The Harvard University Academy Scholars Program recognizes and supports excellent scholars at the start of their careers whose work merges disciplinary excellence in the social sciences or law with a command of the language and history or culture of countries or regions outside of the United States or Canada.
Their scholarship may inspire domestic, comparative, or transnational issues, past or present. The Harvard University Academy Scholars are a select community of individuals with resourcefulness, initiative, curiosity, and originality, whose work in cultures or regions outside of the US or Canada shows promise as a foundation for outstanding careers in major universities or international institutions.
About the University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was established in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world.
The Massachusetts colonial legislature approved Harvard’s founding, “dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust”; though never formally affiliated with any denomination, in its early years Harvard College primarily trained Congregational clergy.
Its curriculum and student body were slowly secularized during the 18th century, and by the 19th century, it had appeared as the central cultural establishment among the Boston elite.
However, after the American Civil War, President Charles William Eliot’s long tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard University became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.
James B. Conant led Harvard University through the Great Depression and World War II and liberalized admissions after the war.
The university is comprised of ten academic faculties plus the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Arts and Sciences offer to study in a broad range of academic disciplines for undergraduates and graduates, while the other faculties offer only graduate degrees, mostly professional.
Harvard University has three main campuses: the 209-acre (85 ha) Cambridge campus centered on Harvard Yard; an adjacent campus immediately across the Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston; and the medical campus in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. Harvard University’s endowment is valued at $53.2 billion, making it the largest of any academic institution.
In addition, endowment income helps promote the undergraduate college to admit students regardless of financial need and provide abundant financial aid with no loans.
The Harvard Library is the world’s largest academic library system, composing 79 individual libraries holding about 20.4 million items.
Worths of the scholarship
Postdoctoral Harvard University Academy Scholars Program will receive an annual stipend of $70,000. If selected before earning the Ph.D., the Students will receive an annual stipend of $35,000 until awarded the Ph.D. This stipend is supplemented by funding for conference and research travel, research assistants, and health insurance coverage. Some teaching is permitted but not needed.
Eligibility for Harvard University Academy Scholars Program
- The competition for Harvard University Academy Scholars Program is open only to recent Ph.D. (or comparable professional school degree) recipients and doctoral candidates in the social sciences or law.
- Those still pursuing a Ph.D. should have completed their routine training and be well along in the writing of their theses before applying to become Academy Scholars.
- If you have finished a Ph.D. program, the Ph.D. completion date must be within three years of the October 1 application deadline. For candidates applying for the October 1, 2022 deadline, you must have completed your Ph.D. or equivalent by September 30, 2018.
How to Apply for Harvard University Academy Scholars Program
- All application materials need for or Harvard University Academy Scholars Program to be submitted by the deadline of October 1. We do not accept late applications.
- The completed application will include:
- A cover letter that briefly states the applicant’s academic field, country or region of specialization, and proposed research topic
- Curriculum vitae (CV) or resumé; including a list of publications
- Research proposal (2500 word maximum); including intellectual objectives and planned methodological and disciplinary work
- A copy of your Ph.D. program transcript
- Three letters of recommendation (uploaded through the online application)
For more information, click here.
The Application Deadline for the Scholarship is October 1, 2023.
