Hurston-Deloria Fellowships for Doctoral Study

Hurston-Deloria Fellowships for Doctoral Study in Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology at Columbia University is delighted to offer three supplemental fellowships for incoming doctoral students in sociocultural or archaeological anthropology, over three years from 2022-2024.  The fellowships aim to build on the path-breaking careers of Zora Neale Hurston and Ella Deloria by supporting students from socio-economically under-resourced backgrounds, and fostering scholarship that engages topics relevant to their communities. All projects are eligible, but we are particularly interested in topics centered on Black, Latinx and/or Indigenous North America, broadly construed, or focused on critical race theory and/or settler colonialism. The fellowships are funded by Columbia University’s Graduate Equity Initiative and are part of a suite of commitments by the Anthropology Department to create a supportive community for our students, especially those who have overcome substantial obstacles on their journey to graduate school.

The fellowships will add an additional year of support to the fellowship offer made to applicants to the doctoral program, and can be taken at any time during a student's graduate study. We anticipate that most students will use the fellowship to support a year of research or writing, although we also encourage students to apply for external funding. In addition to funding an additional year of graduate study (including summer stipend) we also offer up to $1,000 toward relocation expenses and a $3,000 research expenses fund. 

Applicants who would like to apply for a Hurston-Deloria Fellowship should apply to the Department of Anthropology in the usual cycle of applications. Decisions will be made on the strength of the application to the Department. To assess eligibility one additional page should be forwarded to Jeanne Roche at [email protected]. This should outline the relevance of the proposed project for a Hurston-Deloria Fellowship and describe the candidate's suitability, including a statement that outlines how your commitment to the community you work with is or would be expressed through your teaching and practice.

Applications for a Hurston-Deloria fellowship can be made retrospectively, after the deadline for applications to the doctoral program in Anthropology has passed, as long as a complete application file has been submitted to the department by that deadline. The deadline for letters of eligibility is January 31, 2024.

If you have further questions or need clarification on any aspect of this fellowship, please contact Professor Zoë Crossland at [email protected].