Description
The Whitney Humanities Center at Yale is accepting applications for a one-year postdoctoral fellowship for the academic year 2027–28. The fellowship is offered to complement and contribute to the Spring 2028 Franke Seminar in the Humanities: “Not Made to Scale: Space, Form, Power and the Geohumanities.” This is an upper-level undergraduate seminar in the Humanities Program at Yale. Engaging with interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of geography, architecture, and the humanities, “Not Made to Scale” will consider how the humanities and the arts have helped us understand our relationship to our surroundings—from improvised cities, redlined suburbs and contested waterways to landscapes (re)shaped by prisons, borders, data centers, and a rapidly changing climate. In so doing, we will analyze, define, and practice a “geohumanities for the present.” The seminar is accompanied by a series of four public-facing lectures by experts in the field, hosted by the Whitney Humanities Center. The Center invites applications from scholars in disciplines like visual studies, literary studies, film and media studies, human geography, social-cultural anthropology, urban studies, and critical studies. The ideal candidate will demonstrate expertise in one or more of the following fields: environmental studies, architectural history, urban humanities, critical geography, black geographies, or critical race and gender studies. The fellow will contribute to the Franke Lectures in the Humanities and will collaborate with the instructor of the Franke Seminar on course design and teaching. The fellow receives a stipend of $70,000 with full benefits, a research fund of $2,000, and reimbursement of moving expenses. The Center invites applications from candidates who will contribute to a community of scholars in an interdisciplinary setting. The Franke Postdoctoral Fellow will be in residence at the Whitney Humanities Center in New Haven for the full academic year 2027–28, beginning August 1, 2027.
Qualifications
Applicants must have a Ph.D. (degree conferred 2024 or later) involving research centrally related to the theme of the Franke Seminar: Space, Form, Power, and the Geohumanities, although disciplinary specialization is open. Applicants must have their Ph.D. in hand by August 1, 2027.
Application Instructions
The application can be submitted online via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/190266 and must include a) cover letter; b) curriculum vitae; c) contact information for three references (letters in support of finalists will be requested at a later stage); and d) a writing sample of no more than 25 pages. The writing sample may be published or unpublished and may be an excerpt from a longer work. Review of applications will begin December 14, 2026. Email inquiries may be addressed to Diane Brown, Deputy Director of the Whitney Humanities Center: diane.b.brown@yale.edu.