The Wyvern Research Institute hosts Visiting Research Fellows whose work engages directly with the collection and its wider contexts. The programme supports short-term visits by scholars and curators from around the world. Current and past fellows are listed below. More information about our fellowships, eligibility, and the application process, can be found here (PDF). We are currently seeking applications for fellowships that will take place in 2027.
For 2026 the Wyvern Research Institute collaborated with the British Institute for Libyan & North African Studies to offer a six month Post-Doctoral Fellowship to support the writing-up of research within the framework of Contact between Byzantine Africa and other regions.
2026
Dr George Bartlett, Teaching Fellow in Byzantine Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
2026 Wyvern-BILNAS Post-Doctoral Writing Fellow. Project: Christological Epithets between Sinai and the Byzantine Empire.
Suzanne Higgott, Former curator of Glass, Limoges Painted Enamels, Earthenware and Early Furniture, Wallace Collection, London.
Visiting Research Fellow, January-March 2026, investigating enamelling techniques and subject matter in Limoges 1450-1550.
2025
Dr Raymond Silverman, Professor Emeritus History of Art, African Studies, and Museum Studies at the University of Michigan.
Visiting Research Fellow, Winter 2025, investigating the Asante metalwork in the Wyvern Collection.
Dr Jeffrey Spier, Former Anissa and Paul John Balson II Senior Curator of Antiquities, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Visiting Research Fellow, Spring 2025, investigating late Roman, Byzantine, and Gothic rings in the Wyvern Collection and looking at Near Eastern amulets as part of an ongoing study of magical practices.
Dr Hanna Vertiienko, A.Yu. Krymskiy Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and Academic Visitor in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford.
Visiting Research Fellow, Spring 2025, investigating Scythian objects in the Wyvern Collection.
2024
Dr Patryk Skupniewicz, University of Natural Sciences and Humanities in Siedlce, Poland.
Visiting Research Fellow, Autumn 2024, investigating objects produced in the Sasanian Empire and Tubo Kingdom.