SNF Agora Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship

The SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University is an academic and public forum dedicated to strengthening global democracy through civic engagement and informed, inclusive dialogue. The SNF Agora Institute especially invites sociologists, historians and economists to apply for its 2027-28 SNF Agora Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. The postdoctoral program is a one-year program, starting on July 01, 2027, intended to support recent doctoral degree recipients whose scholarship engages with questions and topics directly related to the institute's mission.

The SNF Agora Academy seeks two fellows who would engage actively with and benefit from a multidisciplinary scholarly community that enables them to extend their research and public engagement in new directions, with the active mentorship of SNF Agora Institute faculty.

The fellows will carry out their own research, while participating in seminars and being full members of the intellectual community. As part of their commitment to the institute, they are expected to participate actively in a research/practice project of the institute, reside in the Baltimore-DC area, and regularly engage in in-person institute activities, including weekly Tuesday and Thursday seminars.

One of the central goals of the SNF Agora Institute is to foster conversations and collaboration that don't happen elsewhere. The fellows must have a strong academic record and be on a trajectory to contribute to key disciplinary conversations, but also be excited about being part of a community that is not simply made up of academics, whether that helps them integrate other perspectives into their scholarship, employs their scholarship to help strengthen democracy in tangible ways, or both.

We strongly encourage applicants to think creatively about how their research interacts with scholars in other disciplines and efforts to strengthen democracy in the world and, thus, support the SNF Agora mission. Getting your work into the public domain is not the same as having impact. How do you hope to have impact? Are there civic and political entities, including movements, parties, governmental organizations, media, etc.

that you could partner with? Do you have ideas that could contribute to public debates around democracy as well as academic ones? This work should be in addition to and not a replacement for a strong academic trajectory.

Compensation Fellows will be appointed initially for a one-year term, and will have the opportunity to extend their fellowship for a second academic year. The fellowship includes an annual stipend of $70,000 and modest moving and research budgets.

Applicants must have received a doctorate or equivalent terminal degree in May 2025 or later; applicants without a terminal degree must demonstrate that they will receive one by August 2027. Further, their scholarship, either in the field of sociology, history, or economics, should engage with questions and topics directly related to the mission of the SNF Agora Institute.

The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University.

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