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

Total Funding: $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

During the 2022 – 2023 academic year, the Woodson Institute built on and exceeded the accomplishments of last year’s award period. The Woodson continued its almost 100% placement record for outgoing Woodson fellows. Filtering to exclude pre-doctoral fellows, both of two outgoing post-doctoral fellows received tenure- track positions at University of Texas at Austin and The University of Virginia, respectively.

In addition to these accomplishments, the Woodson fellowship program achieved the objectives outlined for this reporting period: hosted monthly workshops, organized 2 public events to showcase the cohort’s research, supported fellows on the job market, and expanded departmental course offerings.