- Deadline
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The Open Society Fellowship is designed to support individuals pursuing innovative and unconventional approaches to fundamental open society challenges.
Since 2008, the Open Society Fellowship has supported heterodox thinkers and practitioners from around the world. The fellowship helps elevate new voices to take part in global conversations on the most pressing issues of our time—from human rights and social justice to climate change and inequality—and provide established public intellectuals new audiences for their work. This year’s fellows will be chosen from selected areas, each home to a dynamic community of thinkers engaged in high-level critical debate.
We look forward to announcing the latest group of fellows in spring 2025.
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Adriana Paz Ramirez
2021Adriana Paz Ramirez, a labor rights organizer and popular educator, will research policy victories won by domestic workers in Latin America to understand how grassroots action can compel employers and states to obey the law. -
Boaventura Monjane
2021Boaventura Monjane, a journalist and scholar-activist, will research growing poverty, inequality, and the rollback of civil and political rights in Mozambique at a time when new development pathways are urgently needed. -
Nizar Hassan
2021Nizar Hassan, an organizer, producer, and political commentator, will create an online video platform for informative and accessible Arabic-language content that examines links between (in)equality, justice, and democracy. -
Ruth Castel-Branco
2021Ruth Castel-Branco will explore the relationship between land, labor, and social welfare in Mozambique. She hopes to contribute to and popularize debates on the political possibilities and limitations of post-work utopias. -
Sara Abbas
2021Sara Abbas will write a book about how communities formed collaborative groupings during the revolution in Sudan to achieve long-term, socioeconomic change. -
Ambika Satkunanathan
2018Ambika Satkunanathan's fellowship project looks at how the failure to consider patronage networks and political power relations can hamper the enforcement of human rights laws. -
Anat Shenker-Osorio
2018Anat Shenker-Osorio is analyzing materials from advocacy, opposition, traditional media, social media, and popular culture in order to reveal promising and problematic frames and word choices. -
Anna Macdonald
2018Anna Macdonald is investigating whether global treaties—such as the Arms Trade Treaty, which she helped negotiate—are effective at delivering progress on human rights. -
Bilge Yabanci
2018Bilge Yabanci is investigating whether new civil society groups in Turkey are contributing to democratic culture. -
Jonathan Rowson
2018Jonathan Rowson is working to reframe human rights language in a richer understanding of human nature and human experience. -
Jose Miguel Calatayud
2018Jose Miguel Calatayud, a journalist, is investigating the extent to which human rights in Europe can be re-situated within citizen-based political movements. -
Luis CdeBaca
2018Luis CdeBaca will apply lessons from corporate social responsibility campaigns to anti-slavery movements in the United States and globally. -
Manu Luksch
2018Manu Luksch is creating moving image artworks to call attention to the threats posed to human rights by the rise of algorithmically-managed societies. -
Nadia Marzouki
2018Nadia Marzouki is challenging the traditional view that liberal secularists are locked in battle with religious fundamentalists. Instead, she sees "civic ecumenism" as an effective counterweight to religious nationalism. -
Obinna Anyadike
2018Journalist Obinna Anyadike will look into the recruitment and retention practices of Boko Haram to better understand the consequences of military approaches to violent extremism. -
Papa Faye
2018Papa Faye is investigating whether existing legal frameworks effectively guarantee human rights enforcement in resource-rich regions. -
William Isaac
2018William Isaac is exploring the human rights implications of predictive algorithms used in policing. -
Zoltán Búzás
2018Zoltán Búzás, a political scientist, is writing a book about the “evasion” of human rights laws and norms. -
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.
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