Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows program at Refugees International

Refugees International has been selected by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) as a host organization for the Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows program. The fellow will be focused on developing a Refugees International global report on refugee and humanitarian protection. In recent years, we have published an annual assessment of the U.S. administration’s record on these issues. The report has been read very widely and has received extensive coverage in the media, and we believe there are innumerable benefits in expanding the effort beyond simply the United States.


More on the Mellon/ACLS  public fellowship:
The program promotes the visibility and value of the humanities PhD beyond the academy by offering opportunities for PhDs to contribute to the public good while gaining career-building experience in the fields of policy, community development, conservation, arts and culture, and media. This initiative is made possible through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.


In 2020, the program is offering 21 two-year term positions at organizations in government and nonprofit sectors for recent PhDs from the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Fellows will participate in the substantive work of these organizations and will have opportunities for networking, mentoring, and career development programming, both in-person and virtually. Fellows receive a stipend of $70,000 per year and have access to employer-based health insurance through the host organization. In addition, ACLS provides funds for relocation and professional development.
As the tenth anniversary Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows cohort, the 2020 fellows will join a robust network of fellows and program alumni working across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. Please see listings of current and past fellows here. The diverse experience of the Public Fellows community is a shared resource that fellows are encouraged to draw on during and after their fellowship terms.

  • Requirements:
  • have a PhD in the humanities or humanistic social sciences (see note on eligible fields below) conferred between September 1, 2016 and June 19, 2020
  • defend and file/deposit their completed dissertations no later than April 6, 2020, and be prepared to verify this with official university documentation during the review and selection process
  • be authorized to work legally in the United States. Neither ACLS nor the host organization will sponsor fellows for work visas. Prospective applicants should read through all the fellowship positions listed below and identify the positions that best fit their career goals. Each applicant may apply to up to two positions.

Application deadline: 18 March 2020, 9pm EDT.

For more information, see:  https://www.acls.org/programs/publicfellowscomp/