Postdoctoral Fellow in Humanities and the University of the Future

Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021-2023

Application Portal

The USC Mellon Humanities and the University of the Future Program seeks applications for two-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowships from scholars whose research is in any area of the humanities or humanistic social sciences and who have interest in academic administration.

The annual salary will be $75,000, plus benefits and a yearly $2000 research/travel allowance. To apply for the 2021–2023 cohort, candidates must have completed all requirements for their doctoral degree after June 30, 2016 and before July 1, 2021.

The Program seeks to address the need for more humanities or humanistic social science scholars in academic administration by opening potential new career paths. Each postdoctoral fellow will spend one semester working closely with a divisional dean; another with either the college dean of undergraduate education or the college dean of graduate education; a third in either the media office, the Academy in the Public Square, or the office of Advancement; and a fourth semester free of any responsibilities to enable fellows the chance to work full-time on revising and publishing their research. Fellows will attend meetings and contribute to policy decisions, working as liaisons between dean-level offices and faculty members, meeting with potential donors and program officers from foundations, and advancing the mission of USC Dornsife. During the time of the fellowship, a divisional dean will serve as a mentor and provide assistance for the fellows’ research and writing, including support for grant applications, review of book proposals, draft articles, or chapters of works-in-progress. Our goal is to provide mentoring so that the shift to greater administrative responsibilities does not come at the expense of research productivity.

Applicants’ research must be based in the humanities or humanistic social sciences. We welcome proposals from applicants with interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary projects. Proposals may focus on any period and geographic region.

Applicants will be evaluated based on their academic accomplishments, the significance and intellectual merit of their research project, and their potential to contribute to the goals of USC Dornsife.

To apply, submit all materials via our application portal.
The application deadline is Friday, January 29, 2021.

Applicants must complete the application form, provide names and email addresses of two recommenders, and upload separate pdf files of the following documents:

  • Cover letter / Research statement (not exceeding 3 pages)
  • Writing sample
  • CV

Our application portal is unable to accept documents submitted by Interfolio or similar dossier services.

For more information, please visit send an email to  humanitiesfuture@dornsife.usc.edu.


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