The application is now closed. applications for the 2025-27 academic fellowship will be accepted beginning in spring 2024.
The Academic Fellowship in Law and Political Economy is a two-year, residential postdoctoral program specifically designed to identify, cultivate, and promote promising scholars early in their careers with a primary interest in law and political economy. The program is open to holders of a JD or SJD from a law school in the United States who seek to focus on LPE as a theoretical and a pedagogical approach, or on programmatic efforts aimed at transformation of areas critical to American law and political economy, such as labor, racial capitalism, economic regulation, monetary design and finance, mass incarceration or other dimensions of criminal enforcement, voting rights, and technology.
Fellows are expected to devote their full time to scholarly activities in furtherance of their individual research agendas, and to contribute to the intellectual life of the Law and Political Economy Program at Harvard Law School through participating in LPE@HLS workshops and events, mentoring students, and presenting their research in and attending workshops and seminars. Fellows will be expected to be ready to go on the U.S. law teaching market in their second year of postdoctoral work, although this is not an absolute requirement and candidates may use their fellowship to complete work that would make them a strong candidate on the academic job market during the year after concluding the fellowship.
A showing that one is in the process of publishing, or has an advanced draft likely to be completed for publication early in their first year of fellowship and can dedicate significant time to preparation of a second major article to be used as their job talk paper, is an advantage.
The term for the postdoctoral fellowship will be from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026. The postdoctoral fellow will receive an annual stipend of $75,000. Fellows are expected to be in residence at Harvard Law School during the academic year, consistent with public health restrictions as they stand at that time.
Applicants should submit:
- a comprehensive résumé or curriculum vitae,
- a statement of the applicant’s interest in law teaching and legal scholarship, including a description of the fields in which the applicant expects to teach and pursue scholarship (1,500-word maximum),
- a detailed description of the research and writing project that will be undertaken during the first year of the fellowship (1,500-word maximum),
- undergraduate, law, and graduate program transcripts, and
- two letters of reference addressing the applicant’s potential for success as a legal scholar and law teacher (either included with the applicant’s other materials or sent directly from the recommenders). Recommenders can share their letters via this this page.
The final deadline to submit your application is September 1, 2023. Please direct any questions to Sanjay Jolly ([email protected]).
