Susan Ford Dorsey Innovation Africa Fellowship

Source: https://africanstudies.stanford.edu/resources/resources-graduate-students/susan-ford-dorsey-innovation-africa-fellowship Parent: https://africanstudies.stanford.edu/academics/academic-programs/undergraduate-minor

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 demonstrates 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 Center's intellectual life. 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 a 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 includes 3 quarters of fellowship stipend plus TGR tuition, and a $2,000 stipend for professional development or research expenses.
• The awardee may not defer by one year, but may choose to have one quarter paid over the summer.
• This Fellowship provides advanced graduate students with a stipend of $14,615 per quarter ($43,845 for 3 quarters), tuition support at the TGR rate.

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 incomplete grades.
• 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 Monday, April 6, 2026.

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