Arts Initiative Fellowship with the Michigan Society of Fellows

The Michigan Society of Fellows invites applications to its new Arts Initiative fellowship program, a pilot program supporting one additional, dedicated fellowship position in the arts for the 2027–2030 fellowship term. Founded in 1970 as a place for scholars and artists newly emerging from graduate school to pursue research and creative projects while participating in wide interdisciplinary conversation, the Society has long included artists among its fellows. Poets, composers, and sculptors actively shaped the Society from its earliest days.

This three-year, residential fellowship is open to candidates who have completed an MFA degree or comparable terminal degree in the arts since 2024 and who wish to pursue creative work and research opportunities while teaching at a major research university. In its first pilot year, the Arts Initiative fellowship will be available in the following participating departments: Creative Writing and Film, Television, & Media. Applicants whose research and creative practice align with these fields are encouraged to apply.

An Arts Initiative fellow will join six other postdoctoral fellows drawn from the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and professions. Fellows are appointed as non-tenure-track Assistant Professors in appropriate departments and as Postdoctoral Scholars in the Michigan Society of Fellows for three-year terms to begin August 25, 2027. They teach the equivalent of one academic year of courses spread across the three-year fellowship term. The annual stipend will be $63,000, though some departments may have the capacity to provide additional salary support to better align the fellowship compensation with postdoctoral salary norms in their discipline.

The Society of Fellows and the University of Michigan recognize and value contributions to the processes of identifying and addressing the social, environmental, and technical challenges our societies and our planet face. We encourage applicants to comment in their creative proposal on how their research, teaching, service, creative practice, and outreach activities contribute to analyzing and tackling such challenges.

The application opens on August 1 and must be submitted electronically by Monday, September 14, 2026, 11:59 PM EDT.

An Equal Employment Opportunity Program

About University of Michigan - Society of Fellows
The Michigan Society of Fellows, under the auspices of the Rackham Graduate School, was founded in 1970 with support from the Ford Foundation and the Horace H. and Mary Rackham Funds. The Society brings together postdoctoral fellows and distinguished University of Michigan faculty from across the scholarly and artistic disciplines to foster cross-disciplinary conversation, methodological experimentation, and collaborative work. Each year, the Society welcomes six postdoctoral fellows for three-year terms, alongside senior fellows appointed from the U-M faculty for four-year terms. Seeking a broad balance across the sciences, engineering, public health, social sciences, education, humanities, and arts, the Society supports fellows whose scholarship or artistic practice is compelling, imaginative, and especially suited to a community where multiple fields of inquiry converge.

http://www.societyoffellows.umich.edu/