Public Scholarship Program
The Public Scholarship Program is a remote fellowship that introduces political science graduate students to the intellectual and practical aspects of presenting academic scholarship to the public. In doing so, the program advances several core aims of APSA’s mission: supporting informed discourse about politics, policy, and civic participation, disseminating information and publishing research findings, and enhancing the capacity of political scientists to communicate their ideas within the discipline and to the wider public.
During the fellowship period, fellows will focus on producing public-facing summaries of articles from the American Political Science Review. This will involve communicating with APSR editors and authors under the supervision of APSA staff. Fellows will also produce previews and recaps of Annual Meeting events such as author-meets-critics panels. Fellows will be invited to prepare a public-facing post on their own research interests. All of this work will be shared via APSA’s newly redesigned blog, politicalsciencenow.com, as well as on APSA social media accounts.
- Timing: Fellows will participate in a 6-month fellowship beginning in the early spring of 2019 with a two-day public scholarship workshop at APSA headquarters in Washington, DC.
- Training:
- In advance of the workshop, fellows will complete the American Copy Editors Society Certificate in Editing course. This training covers a range of topics including the fundamentals of editing, writing online headlines, and writing clearly and concisely. They will also be asked to read Going Public: A Guide for Social Scientists by Arlene Stein and Jessie Daniels (and will be provided with complementary copies).
- The public scholarship workshop will feature training by APSA staff, as well as presentations from experts in political science, public scholarship, and communication.
- Support: Fellows will receive a $2000 stipend to support their work, as well as an American Copy-Editors Society Certificate in Editing Course, will have their food, lodging, and travel expenses covered for the public scholarship training workshop, and will receive complementary registration and lodging for the 2019 APSA Annual Meeting.
Eligibility
We welcome doctoral students in political science who have completed their first year of graduate work by September, 2018. Among the criteria for selection are applicant’s interest and investment in public scholarship, as well as ability to write for a general audience. Anyone with an interest in public scholarship is encouraged to apply, whether or not that interest is explicit in their existing work.
Application
Proposals are due by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, February 3rd, 2020. Please contact publicscholarship@apsanet.org with any questions.
Application materials:
- CV: 2 pages maximum. Please include contact information, academic department, relevant employment and service history, and academic accomplishments. Applicants who have published work in popular magazines, newspapers, or blogs (e.g. the Duck of Minerva, The Monkey Cage) are encouraged to list those citations in addition to any scholarly publications.
- Statement of Interest: 1 page single-spaced maximum, 12 point font.
- Academic Translation Writing Sample (1000 word maximum, 12 point font): Select an article from a 2018 issue of the American Political Science Review and write a summary of the article that would be accessible and engaging to a member of the general public (someone without an advanced degree in political science). You may need to leave some details of the article out for space, and you may choose to highlight others in consideration of your public audience.