How to Become Competitive Fellow at Radcliffe Institute

Each year, the Radcliffe Institute offers many scholarships and hosts leading scholars, scientists, artists, and practitioners from around the world in its renowned fellowship program.

This year, the Radcliffe fellows are exceptional scientists, writers, scholars, public intellectuals, practitioners, and artists whose work is making a difference in their professional fields and in the larger world.

Based in Radcliffe Yard—a sanctuary in the heart of Harvard University—fellows join a uniquely interdisciplinary and creative community. A fellowship at Radcliffe is an opportunity to step away from usual routines and pe deeply into a project. With access to Harvard’s unparalleled resources, Radcliffe fellows develop new tools and methods, challenge artistic and scholarly conventions.

Throughout the year, fellows convene regularly to share their work in progress. Coming from perse disciplines and perspectives, they challenge each other’s ideas and support each other’s ambitions. Many say that it is the best year of their professional lives.

The online application for the 2021–2022 fellowship year is now available. The deadline for applications in humanities, social sciences, and creative arts is September 10, 2020. And, the deadline for applications in science, engineering, and mathematics is October 1, 2020.

The Radcliffe Fellowship Program awards 50 fellowships each academic year. Applicants may apply as inpiduals or in a group of two to three people working on the same project. They seek persity along many dimensions, including discipline, career stage, race and ethnicity, country of origin, gender and sexual orientation, and ideological perspective. Although our fellows come from many different backgrounds, they are united by their demonstrated excellence, collegiality, and creativity.

The following areas are of particular interest:

• Radcliffe supports engaged scholarship. And welcome applications from scholars, artists, and practitioners proposing innovative work that confronts pressing social and policy issues and seeking to engage audiences beyond academia.

• The proposals relevant to the Institute’s focus areas, which include:

  • Law, education, and justice
  • Youth leadership and civic engagement
  • Legacies of slavery

• Reflecting Radcliffe’s unique history and institutional legacy, and proposals that focus on women, gender, and society or draw on the Schlesinger Library’s rich collections.

• Interdisciplinary exchange is a hallmark of the Radcliffe Fellowship and proposals that take advantage of our uniquely perse intellectual community by engaging with concepts and ideas that cross disciplinary boundaries.

Program Details

Radcliffe Institute fellows are in residence for a period of nine months from September 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022 and receive a stipend of $78,000 plus an additional $5,000 to cover project expenses. Fellows are expected to be free of their regular commitments so that they may fully devote themselves to the work outlined in their proposal.

As this is a residential fellowship, fellows are expected to reside in the Greater Boston area for the duration of their fellowship. Fellows may be eligible to receive additional funds for moving expenses, childcare, and housing to aid them in making a smooth transition. Healthcare options are made available as needed.

Radcliffe Fellows receive office or studio space in Byerly Hall and full-time Harvard appointments as visiting fellows, granting them access to Harvard University's various resources, including libraries, housing, and athletic facilities. If fellows would like to hire Harvard undergraduate students as Research Partners, we will cover their hourly wages.

Fellows are expected to engage actively with the colleagues in their cohort and to participate fully as a member of the Radcliffe community. To this end, all fellows present their work-in-progress, either in the form of a private talk for their cohort or a public lecture, in addition to attending the presentations of all other fellows during that academic year (up to two talks per week). We offer group lunches and other opportunities to connect with members of your cohort, but attendance at these is optional.