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Stanford
Public Humanities
School of Humanities and Sciences

Public Knowledge Fellows

Stanford Public Humanities is proud to offer a Public Knowledge Fellowship for sixth- or seventh-year doctoral candidates in the School of Humanities and Sciences who have demonstrated an interest in the creation and dissemination of humanistic knowledge to a wide public audience. Fellows will have the opportunity to develop a public-facing work of their own vision, emerging but distinct from their dissertation work, and to identify a specific community to receive or engage with this work. They will also have opportunities for regular mentorship with Associate Director for Student Programs Laura Goode on their writing and public-facing work. 

Students will receive a full fellowship, including stipend and TGR tuition, for autumn, winter, and spring quarters 2026–2027. The stipend amount for 2026-27 will be $14,615 per quarter. Each Public Knowledge Fellow may also receive modest funding support for demonstrated production costs (event space, equipment, etc.) associated with the public-facing presentation of their Fellowship work. 

We will offer two fellowships in 2026–2027. 

Eligibility Requirements

  • Applicants must be current fifth-year or sixth-year doctoral candidates, in any department or program within Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences, whose research and public scholarship engage substantively with issues and methods in the humanities, arts, or qualitative social sciences. Some priority will be offered to students seeking 6th-year funding.
  • While we welcome project proposals with artistic elements, we are not currently equipped to mentor students who want to engage the public through abstract and/or nontextual works of creative art (e.g. documentary filmmaking, musical compositions, sculpture, etc.).
  • Though projects of transnational focus are welcome, applicants are advised that Public Humanities' expertise and capacity to add value to a project is primarily within the US publishing and media landscape and in the English language.
  • Applicants must have:
    • Active Candidacy;
    • Completed all requirements for the doctoral degree, including any required teaching, with the exception of the dissertation and the University Oral Examination (when a defense of the dissertation);
    • An approved dissertation reading committee;
    • A dissertation proposal approved by their committee;
    • A demonstrable likelihood of completing the degree within the tenure of the fellowship.
  • Applicants must have previously taken Stanford Public Humanities’ cornerstone class “Pitching and Publishing in Popular Media” or otherwise demonstrate equivalent public-facing work experience such as (but not limited to) publishing, speaking, or media production.
  • Fellows may not hold a concurrent fellowship (such as the Mellon Fellowship).
  • This fellowship is not deferrable to a subsequent year or summer quarter.
  • Fellows may hold either a concurrent research or teaching assistantship appointment up to a maximum of 25%, or hourly employment of up to 8 hours per week, but not both. See Administrative Guide 10.2.1 and 10.2.2 for more details.
  • Students who are TGR or in a graduation quarter status must enroll in the appropriate zero unit TGR course.

Application

Applications must be submitted via our online application system by Sunday, March 1, 2026, at 11:59 PM Pacific time. We discourage the submission of additional materials with the application and cannot circulate these to the committee or return such materials.

Applications will be reviewed by the Stanford Public Humanities team.

Applicants will be notified of the fellowship competition outcome by Friday, March 20, 2026.

Applications must include:

  • Basic student information: contact info, department, planned graduation date, and any other fellowships you’ve applied for or received.
  • Curriculum vitae (CV)
  • Current unofficial transcript (download from AXESS)
  • Timetable for the completion of the degree (e.g. dissertation outline detailing status of each chapter)
  • A letter of reference from the applicant’s dissertation advisor. The letter should address the student’s prior experience and promise as a public scholar, the quality of their writing and research, and their progress towards degree completion (referencing the criteria listed above). Letters must be received by the application deadline—consideration of letters received after that date cannot be guaranteed.
  • Personal Statement (1000 words or less): The Public Knowledge Fellowship invites creativity, initiative, and vision in public-facing project proposals: our mission is to support fellows in identifying and activating a path for their humanistic passion, rather than to impose a prescribed path upon them. Your Personal Statement should provide an overview of your research and connect it to a proposed public-facing culmination of your Fellowship work. Public-facing project proposals may include, but are not limited to a live event, performance, convening around a shared purpose, multimedia exhibition, podcast, series of articles, or another engaging concept. Questions you may explore in your Personal Statement include:
  1. What are your research goals and priorities, and how would the Public Knowledge Fellowship support them?
  2. What public-facing project related to your work would you propose under the auspices of the Public Knowledge Fellowship?
  3. In what ways would this project emerge from your dissertative research, and how would it distinguish itself from that research?
  4. How feasible is it that you can complete this public-facing project along with your dissertation work within your doctoral timeline?
  5. Who is the audience for your public-facing project, and how might this work meet that audience?
  6. What collaborators, interlocutors, or logistical needs are associated with your project?

An abbreviated example of how the public-facing project proposal section of your Personal Statement could look is below. Though we understand applicants may not be able to describe projects with this level of specificity at this time, your proposal should convey some sense of your goals and vision.

“I envision a limited-series podcast, consisting of five to eight episodes, which amplifies the voices of the queer Asian elders whom I interviewed for my dissertation work. I’ll interview a different elder about what queer family means to them for each episode. The podcast will eventually be available on Spotify and other major audio platforms. This project would benefit from PubHum support in obtaining a quality microphone, publicity in PubHum’s newsletter, and facilitating audio setup for the interviews.”

Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

  • Originality and rigor of the student’s research, writing, and overall work experience.
  • Prospective appeal of the research to a broader public, clarity of the public-facing project proposal, and demonstrated capacity in connecting with public audiences.
  • The likelihood of completing the dissertation and public-facing project within the duration of the fellowship.

APPLY HERE

Questions? Email Jeff Schwegman: jschweg [at] stanford.edu (jschweg[at]stanford[dot]edu) and Laura Goode: legoode [at] stanford.edu (legoode[at]stanford[dot]edu)