SOF Early-Career Fellowships
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.
Current Fellows can access the Society of Fellows Handbook here.
Sign up for our Society of Fellows-specific newsletter here.
Overview
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 2026-2027. Fellows newly appointed for 2026-2027 must have received the PhD between 1 July 2022 and 1 July 2026. The fellowship amount for 2026-2027 is $80,000. Medical benefits are provided, and housing is available. The research allowance for 2026-2027 is $7,000.
Eligibility
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 2022 and 1 July 2026.
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
Requirements
Applicants are required to submit the following:
- 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.
- Personal Statement: 500 words. Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file.
- Curriculum vitae: Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file. No more than 4 pages.
- Research proposal: No more than 1500 words. Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file.
- 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.
- Sample course: Two-page undergraduate syllabus of your own design. Uploaded into the online application as a PDF or Word file.
- 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.
Terms/Award
The terms of the fellowship include:
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.
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.
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.
