Fellowships

The Ash Center selects fellows in a highly competitive process that brings scholars, practitioners, and political leaders to the School for term appointments with a host of opportunities to pursue independent research projects, enhance their professional skills, and network with their peers.

Fellowships are offered through all three program areas of the Center: the Rajawali Foundation Institute of Asia, the Democratic Governance Program, and the Government Innovations Program.

In addition to individual research pursuits, fellows audit classes, attend regular research seminars, meet with faculty and students, and contribute to the overall academic life of the Center. For more on the Center’s numerous fellowships, including application requirements, selection criteria, and funding availability, please visit the individual fellowship programs below for additional information.

The Ash Center also makes available significant resources for students, including supporting a number of different student fellowships. For more information on the Ash Center’s support for students, including student fellowships, please visit our student support page.

Ash Center Fellowships

Asia Fellows Program

The Asia Fellows program allows individuals the freedom to pursue independent research projects, with the help of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia at Harvard Kennedy School, along with other Harvard resources.

China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Ash Center’s China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship Program offers two postdoctoral fellowships in the field of contemporary Chinese public policy to recent Ph.D.s of exceptional promise.

Democracy Doctoral Fellowships

Doctoral students serve as Democracy Doctoral Fellows for varying tenures throughout the academic year at the Ash Center. The Center supports academic scholarship focused on its core research areas, including innovations in public participation and political participation in non-democracies.

Democracy Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Ash Center’s Democracy Fellowships program aims to support doctoral and postdoctoral scholars in research related to democratic governance. This two-year academic fellowship is for students with completed dissertations in the fields of political theory, political philosophy, sociology, political science, law, or history.

Democracy Visiting Fellowships

Faculty, doctoral, and postdoctoral students serve as Democracy Visiting Fellows for varying tenures throughout the academic year at the Ash Center. The Center supports academic scholarship focused on its core research areas, including innovations in public participation and political participation in non-democracies.

Program on Crisis Leadership Fellowships

The Program on Crisis Leadership (PCL) offers fellowships to academics and senior practitioners conducting research on issues relating to emergency preparedness, crisis response, and disaster recovery. Individuals are invited to apply for the fellowships by program faculty.

Technology and Democracy Fellowship

The Technology and Democracy Fellowship is part of an Ash Center initiative to explore technology’s role in improving democratic governance—with a focus on connecting to practice and on helping Harvard Kennedy School students develop crucial technology skills.

Below is information about fellowship programs previously administered by the Ash Center. Note these fellowship programs are no longer being offered by the Ash Center or HKS.

Previous Fellowships

Harvard University Carnegie Corporation Centennial Fellowships

Supported by the Ash Center and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, fellowships were awarded to Arab social scientists working on the region’s most pressing public problems – particularly in the realms of education, health, social welfare, and political and economic reform.

Indonesia Research Fellowships

The Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Program offered fellowships to support Indonesian students and scholars participating in degree courses and executive education programs at Harvard or conducting research on public policy in Indonesia.

Initiative on History and Public Policy Doctoral Fellowship

The Initiative on History and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, based at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, awarded up to three non-stipendiary doctoral fellowships to outstanding doctoral students who were engaged in cutting-edge historical research that is informed by, or seeks to illuminate, issues of contemporary public policy.

Initiative on History and Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Initiative on History and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, based at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, awarded post-doctoral fellowships to an outstanding junior scholars who were engaged in cutting-edge historical research that is informed by, or seeks to influence, contemporary public policy.

New World Fellowships

Established in 1998, the New World Fellows Program worked to encourage the next generation of prominent Chinese leaders to develop their professional skills and interact with international leaders of similar seniority and experience, as well as distinguished Harvard faculty, before returning to their positions of responsibility in the Chinese government.

US-Asia Relations Fellowship Program

The US-Asia Relations Fellowship Program aimed to increase the interaction between HKS scholars and opinion leaders in Asia on matters that are crucial to define what the world will be like in 10 or 20 years from now.

Over the past half generation, it has become clear that many of the decisions that will affect our common future will be made in Asia. This is not just true for economic and business issues. Increasingly, it is also true for decisions that affect global interests in terms of security, health, migration, democratization, and the environment. This initiative not only concentrated on fields of academic investigation but also engaged leaders in other walks of life: politicians, business leaders, public officials, activists, writers, and members of the cultural arts community.

Fellow Spotlight

Elizabeth Plantan, Postdoctoral Fellow

“Her work on environmental activism and civil society fits well with our interest in state-society relations,” said Ash Director Tony Saich. “The fact that she is able to compare policy developments in China and Russia was a bonus as not many researchers have been able to look at this in detail.”