SIF173 Carter G. Woodson Postdoctoral Fellowships

Project Manager: Robert Vinson

Approved: December 2020

This award provides funding to create a quasi-endowment in support of the Carter G. Woodson postdoctoral fellowship program.

Project Dates: 7/01/2021 – 6/30/2024

Funding Awarded: $7,000,000

Executive Summary

One of the goals of the 2030 Strategic Plan is to recruit and retail excellent and diverse faculty. Recruiting post-doctoral fellow is key component of this goal. In addition, supporting outstanding and diverse post-doctoral fellows helps to expand the number of faculty to fulfill the original goal. Since its inception in 1981, the Woodson Institute’s Residential Fellowship Program has attracted outstanding scholars in the humanities and social sciences who work on a wide array of topics in African-American and African Studies, as well as related fields. These two-year fellowships are designed to facilitate the writing of manuscripts and provide successful applicants the opportunity to discuss and exchange works-in-progress both with each other and the larger intellectual community of the University.

Current Status: Active

Progress

Since the “quasi” endowment took effect in July 2021, the Woodson Institute has continued its enviable track-record of placing Woodson pre-and-post-doctoral fellows into prestigious positions. In the 2021 – 2022 academic year, the Woodson had 8 outgoing fellows, 6 of whom received tenure-track positions at the following colleges and universities: New York University, University of California, Irvine, University of Richmond, CUNY Graduate Center, Texas Woman’s University, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The two remaining fellows received post-doctoral fellowships or research positions at the National Science Foundation and University of Chicago. To accomplish these excellent job placements, the Woodson fellowship program followed through on its outlined objectives: hosting monthly workshops that invite guest interlocutors to provide feedback on each fellow’s work, organizing public events to showcase the cohort’s research, and supporting fellows on the job market with workshops.