- Deadline
- Passed
The Open Society Fellowship is designed to support individuals pursuing innovative and unconventional approaches to fundamental open society challenges.
The Open Society Fellowship is no longer accepting applications. This page will be updated with any new information on upcoming grant cycles. Inquiries can be directed to osfellows@opensocietyfoundations.org.
Purpose and Priorities
The Open Society Fellowship was founded in 2008 to support individuals pursuing innovative and unconventional approaches to fundamental open society challenges. The fellowship funds work that will enrich public understanding of those challenges and stimulate far-reaching and probing conversations within the Open Society Foundations and in the world.
Open Society fellows produce work outputs of their own choosing, such as a book, journalistic or academic articles, art projects, a series of convenings, etc. In addition, fellowship cohorts may develop a joint work product of some sort. Fellowship staff will assist cohorts in brainstorming possible outputs if needed.
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Noah Zatz
2017Noah Zatz examined how government threats of incarceration force people in the United States into precarious and underpaid work situations, a phenomenon he calls “get to work or go to jail.” -
Bálint Magyar
2015Bálint Magyar, a former Minister of Education for Hungary, was looking at several post-communist states, whose actions are warped by the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of corrupt political “families.” -
Euclides Gonçalves
2015Euclides Gonsalves looked at the creative ways citizens and government officials in Mozambique put bureaucratic documents to work to advance their own interests. -
James Murombedzi
2015James Murombedzi was looking at how land expropriations affect rural farmers and local governance in Africa. -
Liz Evans
2015Liz Evans was producing a guide to help urban communities change how addicts are seen and to improve methods of treatment. -
Lucia Nader
2015Lucia Nader was looking at how rights-based groups in Brazil, the United States, and Europe have responded to the demands of mass protest movements. -
Pablo Ortellado
2015Pablo Ortellado’s project was looking at why international protest movements often reject representative government while simultaneously demanding better public services from the state—and what can be done about it. -
Sasha Polakow-Suransky
2015Sasha Polakow-Suransky was writing a book on the long-term consequences of immigration—and the political backlash against it—in France, Denmark, Holland, South Africa, and Australia. -
Shekhar Singh
2015Shekhar Singh, an activist and academic, was exploring the mixed success of Right to Information laws in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh in achieving accountability from governments and other actors. -
Chitrangada Choudhury
2014Chitrangada Choudhury, a journalist and researcher, was chronicling the profound effects of resource conflicts on the lives of marginalized and indigenous communities in India’s forested mineral belt. -
Katrin Hansing
2014Katrin Hansing was examining the impact of the complex economic and social reforms taking place in Cuba. -
Leonard Wantchekon
2014Leonard Wantchekon was examining the complex relationship between rural infrastructure availability and food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. -
Michael Bach
2014Michael Bach was designing a strategy that enables people with significant disabilities to enjoy full recognition under the law. -
Michael Sfard
2014Michael Sfard, an attorney specializing in international humanitarian law and human rights, was examining the last four decades of human rights litigation in Israel on issues related to the occupied Palestinian territories. -
Prashant Sharma
2014Prashant Sharma, an expert in governance and development, was examining whether public–private partnerships are accountable to citizens in India. -
Alexander Cooley
2009As an Open Society Fellow, Alexander Cooley wrote about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as military basing policies in Central Asia. -
Basharat Peer
2009As an Open Society Fellow, Basharat Peer began writing a book about India’s Muslim community. -
Elizabeth MacKenzie Biedell
2009Elizabeth MacKenzie Biedell, a former intelligence analyst, explores how American presidents use classified information as they lead the nation to war. -
Eric Stover
2009Open Society Fellow Eric Stover examined how well war crimes tribunals serve victims of mass violence. -
Jonny Steinberg
2009Jonny Steinberg is the author of several books about everyday life in the wake of South Africa s transition to democracy. -
Mark Hertsgaard
2009Open Society Fellow Mark Hertsgaard is a journalist and author whose work focuses on new ways of understanding and combating climate change. -
Rebecca Hamilton
2009As an Open Society Fellow, Hamilton researched her book ‘Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide,’ which investigates the impact of Darfur advocacy on foreign policy. -
Rebecca MacKinnon
2009As an Open Society Fellow, Rebecca MacKinnon conducted research for her first book, Consent of the Networked. -
Richard Cizik
2009As an Open Society Fellow, Cizik worked to bring evangelicals, policymakers, and activists together to address climate change, immigration, and criminal justice challenges. -
Richard Horsey
2009As an Open Society Fellow, Richard Horsey, a Burma analyst and labor rights advocate, wrote the first comprehensive account of International Labor Organization efforts to address forced labor abuses in Burma.
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