity Hall Cambridge, and UC San Diego.
Applications for this opportunity are currently closed.
The Chinese Collections
The history of the Chinese collections at Cambridge University Library (CUL) started in the first half of the seventeenth century. Danxi xin fa fu yu, the earliest Chinese book to enter the collection, arrived in 1632. The collection has since grown to include an array of research materials to support teaching and research at Cambridge in the fields of the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Heritage Collections
The heritage collections comprise hundreds of inscribed oracle bones (ca 14th-12th century BCE), a number of ink rubbings, and a substantial collection of Chinese manuscripts and rare books. Among these is a Chinese Buddhist sutra dated 1107, which is one of the oldest printed books at Cambridge University Library.
Chinese inscribed Oracle bone (CUL7). Image credit: Scott Maloney.
Chinese inscribed Oracle bone (CUL7). Image credit: Scott Maloney.
Research Collections
The research collections comprise about half a million titles (including bound serials) which contain over 150,000 monograph titles and over 250,000 individual titles of other (reprinted) materials. These include manuscripts from Dunhuang and Huizhou, archival documents and epigraphical rubbings. Over 300,000 titles are included in some 2,000 cong shu. About 3,000 Chinese printed serial titles are held in Cambridge libraries and the University Library subscribes to over 1,000 current Chinese printed serials.
The collection encompasses pre-modern, modern, and contemporary materials, including special collections and archival resources in areas such as Sino-British relations, history, politics, culture, art, and religion. For more information, please refer to the Chinese Collections webpage.
Programme details
The scholarship is available for an exchange duration of four to six weeks, depending on the nature of the research and the candidate’s preference.
It includes a requirement to reside in Cambridge for a minimum of four weeks, to be undertaken in a single stint. This is to enable in-depth, in-person engagement with the Chinese collections. Accommodation will be provided at Trinity Hall Cambridge.
During this period, the Visiting Scholar will be based at Cambridge University Library, where they will have access to the University Library’s physical collections and electronic resources.
The awardee will also have access to the University of Cambridge’s Faculty and Departmental Libraries, and will be supported by Dr Yan He (Head of Chinese Section, Cambridge University Library), the University Library Research Institute and via membership of Trinity Hall.
Full details of the programme, including the selection process and terms and conditions, can be found in the 2025 call guidelines.
Funding available
Funding is available to support the costs arising directly from the scholar’s research. The maximum amount that can be applied for is £5000. Cost must be itemised. Full details of eligible costs can be found in the 2025 call guidelines.
Eligibility
Applications are welcome from UC San Diego graduate students currently working towards a PhD. We particularly welcome proposals that are likely to result in new perspectives on the collection(s), and/or which use innovative methodologies.
Further Information
If you have any questions about this programme, please contact the University Library Research Institute at researchdevelopment@lib.cam.ac.uk.
WongAvery Visiting Scholar 2026
Ian Dubrowsky
Industrial Disasters and the Making of Cold War Knowledge in Maoist China, 1949–1978
Ian's research examines how industrial disasters reveal the architecture of Chinese industrial governance. During his Visiting Scholarship, he will use collections at Cambridge University Library and the National Archives in London to trace the ways in which British observers transformed fragmented information into competing truths to reveal how authoritarian information control generated transnational contested knowledges.
Previous scholars
2025
Emma Laube, The Social View of Religion in the Visual Culture of Late Qing and Republican Shanghai. Read more about Emma's time on the programme.
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Collection items featured:
Title image: Shi zhu zhai shu hua pu / Ten Bamboo Studio collection of calligraphy and painting (FH.910.83-98 p. 157)