The University of Southern California Society of Fellows in the Humanities invites applications for our 2025-2027 cohort of postdoctoral fellows.

The topic for the 2025–2027 cycle will be Sites of Inquiry. We invite applications from scholars whose research focuses on places and spaces of investigation, examination, and exploration, such as the archive, the museum, the library, the university, the field, the laboratory, the clinic, the book, or the body, as well as questions of the politics and geography of knowledge production, transmission, and translation. Approaches to the topic might involve case studies investigating specific places or spaces of inquiry as well as theoretical frameworks.

The USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities is an interdisciplinary community that supports advanced research by postdoctoral fellows and faculty members, promoting intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Fellows meet regularly in formal and informal settings to present and discuss advanced scholarly research. Postdoctoral fellows are affiliated with the Society as well as with a USC department of their choice and have faculty mentors in both. Postdoctoral fellows in the humanities engage with each other as well as humanities departments, institutes, and centers at USC and in the broader Los Angeles area.

Each year the Society admits up to five postdoctoral fellows, who are appointed for two-year terms during which they pursue research and teach three courses over four semesters, with one semester for full-time research. They are expected to reside in the Los Angeles area during the academic year and to participate in the scholarly life of the Society, the host department, and the university.

Eligibility
To apply for the 2025–2027 cohort, candidates must have received their Ph.D. no earlier than August 1, 2021, and must have completed their doctoral degree by the start of the fellowship in August 2025. Scholars who received their doctorates from the University of Southern California are not eligible to apply. Non-U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for this program. Applicants’ research and teaching must be in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.