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Fellowships

Society of Fellows

Eligibility PhD (or equivalent) received within the past four years
Status Application Period Closed
Next round opens July 2027

The Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University brings together exceptional early-career scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to be part of a vibrant cross-disciplinary community. In addition to teaching opportunities in affiliated departments and time for research, Fellows participate in and often organize lecture series, workshops, and other scholarly events that contribute to the intellectual life of the SOF/Heyman and the university more broadly.

Founded in the mid-1970s to encourage interdisciplinary teaching and research and housed in the Heyman Center for the Humanities since the 1980s, the Society offers one-year fellowships, renewable for up to two additional years.

The Society of Fellows is made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation and the William R. Kenan Trust.

A note to current applicants: Each year, the competition receives hundreds of worthy applications. We regret that we cannot reach out to each applicant personally. If you or your recommenders do not hear from us by mid-December, your application has not advanced to the interview stage.

Sign up for our Society of Fellows-specific newsletter here.

My year at the SOF was the best intellectual and professional experience I’ve had. I felt supported, pushed, stretched, welcomed, respected, engaged, given space, and every other good thing that a junior scholar would wish for.” –Murad Idris, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan (SOF 2014-2015)

Application

The Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University intends to appoint a number of postdoctoral fellows in the humanities broadly construed for the academic year 2027-2028. Fellows newly appointed for 2027-2028 must have received the PhD between 1 July 2023 and 1 July 2027. The fellowship amount for 2027-2028 is $81,200. Medical benefits are provided, and housing is available. The research allowance for 2027-2028 is $7,000.

PhD (or disciplinary equivalent) in the humanities or humanistic social sciences received within the past four years and completed by the fellowship start date. For the current application cycle, the PhD must have been completed between 1 July 2023 and 1 July 2027.

Applicants will select one of the departments, centers, or institutes listed below as their primary affiliation:

Departments, Centers, and Institutes

  • African American and African Diaspora Studies
  • Anthropology
  • Art History & Archaeology
  • Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
  • Classics
  • East Asian Languages & Cultures
  • English & Comparative Literature
  • Film Studies
  • French
  • Germanic Languages
  • History
  • Institute for Comparative Literature and Society
  • Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender
  • Italian
  • Latin American and Iberian Cultures
  • Middle Eastern, South Asian, & African Studies
  • Music
  • Philosophy
  • Political Science
  • Religion
  • Slavic Languages
  • Sociology

Applicants are required to submit the following:

1

Online application

Complete and submit the online application. Please note that the online application must be submitted by the deadline in order for the submission to receive consideration.

2

Personal Statement

500 words. Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file.

3

Curriculum vitae

Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file. No more than 4 pages.

4

Research proposal

No more than 1500 words. Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file.

5

Writing sample

No more than 3500 words (footnotes and bibliography may be appended and don't count towards the word limit). Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file.

6

Sample course

Two-page undergraduate syllabus of your own design. Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file.

7

Two letters of recommendation

Please note that we will be requesting recommendations only for those applicants we invite to interview. Invitations to interview will be issued in early December, at which time the two recommenders you have named in your application will be asked to submit a recommendation on your behalf and will have approximately one month to do so.

Application Materials

The research proposal may outline a new project or it may be related to a dissertation. Either is acceptable.
The research proposal should describe the work you plan to undertake over the term of the fellowship. Some applicants may choose to focus on a single project, while others may plan on beginning a second. Either is acceptable.
Graphs, charts, footnotes and/or a bibliography do not factor into the word count of the writing sample, which is limited to 3,500 words.
The sample syllabus should be designed for a course of your choosing to be taught through the department, center, or institute with which you seek to be affiliated. Note: we will only accept one syllabus per applicant.
Yes. You may submit an excerpt from a longer piece.
All application materials must be submitted in English.
No, we only accept writing samples for which the applicant is the sole author.
No, it does not. We recommend applicants submit a writing sample that best illustrates the high caliber of their scholarly work and their ability to communicate across disciplinary boundaries.
No. Please do not send a transcript of graduate courses or grades.
No, there is no need to include these in the research proposal.
No. As with other documents in the application, the Selection Committee observes a strict length requirement. If your syllabi are generally much longer, consider this syllabus an abridged version. The syllabus can be single-spaced.
Include a title, description of the course, and a list of required texts and the order or groupings by topic in which they will be read. You might also consider describing information--such as course objectives, assignments, and policies--that conveys a sense of your pedagogical goals. This is not meant to be a comprehensive syllabus and should adhere strictly to the two-page requirement.
Follow disciplinary norms for quoting and citing sources.
A creative work is an acceptable project for the Society of Fellows. When submitting, please describe your work in the proposal, include a scholarly article as your writing sample, and attach your portfolio - or other examples of your work—as an appendix.
No, applicants do not need to identify a mentor nor do applicants need to reach out to a member of the Columbia faculty.
Mellon Teaching Fellows at the Society of Fellows in the Humanities make substantive contributions to the research and pedagogical enterprise of Columbia University, in their interactions with other Fellows, faculty, and graduate students, as well as in their teaching of undergraduates. Please provide a statement (500 words) that situates your intellectual commitments—what you hold most dear as a scholar/teacher—in relation to your academic and personal trajectory, in ways that may not be apparent from your CV, research proposal, or other submitted materials.

Application Submission

You may fill out your application in stages as long as you make sure to save it as you go along. However, once you submit the application form, you may not make changes to the application form or to uploaded documents. Please be sure that all information you submit is correct, as there are no exceptions to this policy.
Upon submission of your application form you will receive an automated email with instructions for accessing your application account.
We will not review any application materials submitted after 12 October 2026. The application site will not accept applications after 12:59 PM Eastern Time US & Canada on 12 October 2026.
No. The application must be sent through the application portal only.
Once submitted, all materials are final. No changes will be made regardless of developments that occur subsequent to submitting your application. Awards and publications received after application submission may be mentioned in the interview, should one be granted.
Your recommenders will receive an email within minutes of your submitting your request for a recommendation through the application portal. This email will inform them that, should you advance to the interview stage, they will receive a request from us in early December asking them to submit a recommendation on your behalf by January 6.
The Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia is largely a global English department, though it also fosters work undertaken in European literatures, particularly up to the 20th century. As an example, if your dissertation is about medieval poetry in England, France, and Germany, you should apply to English. But if your dissertation is about medieval poetry in China, France, and Moorish Spain, then you should apply to the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society (ICLS). A general guideline to follow: if you are getting your degree in Comparative Literature, then you should apply to ICLS; if you are getting your degree from an English (or English and Comp Lit) Department, you should apply to English.
Provide expected date of PhD.
No, we do not accept hard copies of applications. Please submit via the online application only.
Please note that we cannot accept letters of recommendation sent via dossier services such as Interfolio. NOTE: For the 2027-2028 competition, we will be requesting recommendations only for those applicants we invite to interview. Invitations to interview will be issued in early December, at which time the two recommenders you have named in your application will be asked to submit a recommendation on your behalf.
Finalists’ recommenders will be emailed in early December with a request to submit their letters of recommendation directly to the Selection Committee. The automated system is no longer being used to accept recommendations. Please have your recommenders contact the Society of Fellows at [email protected], should they have any questions.

Eligibility

We strictly observe the dates for completion of the PhD degree. Only applications submitted by those whose date of degree falls within this time period will be reviewed. We define the date of completion of the PhD degree as the day you officially fulfill all requirements for the degree as defined by your institution.All requirements for the PhD or equivalent degree must be completed by 30 June 2027 for 2027-2028 fellowships. We understand that the conferral date of some institutions occurs later in the summer, in which case such institutions must certify that you have completed all requirements for the PhD (including defense and deposit) before 30 June 2027 in order for you to be officially awarded a fellowship.
Applicants who were not selected in a previous competition may reapply. Those who do reapply must complete the entire application process again for the current competition.
Applicants with an equivalent doctoral degree (such as a D.Phil, DMA, or DFA) in a humanities or social science field listed under “Departments, Centers, and Institutes” (see above) are eligible to apply. Holders of other terminal degrees—such as the JD, MBA, or MFA—are not eligible to apply as their degrees are not equivalent to the PhD.
Yes.
Yes. The Fellowship is open to recipients of the PhD regardless of the nationality of the conferring institution.
Yes. The fellowship is open to non-U.S. citizens.
An official letter from your university attesting to your having completed all the requirements for the PhD by 30 June 2027 will suffice in lieu of a diploma

Evaluation Procedure

Faculty from the academic department, center, or institute with which the applicant would be affiliated as a Fellow undertake the first round of evaluation, nominating 10% of the applications they vet for further consideration. Current Fellows and members of the Society’s Governing Board conduct a second round of vetting. Finalists are interviewed by the Society of Fellows Selection Committee, which comprises several members of the Governing Board and one current Fellow.
The selection committee values not only applicants' demonstrated excellence within their scholarly fields but also their ability to convey the importance of their work to readers in other disciplines.
Only one department advances the candidate for a second round of reading. Candidates who reach the interview stage may be interviewed by both department chairs/institute directors.

Notification

You will receive an automated e-mail from the Society of Fellows indicating that your application has been received.
We will issue invitations to interview with the Society of Fellows Selection Committee in early January. Applicants who do not receive an invitation to interview by mid-December should assume they have not reached the interview stage. Once new Fellows have been chosen, all other applicants will receive an email regarding acceptance decisions.
Each year, the competition receives hundreds of worthy applications. We regret that we cannot reach out to each applicant personally. If you or your recommenders do not hear from us by mid-December, your application has not advanced to the interview stage.

The terms of the fellowship include:

1

Appointment

Fellows are appointed as Postdoctoral Research Scholars (Mellon Fellows) in the Society of Fellows at Columbia University and as Lecturers in appropriate departments at Columbia University (see list of Humanities Departments below). This one-year fellowship is renewable for a second and a third year.

2

Teaching

In the first year, Fellows teach one course per semester. At least one of these courses will be in the undergraduate general education program: Contemporary Civilization. Literature Humanities, Music Humanities, Art Humanities, or Global Core. Courses in the Global Core typically explore the cultures of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East in an historical context. For more information on Columbia’s Core Curriculum please visit https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/.The second course may be a departmental course, the design of which will be determined jointly by the Fellow and the Fellow’s academic department. In the second and third years, Fellows teach one course per year, leaving one semester free of teaching responsibilities. The courses taught in the second and third years of the fellowship may be departmental courses or Core courses as described above; however, at least two of the four courses taught over the three Fellowship years must be in the Core.

3

Other Responsibilities

In addition to teaching and research, the duties of Fellows include: giving a talk on their research in the fall semester, planning and organizing with the directors a guest-speaker series in the spring semester, attending the Fellows’ work-in-progress seminar, which meets roughly every 2-3 weeks throughout the academic year, and participating in the selection of prospective Fellows.

Current Fellows View AllFellows

Jacob Bessen

Anthropology

Frederik Braüner

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Anastasia Kostina

Slavic Languages and Film Studies

Elsa J Lora

African American and African Diaspora Studies

Siga Maguiraga

Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies

Hannah Pivo

Art History

Arnau Sala

Latin American and Iberian Cultures

Chelsea Spencer

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation

Alexis Stanley

French

Daniela Moraes Traldi

History

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