Postdoctoral Fellowships
The Fox Center's Postdoctoral Fellowship is open to recent PhD graduates from any university. Each year, we select up to five Postdoctoral Fellows whose projects engage our annual theme. Our Fellows spend a year at the Center, joining an interdisciplinary community of scholars, and teach an upper level course of their own design in the spring of their fellowship year.
The Fox Center hosts two Postdoctoral Fellowship programs: the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is open to applicants working in any humanistic field, and the NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship in Poetics. Our Fellowship in Poetics reflects the importance of Emory’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Book Library as a center for research in poetry, and we especially encourage projects which engage with the holdings of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library.
Applications for our 2026-2027 cohort are now closed.
About Our Fellowships
The Fox Center's Postdoctoral Fellowships are intended to support exceptional early career researchers to expand their disciplinary thinking in a lively and collegial environment while providing them with the necessary time and space to advance their individual research projects. Our Postdoctoral Fellows participate in our weekly fellows' seminar, presenting their work-in-progress at one of these meetings and nominating a scholar from their own field to be included as a guest presenter at a subsequent meeting.
In the spring of their fellowship year, our Postdoctoral Fellows offer an interdisciplinary undergraduate seminar on a subject of their choosing through Emory's Institute of the Liberal Arts, which hosts two interdisciplinary majors. See a list of examples of past seminars and the General Education Requirements that these courses fulfill.
Fellowships are for a period of ten months, August 1 – May 31, and carry a stipend of $60,000, eligibility for a wide range of competitive benefits (including health, dental, and vision insurance), a research budget of $2,000, and a $2,000 stipend for moving expenses. All Postdoctoral Fellows have access to a private office in the Center and are required to be resident in Atlanta for the term of the fellowship.
2024-25 Postdoctoral Fellow Drisha Bargi with Visiting Scholar Anupama Rao.
2023-25 Two-Year Postdoctoral Fellow Lora Webb teaches her Emory College course.
Lucas Koutsoukos-Chalhoub, 2025-26 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
“I always look forward to going to the seminar. Every single time I go in thinking that I just read something really interesting and I'm going to meet with people who are doing terribly exciting projects. And learning how other people think is very refreshing after you've been forced to narrow everything down.”
Victoria Bergbauer, 2025-26 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
Alanna Prince, 2025-26 NEH Postdoctoral Fellow in Poetics
How to Apply
All Postdoctoral Fellows must hold a PhD (or its international equivalent, such as the DPhil). Applicants may not have held a doctorate for more than five years. Preference will be given to applicants who have not held prior postdoctoral fellowships.
To apply, please complete our online application form in Interfolio.
You will be asked to upload the following documents:
- Cover letter (2 pages maximum)
- Project description (1000 words maximum, including a timeline for the fellowship year)
- Title and brief course description for your proposed undergraduate seminar
- Curriculum vitae
- E-mail information for three recommenders
It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that all required documents are uploaded to Interfolio and submitted. Incomplete applications cannot be considered after the deadline.
Application Timeline
- September 2026: Online application form goes live.
- December 2026: Applications close. Letters of recommendation must be received before the deadline.
- February 2027: Decisions are announced.
Frequently Asked Questions
Scholars from outside of the United States are appointed under either the J-1 visa (Research Scholar status) or F-1 OPT (Optional Practical Training), depending on their circumstances. The Fox Center reserves the right to cancel awards if the recipient is unable to meet the conditions required for a visa.
Applicants should describe the specific research planned for the period of the Fellowship and the expected output and include a detailed timeline. They should also describe their engagement with the annual theme and how they would benefit from the interdisciplinary environment.