Applications Now Being Accepted for 2021 Graduate Summer Fellows Program

Application deadline: Tuesday, March 16
Download application instructions

Applications are now being accepted for the 2021 Pardee Center Graduate Summer Fellows Program, which offers graduate students from across Boston University an opportunity for intensive interdisciplinary research and writing on topics aligned with the future-focused research interests of BU’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.

The Pardee Center conducts future-oriented, interdisciplinary, and policy-relevant research that can contribute to long-term improvements in the human condition. The Center is especially interested in rigorous analysis relating to longer-range human development. We especially encourage proposals for research that has the potential to identify actions that can be taken today to make our collective global tomorrow better.

The 10-week fellowship (June 1 – August 6, 2021) includes a financial stipend of $6,000, structured interaction with Pardee Center affiliated faculty and research fellows, and a collegial atmosphere that fosters peer support and intellectual growth. Summer Fellows conduct independent research and produce a substantive research paper that may be considered for publication by the Pardee Center. Fellows are expected to work each Monday through Friday for the duration of the Fellowship and to participate fully in Pardee Center activities and all Summer Fellows events.

The program is open to Boston University graduate students from all Schools and Colleges. First-year master’s and early- to mid-stage doctoral students are especially encouraged to apply. (Students completing degrees in May 2021 are not eligible.) Research proposals that link directly to the student’s own and/or BU faculty’s ongoing research are especially desirable.

Proposals for any topic related to the Pardee Center’s longer-range global human development research mission will be considered. Winning proposals will be interdisciplinary in nature with a clear sense of the topic’s importance and policy relevance to the longer-range future. We are especially interested in topics related to the great challenges of our time (such as, but not limited to, the future of human and sustainable development, democracy, public health, information and new media, social and economic inequities, technological and business innovation, climate change and environmental degradation, human and international security, etc.). This year, two Fellows will be supported by the Carnegie Corporation as part of the Pardee Center’s “20 Years of War” research series, an ongoing collaboration with the Watson Institute at Brown University to expand the Costs of War project. These two Fellows will be selected based on proposals focused on the human, financial, environmental, social, or political costs and consequences of war. Learn more about this project here.

The deadline for applications is close of business on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Candidates will be notified of the outcomes by late April. Detailed application instructions are available here.

Questions regarding the Summer Fellowship Program may be directed to gsfellow@bu.edu. A list of frequently asked questions can be found here.