Short Description
A fellowship year at Harvard Radcliffe Institute is an opportunity to step away from usual routines and dive deeply into a project.
Radcliffe fellows are exceptional scientists, writers, scholars, public intellectuals, and artists whose work is making a difference in their professional fields and in the larger world. Fellows join a uniquely interdisciplinary and creative community. Radcliffe supports engaged scholarship, where fellows develop new tools and methods, challenge artistic and scholarly conventions, and illuminate our past and our present. We welcome applications from scholars and artists proposing innovative work that confronts pressing social and policy issues and seeking to engage audiences beyond academia.
Eligibility
Applicants in the creative arts must meet discipline-specific eligibility requirements, as outlined below:
- Film and Video: Applicants in this discipline must have a body of independent work of significant achievement. Such work will typically have been exhibited in galleries or museums, shown in film or video festivals, or broadcast on television.
- Visual Arts: Applicants in this discipline must show strong evidence of achievement, with a record of at least five years of work as a professional artist, including participation in several curated group shows and at least two professional solo exhibitions.
- Fiction and Nonfiction: Applicants in these disciplines must have one of the following:
- one or more published books;
- a contract for the publication of a book-length manuscript; or
- at least three shorter works (longer than newspaper articles) published.
- Poetry: Applicants in this discipline must have had at least 20 poems or a book of poetry published in the last five years, and must be in the process of completing a manuscript.
- Journalism: Applicants in this discipline are required to have worked professionally as a journalist for at least five years.
- Playwriting: Applicants in this discipline must have a significant body of independent work in the form. This will include, most typically, plays produced or under option.
- Music Composition: It is desirable, but not required, for applicants in music composition to have a PhD or DMA. Most importantly, the applicant must show strong evidence of achievement as a professional artist, with a record of recent performances.
- Applicants from throughout the world are encouraged to apply. Harvard University typically sponsors J-1 scholar visas for Harvard Radcliffe Fellows.
Submission Requirements
The application consists of an application form, curriculum vitae, project proposal (with bibliography when appropriate), a writing or work sample, and the contact information of three references who will be prompted, via email, to upload letters of recommendation in support of your application.
How to Apply
Online Application
Program Benefits & Awards
- The fellowship runs from September 2026 to May 2027.
- Fellows receive a stipend of $78,000 plus an additional $5,000 to cover project expenses. Please note that if you are a US citizen or permanent resident coming from a home institution based in the US, you can opt to have your stipend paid through your home institution or to you directly.
- Harvard Radcliffe Fellows may also be eligible to receive relocation, housing, and childcare funds to aid them in making a smooth transition to Radcliffe. Healthcare support is made available as needed. If fellows would like to hire Harvard undergraduate students as Research Partners, we will cover their hourly wages.
Entry Fee
None
Location
Boston, MA, United States
Timeline
- Application Deadline: 11 September 2025
Website Link: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/radcliffe-fellowship/become-a-radcliffe-fellow
