Funding Priorities

Our digital platforms at quillproject.net and ConSource.org connect hundreds of thousands of American citizens of all ages to comprehensive, easily searchable, fully-indexed, and freely accessible historical sources and analytical tools related to the creation, ratification, and amendment of the United States Constitution, individual state constitutions, and other landmark legislation. Almost all of this work is funded by private donations.

Your contributions will support cutting-edge research, the development of sophisticated analytical tools for the study of constitutional law, and new resources designed to meet the needs of scholars and legal practitioners, educators and students, journalists and the general public. Our immediate funding priorities are listed below.

Naming and Endowing the Director’s Post

Endowing the academic position to run the Quill Project with a named post would secure the Quill Project for the future, and transform our ability to build relationships with other institutions internationally, who would have increased confidence in the long-term viability of the project. This gift would secure a post dedicated to the application of the latest technology to questions in legal history and constitutional law.

Junior Research Fellowship in Law

We are keen to employ a JD or JD/PhD graduate with expertise in constitutional history to lead our engagement with the American legal community. This scholar would help us to publish in top legal journals, and would spend 50% of their time helping to train members of the American legal community on the use of the digital materials that the Quill Project publishes. Feedback from these training sessions would inform the further development of user-interfaces and analysis tools aimed specifically at US law clerks and attorneys working on constitutional questions.

State-Specific Projects

Our ambition is to expand our dataset to create a complete history of federal and state constitutional law, encompassing the 235 state constitutions that have been in operation since 1776. State constitutions vary in the complexity of their legal history, but funding for a specific project enables documentary editor time to manage and oversee the project, funding for students to work on the relevant archival material, platform development, working with local partners to develop education materials, and academic oversight of the project.

Summer Internships

Internships are an opportunity for humanities students to work with Quill during their summer vacation. By assisting with one of our projects, they gain a greater understanding of a multi-disciplinary humanities project, experience of close reading of archival material, of working with cutting edge technology, and of presenting complexity to a wider audience. These internships have previously been transformative for both Quill, resulting in new projects and breakthroughs with existing work, and for students, who have decided to do higher degrees or been launched into legal careers as a result.

Graduate Trainee Programme

Building on our internship scheme, we have implemented a graduate training programme for recent humanities graduates. This scheme provides opportunties for graduates seeking careers in publishing and heritage in a difficult job market. It also allows us to support and work with a greater range of students. Each trainee facilitates a partnership with an American university.

Beyond the United States

We are also keen to expand our portfolio of project beyond the US, to include projects on the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, the constitutional history of India, and the writing of international human rights law. These projects have to include full funding for development and management time as current staff are fully committed on existing projects