Susan Ford Dorsey Innovation Africa Fellowship

A Competitive New Research Fellowship from the Center for African Studies  

The Susan Ford Dorsey Innovation Africa Fellowship (IAF) is a fellowship awarded to Stanford H&S doctoral students whose research shows outstanding originality and the potential to transform our understanding of the African continent and its diaspora. This Fellowship provides support for graduate students whose focus is on the Center for African Studies within H&S. Advanced students who will be in their 6th year of their degree will be given preference.

Susan Ford Dorsey Innovation Africa Fellowship information:  

  • Applications are welcome from doctoral students across all disciplines in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Applicants whose work ambitiously challenges existing paradigms will be given preference, as will those whose work shows evidence of risk-taking, innovation, and high originality.
  • The Dorsey Innovation Fellowship regards ambitious work that challenges traditional scholarly borders, whether disciplinary, methodological, or regional. Interdisciplinary or comparative research projects are especially welcome including those with a transnational or oceanic framing.
  • Susan Ford Dorsey IAF Fellows will be year-long affiliates of the Center for African Studies, taking full part in the intellectual life of the Center. Fellows will be matched with a faculty mentor in an adjacent field, with a view to expanding their intellectual breadth and professional network. Students supported on full fellowship are now fully covered for Cardinal Care by the university.
  • The fellowship will be awarded for three academic quarters (Autumn, Winter, Spring) and is not deferrable to future years or to the summer quarter.
  • Outside employment must be aligned with university policy and approved by the Center for African Studies.
  • This Fellowship provides advanced graduate students with a stipend of $14,087 per quarter, tuition support at the TGR rate. This fellowship also provides students with an additional $2,000 discretionary stipend to be used towards completing the degree (e.g., professional development, networking, travel to conferences, etc.) 

Eligibility

  • Applicants must have advanced to PhD candidacy.
  • Applicants must have completed all requirements for the PhD, other than the dissertation. This includes handling any incompletes.
  • Applicants must have a formally composed dissertation committee.
  • Applicants must have a dissertation proposal approved by their committee.
  • Students who are TGR or in a graduation quarter status must enroll in the appropriate TGR course.

Application

Apply to the Susan Ford Dorsey Innovation Africa Fellowship

Deadline

Applications are due by Friday, April 4, 2025.

Please reach out to African Studies at africanstudies [at] stanford.edu (africanstudies[at]stanford[dot]edu) with any questions.