Georgetown Law Research Fellowships

Georgetown will not be offering research fellowships for the 2023-25 cycle.

Georgetown Law is pleased to offer the Georgetown Law Research Fellowship for emerging scholars who seek to pursue a law teaching career. We are seeking applicants with an aptitude for independent legal research, as demonstrated by their work as students or by their professional activities after law school. 

There are no subject-matter restrictions on the research or teaching agenda fellows may pursue. We expect that candidates will have widely varied intellectual interests, ranging across the full spectrum of legal scholarship.

About the Fellowship

Research Fellows are required to be in residence at Georgetown for a two-year period. The fellowship permits fellows to complete a full year of research and writing before they apply to teaching positions. During a fellow's tenure at Georgetown, he or she will be expected to produce at least one major academic piece of scholarship.

The PhD is not required. There is no policy of excluding candidates without graduate degrees and in recent years a number of fellows have been selected who had only JD degrees.

Each fellow works with two or more assigned mentors. The mentors will work closely with the fellow in the development of his or her writing project or projects, as well as his or her teaching at Georgetown.

In the Fall semester of the first year of the fellowship, a Research Fellow will have the opportunity to second chair a black-letter law JD course in the area of his or her study. The course will be taught by a regular faculty member. As second chair, the Fellow will attend classes, hold office hours and teach a few of the class meetings. The goals are to familiarize the Fellow with a course that he or she is going to teach, to provide some experience in the classroom, and to provide mentorship in the craft of teaching.

In the Spring semester of each year of the fellowship, a Research fellow will teach a seminar in the area of his or her study in Georgetown's JD program. The goal here is again to give the Fellow experience teaching a course that the Fellow is likely to teach in his or her first academic job.

Research Fellows are important participants in the Fellows Seminar and Workshops, and are expected to attend both for all four semesters of the fellowship. Research Fellows also have the opportunity to attend scholarly symposia, lectures, and brown bag seminars for Georgetown Law faculty, to audit any courses, and to participate in the other activities of the Georgetown Fellows Collaborative.

Benefits

The Fellowship offers a competitive stipend, eligibility for staff health insurance, and shared office space. It does not include a travel budget or administrative support.