The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard invites applications for a one-year fully funded postdoctoral fellowship in connection with the Center’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation seminar on the topic of migration and the humanities.

Migration plays as critical a role in the moral imagination of the humanities as it does in shaping the activist vision of humanitarianism and human rights. Too often, the humanities are summoned merely as witnesses to the spectacle of the significant currents and crises of contemporary life. Literature and the arts are viewed as iconic presences whose primary aesthetic and moral values lie in their illustrative powers of empathy and evocation. Yet the intellectual formation of the humanities—their very conception of the nature of meaning, knowledge, and morals—is deeply resonant with the displacement of values and the revision of norms that shape the transitional and translational narratives of migrant lives.

Built around pedagogies of representation and interpretation—textual, visual, digital, political, ethical, ecological, etc.—the humanities engage with the history of shifting relations between cultural expression, historical transition, and political transformation. In our time migration and resettlement as by indigenous belonging defines the ethics of citizenship. While the humanities play a central role in defining the terms and the territories of cultural citizenship as it creates innovative institutions and identities in the making of civil society.

Mahindra Center invites applications from scholars in all fields whose work innovatively engages with migration and the humanities. Besides pursuing the research, fellows will be core participants in the bi-weekly seminar meetings as well. Other participants will include faculty, graduate students from Harvard and other universities, as well as occasional visiting speakers.

Fully Funded Harvard Postdoctoral Mahindra Fellowship

Fully Funded Harvard Postdoctoral Mahindra Fellowship is an opportunity for the fellows to work closely with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The fellows will receive stipends of $65,000, medical insurance as well as additional research support of $2,500. Further, for those not already in residence in Greater Boston, Harvard will offer $1,500 in moving expenses. Moreover, Harvard expects the Fellows to be in residence for the term of the fellowship.

Eligibility for the Harvard Postdoctoral Mahindra Fellowship

Applicants for 2020-21 fellowships must have received a doctorate or terminal degree in or after May 2017. Moreover, international scholars are appointed under either the J-1 visa or F-1 OPT, depending on their circumstances. If awarded a fellowship, the term of appointment for international scholars is September 1, 2020-August 31, 2021.

How to apply for the Harvard Postdoctoral Mahindra Fellowship

In addition to biographical and professional information, candidates for the Fully Funded Harvard Postdoctoral Fellowship must submit:

1. A curriculum vitae.
2. Further, a statement of the research project that provides a detailed description of what the applicant proposes to do
3. Likewise, one chapter- or article-length writing sample (no longer than 40 pages).
4. Also, names and contact information of three referees, who would provide the letter of recommendation on behalf of the candidate.

Candidates can use the online portal for applying the Harvard Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Deadline

Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center accepts the fully funded Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship until November 15, 2019. The deadline for receipt of letters of recommendation is December 6, 2019.