2026 Harvard Academy Scholars Program

Published: 28 Aug 2025

Harvad Academy Scholars Program is dedicated to promoting innovative social science hand-in-hand with deepening our shared knowledge of the experiences and practices of the worlds’ regions and countries. The Academy Scholars Program identifies and supports outstanding researchers at the start of their academic careers whose work combines excellence in a social science discipline with a command of the language and knowledge or expertise of countries or regions outside of the United States or Canada. The scholarship of the group spans traditional disciplinary divisions and elucidates comparative, transnational, and domestic issues, past or present.

Harvard Academy Scholars Program

Harvard Academy Scholars Program Benefits

• Annual stipend of $80,000
• Annual research support of $5,000 is also provided
• Academy Scholars are appointed for a two-year, in-residence, postdoctoral fellowship at The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
• They are mentored by the Harvard Academy Senior Scholars, a cohort of faculty members who act as a selection committee, participate in Harvard Academy events, and are committed to supporting the Academy Scholars as they work to achieve their potential.

Requirements for Harvard Academy Scholars Program

• The Academy Scholars Program is open to scholars from all countries and citizenships who have recently completed or are nearing completion of a PhD or equivalent degree program (DPhil and SJD included) in the social sciences.
• The Academy Scholars Program is not a degree-granting program. If you have not recently completed or are not currently enrolled in a PhD or equivalent degree program in the social sciences, you are not eligible to apply for the Academy Scholars Program.
• If you have completed a PhD program, the PhD completion date must be within two years of the August 1, 2026, start date. 
• PhD candidates nearing dissertation completion must be able to submit degree conferral documentation issued by their university registrar’s office by June 30, 2026, for an August 1, 2026, start date.
• Individuals who hold or have completed another postdoctoral fellowship are not eligible to apply.

Application Documents

The application will include these documents:

• Curriculum vitae (CV); including list of publications
• Research proposal (2000 words maximum); including intellectual objectives and planned methodological and disciplinary work
• One scholarly writing sample (e.g., PhD dissertation chapter or single-authored peer-reviewed academic journal article; fifty pages maximum; in English)
• A copy of your PhD program transcript
• Three letters of recommendation (uploaded directly and confidentially by the recommender through the online application—please note you will need to submit your application before an upload link is sent to your recommender)

Check also:
Queen Elizabeth Scholarship (How to Apply)

Application Deadline

How to Apply

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