Fung Global Fellows Program at Princeton

PIIRS invites six exceptional, international early-career faculty members for one academic year of research, writing and collaboration on a common topic.

The 2020-21 program topic is “Thinking Globally.”  How people have thought about the planet has informed the institutions, norms, and policies that have pulled it together and torn it apart.  For centuries, ideas of free trade, human rights or global governance have framed cooperation and competition, order and disorder.  Such ideas have also spawned border-crossing movements, from campaigns to end slavery to commitments to reduce carbon emissions.  In turn, global thinking and action have often reinforced commitments to national ideas and efforts to curb global exchange.  The goal of this research theme is to explore how ideas framed the understanding of interests and the making of institutions that have yielded commonness and conflict across and within borders.  We also want to understand how these ideas and practices came into being through scientific networks, foundations, and think tanks.  The Program will also examine rival world ideas that have challenged prevailing orthodoxies.  Nowadays, with cooperative norms under challenge, global institutions under stress, and a century of guiding ideas about global convergence in doubt, we want to take a broad look at where these ideas came from, their effects, and the prospects for intellectual renewal or rethinking. 

The goal of the 2020-21 Fung Global Fellows cohort will be to explore the ways people learned to rely on or to reject strangers far away, as well as to imagine how global relationships came to be and could be different.  

We welcome applicants from all disciplinary and inter-disciplinary fields from the sciences to the humanities whose work addresses this set of themes in any historical period or world region. 

Each year the program selects six scholars from around the world to be in residence at Princeton for an academic year and to engage in research and discussion around a common theme.  The number of candidates hired will depend on the qualifications of the overall applicant pools. 

Candidates will be considered in three categories:  

• (1)  Postdoctoral research associates who received their doctorate from an institution outside of the United States and who, at the time of application, do not hold a tenure-track faculty appointment. 
• (2) Early-career scholars employed outside the United States who have a faculty appointment, a professional research appointment, or are an established independent scholar in the designated theme of the program. 
• (3) Senior scholars employed outside the United States who have a faculty appointment, a professional research appointment, or be an established independent scholar in the designated theme of the program.

  Early career and postdoctoral scholars will be selected to be in residence at Princeton for a full 10-month academic year; senior scholars will be selected to be in residence at Princeton between three to ten months during the academic year.  

All candidates must be based outside the United States.  

Eligibility Criteria for Early-Career Scholars (four fellowships):

• Eligible are scholars who received their Ph.D. or equivalent within 10 years of the proposed start date of the fellowship: for the 2020-21 program that is no earlier than September 1, 2010.  No exceptions will be made.  The receipt of the Ph.D. is determined by the date on which all requirements for the degree at the applicant’s home institution, including the defense and filing of the dissertation, were fulfilled.
• Early-career applicants must hold a faculty appointment, a professional research appointment, or be established independent scholars outside the United States at the time of application, to which they are expected to return at the conclusion of the fellowship.
• Fellowships will be awarded to candidates who have already demonstrated outstanding scholarly achievement and exhibit unusual intellectual promise but are still at the beginning of their careers. Criteria for the fellowship include the strength of the candidate’s research projects, the relationship of those projects to the program’s theme, the candidate’s previous scholarly work, the candidate’s ability to contribute to the intellectual life and intellectual exchange of the program, and the candidate’s work experience outside the United States. The selection committee is looking to establish a cohort of fellows whose work represents diverse analytical approaches and disciplinary backgrounds and addresses a wide variety of regions.
• All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
• Fellows must be in residence in Princeton or within a 15-mile radius during the full academic year of their fellowship (September 1 - June 30), and should plan any non-research related travel during the holidays and University breaks.  This is to ensure that they will have ample time to interact with one another and contribute actively to the intellectual life of the program.  Fellows are also expected to participate in a course related to the theme of study, attend seminars, workshops and other events organized by the program, as well as present their ongoing projects in seminars.  Fellows will have access to Firestone Library and will be able to engage in a wide range of events and activities across campus.

Application Requirements:

The following items will need to be submitted by the applicant, in English by November 15, 2019

• Online application (link active July 1, 2019 )
• Cover letter (1.5 pages maximum)
• Curriculum Vitae (including publications)
• Research proposal (maximum of 3 pages, single spaced)
• One writing sample (article or book chapter, maximum of 50 pages)
• For those applicants with a faculty appointment or a professional research appointment, an official letter from the applicant’s current employer affirming that, should an offer be made, the applicant would be permitted to accept it and to spend the academic year at Princeton University
• The names and email addresses for three referees, who will be contacted automatically by the online application system with an invitation to upload their letter of recommendation to the system by the application deadline. (**Please note: all letters of reference should be submitted by your referees before the November 15, 2019 deadline**)

Eligibility Criteria for Senior Scholars (one fellowship):

• Fellowships will be awarded to senior scholars who have received their doctorate before September 1, 2010.        
• The fellowship will be awarded to senior scholars employed outside the United States. They must have a faculty appointment, a professional research appointment, or be established independent scholars. Senior candidates will be expected to return to their positions after the conclusion of the fellowship. 
• Fellowships will be awarded to senior candidates who have a record of scholarly accomplishment in the designated theme of the program.  Criteria for the fellowship include the strength of the candidate’s research projects, the relationship of those projects to the program’s theme, the candidate’s previous scholarly work, the candidate’s ability to contribute to the intellectual life and intellectual exchange of the program, and the candidate’s work experience outside the United States. The selection committee is looking to establish a cohort of fellows whose work represents diverse analytical approaches and disciplinary backgrounds and addresses a wide variety of regions.
• All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
• Fellows must be in residence in Princeton or within a 15-mile radius during their fellowship (between 3-10 months for senior scholars), and should plan any non-research related travel during the holidays and University breaks.  This is to ensure that they will have ample time to interact with one another and contribute actively to the intellectual life of the program.  Fellows are also expected to participate in a course related to the theme of study, attend seminars, workshops and other events organized by the program, as well as present their ongoing projects in seminars.  Fellows will have access to Firestone Library and will be able to engage in a wide range of events and activities across campus.

Application Requirements:

The following items will need to be submitted by the applicant, in English by November 15, 2019:

• Online application (link active July 1, 2019 )
• Cover letter (1.5 pages maximum)
• Curriculum Vitae (including publications)
• Research proposal (maximum of 3 pages, single spaced)
• One writing sample (article or book chapter, maximum of 50 pages)
• For those applicants with a faculty appointment or a professional research appointment, an official letter from the applicant’s current employer affirming that, should an offer be made, the applicant would be permitted to accept it and to spend the academic year at Princeton University
• The names and email addresses for three referees, who will be contacted automatically by the online application system with an invitation to upload their letter of recommendation to the system by the application deadline. (**Please note: all letters of reference should be submitted by your referees before the November 15, 2019 deadline**)

Eligibility Criteria for Postdoctoral Scholars (one fellowship):

• Eligible postdoctoral scholars must have completed all requirements for their Ph.D. before July 1, 2020 but cannot have received their degrees more than three years prior to the start of the appointment on September 1, 2020. The receipt of the Ph.D. is determined by the date on which all requirements for the degree at the applicant’s home institution, including the defense and filing of the dissertation, were fulfilled.  If a candidate has turned in a final draft of their dissertation but not yet completed their Ph.D. before the start date, they may be temporarily appointed as a Senior Research Assistant with a 10% reduction in salary. Upon providing verification that they have completed all requirements for the Ph.D., they would then be promoted in rank and salary.
• The postdoctoral appointment will be for one academic year for a scholar who has received a Ph.D. at an institution outside the United States and, who at the time of application, does not have a tenure-track faculty appointment. 
• Fellowships will be awarded to candidates who have already demonstrated outstanding scholarly achievement and exhibit unusual intellectual promise. Criteria for the fellowship include the strength of the candidate’s research projects, the relationship of those projects to the program’s theme, the candidate’s previous scholarly work, the candidate’s ability to contribute to the intellectual life and intellectual exchange of the program. The selection committee is looking to establish a cohort of fellows whose work represents diverse analytical approaches and disciplinary backgrounds and addresses a wide variety of regions.
• All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
• This position is subject to the University’s background check policy.
• Fellows must be in residence in Princeton or within a 15-mile radius during the full academic year of their fellowship (September 1 - June 30), and should plan any non-research related travel during the holidays and University breaks.  This is to ensure that they will have ample time to interact with one another and contribute actively to the intellectual life of the program.  Fellows are also expected to participate in a course related to the theme of study, attend seminars, workshops and other events organized by the program, as well as present their ongoing projects in seminars.  Fellows will have access to Firestone Library and will be able to engage in a wide range of events and activities across campus.

Application Requirements:

The following items will need to be submitted by the applicant, in English, by November 15, 2019:

• Online application (link active July 1, 2019​)
• Cover letter (1.5 pages maximum)
• Curriculum Vitae (including publications)
• Research proposal (maximum of 3 pages, single spaced)
• One writing sample (article or book chapter, maximum of 50 pages)
• The names and email addresses for three referees, who will be contacted automatically by the online application system with an invitation to upload their letter of recommendation to the system by the application deadline. (**Please note: all letters of reference should be submitted by your referees before the November 15, 2019 deadline**)
• Names and email addresses for three referees, who will be contacted with an invitation to upload their letter of recommendation to the online application system

Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

For further application guidelines, please see frequently asked questions and answers.

Inquiries about the program may be directed to nbergman@princeton.edu.