Visiting fellows program

The visiting fellows program will become the center’s signature initiative, offering social justice changemakers (activists, artists, advocates, and scholars) a prestigious, highly competitive award designed to recognize their transformative work and provide resources for future endeavors. Established national social justice leaders, artists, grassroots organizers, and faculty from historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions will be given the time, space, and resources to write and produce catalyst projects that are grounded in research and have clear potential to inform public debate, policy development, and future scholarly analysis. Examples of catalyst projects include activist memoirs, documentary films, archive building, and monographs that seek to advance the conversation on racial justice and draw upon the vast amounts of research on racial processes and outcomes.

Engaging with these changemakers will be deeply meaningful to U-M faculty, staff, and students both for their own work and for the opportunity to observe (and help shape) the projects of these highly influential people. Visiting fellows will participate in our campus-wide events and a faculty and graduate student reading group. Additionally, visiting fellows will participate in the Supporting Changemakers Workshop to cultivate strategies and tools to develop their catalyst projects.

Our inaugural call for applications will launch in winter 2022.