Spring 2027 ISERP Fellows Application

The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy is pleased to issue a request for applications to the ISERP Fellowship for Spring 2027.

ISERP Fellows receive a one-semester leave from all teaching and administrative duties at full salary, as well as the budget and the administrative support for a high visibility conference to be organized around each fellow’s research interests. The conference must be held within one year of the end of the semester of leave. 

The leave can be taken no later than one year preceding the request for tenure evaluation letters. The timing is dictated by one of the goals of the Fellowship: holding the conference to communicate the candidate’s research to networks that will be useful during the tenure review process. Thus, the conference must be held no later than the semester during which tenure letters are requested (typically the Spring of counted year 6). If a department has in place rules that limit the timing of leaves, such rules continue to apply. 

Eligibility

Applicants must be tenure-track junior faculty at Columbia University in one of the six Social Science departments in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences or the School of International and Public Affairs who are on track to request tenure letters in Fall 2027 or later. The leave is to be spent on campus.

Applications are considered anew every semester. If you have applied in the past and were not awarded the fellowship, you are eligible to reapply if you still meet the above appointment and timing eligibility.

The Fellowship is competitive, and one Fellow will be selected per semester by the ISERP Executive Committee with the help of external reviewers. Each department is limited to two nominations per year. Applications for Spring 2027 are due by April 10, 2026. Please contact [email protected] with any questions on this process.                                                        

Applicants should submit

  • A research plan for the semester of leave (5,000 words maximum, including references).
  • A broad plan for the conference, including topic, duration, number of speakers, and examples of possible names (each with a relevant publication).
  • The applicant’s CV.
  • A confidential letter from the applicant’s chair (or vice dean for faculty for SIPA) that: (i) endorses the application and the applicant’s research; (ii) discusses the candidate’s previous research leave history and teaching record in the context of PTC expectations for the critical (“fifth-year”) review; (iii) reports the applicant’s salary; (iv) names a senior faculty member in the department as consultant for the organization of the conference.
  • A note of agreement by the senior faculty member nominated by the department chair. 

Applications should be submitted via email to Kathryn O’Donovan at [email protected]. 

A detailed line-item budget will be required six months in advance of the conference date (a budget sheet will be provided).