Call for nominations┋Harvard Society of Fellows Junior Fellowships

Candidates are nominated for Junior Fellowships, generally by those under whom they have studied. Applications are not accepted from the candidates themselves. A letter of nomination should include an assessment of the candidate’s work and promise, i.e. a full letter of recommendation, and also provide complete contact information for the candidate, including current residential address and email address, and the names, mailing addresses, and email addresses of three additional people who agree to write letters of recommendation by the date requested when they are contacted by the Society. Nominators cannot list themselves as a referee. People of any nationality and interested in any field of study are eligible for these fellowships, and candidates may be renominated. Nominees should be of the highest caliber of intellectual achievement, i.e., manifesting extraordinary creativity and shaping the future direction of their chosen fields.

The Society will process nominations on a rolling basis beginning in early July. (Please note that the date of nomination bears no influence on the file). Upon receipt of the nomination, the Society will request letters of recommendation from the referees listed, and ask the candidate to submit samples of work (dissertation chapters, articles, papers, musical compositions, art work) along with a one or two-page proposal describing the studies they would like to pursue while a Junior Fellow. If a candidate suspects that they have been nominated and have not been contacted by the Society by August 11, they should call or email our office.

• The Society will request that the three additional letters of recommendation be submitted electronically – not by email, but through a link, which we will provide in our correspondence with the referees. Interfolio letters are not accepted. After receipt of the nomination, the referees will be contacted on a rolling basis beginning in July by our office via email and asked to submit their letters within four weeks of the date of our email. (This is why full and accurate email addresses are necessary to process the nomination.) Instructions for uploading letters will be provided to each referee, along with a password to enter the secure site.
• Our communication with the candidate will request that written materials be submitted electronically through a link to our submission portal within four weeks from the date of our initial email contact. Full instruction for uploading the C.V., list of publications, research proposal, unofficial undergraduate and graduate transcripts, and three samples of work will be provided, along with a password to enter the secure site.

On the basis of the materials submitted, the Senior Fellows select a certain number of candidates for interview. It is from this number that the final selection is made. The Society pays the traveling expenses of those candidates interviewed.

Please note: if still pursuing the Ph.D., candidates should be at the dissertation stage of their theses and be prepared to finish their degrees within a year of becoming fellows. If already a recipient of the degree, they should ideally not be much more than a year past the Ph.D. at the time the fellowship commences. Most Junior Fellows receive the Ph.D. just prior to the start of the fellowship.

Nominations for the 2025 application cycle are now open. You can access the nomination form here. The deadline for receiving nominations is 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday, August 1, 2024.