The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation invites postdoctoral students who will be completing or will have recently completed a Ph.D. to apply for its Postdoctoral Democracy Fellowship. The Democracy Fellowships aim to support postdoctoral scholars whose research illuminates aspects of democratic governance in ways that are innovative and push the boundaries of their academic disciplines, whether political theory and philosophy, political science, sociology, law, or history. Furthermore, their research should have the potential for normative or practical relevance regarding urgent substantive policy or social problems related to democratic governance.
About the Fellowship
Postdoctoral Fellows join the Ash Center’s academic community and participate in the Democracy Fellows weekly seminar. The fellowship provides time and space for the fellows to work on preparing either a book manuscript based on their dissertation or related academic publications. For more information about the Democracy Fellowships, see our Five-Year Retrospective.
Eligibility
Preference will be given to postdoctoral scholars whose research interests coincide with the Ash Center’s current focus on innovations in public participation and political participation in democracies or non-democracies. Eligible applicants will be completing or will have just recently completed dissertations—within the previous three years—in the fields of political theory, political philosophy, political science, sociology, law, or history. The duration of the fellowship is two academic years.
Benefits
Fellows will receive a stipend of $60,000 annually, $2,500 per year for research during the fellowship, shared office space at the Ash Center, and access to Harvard’s libraries and online library services. Fellowships for the 2017-2019 academic year begin in August 2017.
How to Apply
The application for academic years 2018 - 2020 will be available here July 15th and will be due by 11:59PM October 4, 2017. With questions please contact Hannah Hilligoss, Program and Research Assistant for the Democratic Governance Program.
Harvard is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by law.
Current Democracy Postdoctoral Fellows
Brian Palmer-Rubin, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley – Combining field research and original survey and state subsidy data, Palmer-Rubin examines the participation of small-business and peasant organizations in policymaking in Mexico. While scholars and practitioners argue that civil society participation enhances the success of development policy, interest organizations all too often prioritize state handouts over policy engagement. Palmer-Rubin finds that the ability of organizations to achieve collective action autonomously and the electoral incentives of ruling politicians shape organizational policy participation.
LaGina Gause, Ph.D., University of Michigan - Gause’s research interests include the representation and non-electoral participation of marginalized communities. In her dissertation and current book project, “The Advantage of Disadvantage: Legislative Responsiveness to Collective Action by the Politically Marginalized”, she explores when U.S. legislators are likely to respond to protesters in their congressional districts. Specifically, she examines whether and how congressional roll call voting changes based on the resources of those participating in collective action. Formal theory and empirical analyses suggest that following protest legislators are more likely to support the interests of racial and ethnic minorities, the poor, and other groups that face greater costs to participation than they are to support higher resource groups with greater access to the political system.