- Deadline
- Passed
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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Hanaan Marwah
2020Hanaan Marwah, a finance industry professional and economic historian, will work on a book and conduct a series of seminars about the evolution of state-owned enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa and their influence on economic inequality. -
Leilani Farha
2020Leilani Farha, an expert and advocate on economic and social human rights, will document the growing financialization of residential real estate, globally, and its role as a primary cause of rising inequality. -
Ben Rawlence
2013Ben Rawlence was conducting interviews with young Somali refugees in Kenya and recording their stories of survival and their aspirations for the future. -
Helen Epstein
2013Helen Epstein was writing a book on charity and the politics of epidemics. -
Jennifer Gordon
2013Jennifer Gordon was looking at the harms posed to workers worldwide by increasingly common labor recruitment and subcontracting practices. -
Madawi al-Rasheed
2013Madawi al-Rasheed wrote about young Saudi Islamists and their attitudes toward democratization and the Arab uprisings. -
Timothy A. Wise
2013Timothy A. Wise studied the hidden links between food security and commodities markets. -
Vanda Felbab-Brown
2013Vanda Felbab-Brown was researching seven illicit economies to determine how best to understand and manage them in ways that enhance human security and human rights. -
Angelo Izama
2012Angelo Izama chronicled the rise of the oil sector in Uganda to find ways to counteract the “resource curse.” -
Asim Rafiqui
2012Photojournalist Asim Rafiqui used a variety of media to present a more nuanced and personal perspective on the issue of access to justice in Pakistan. -
David Cole
2012As an Open Society Fellow, David Cole was writing a book that explores the effectiveness of civil society organizations in making human rights meaningful. -
Diarmid O’Sullivan
2012Diarmid O’Sullivan investigated whether transparency in extractive industries led to greater accountability in resource-rich countries. -
Jacob Dlamini
2012Jacob Dlamini’s work examines the lingering effects of the apartheid-era culture of secrecy on South Africa’s efforts to forge a democratic and open society. -
Jameel Jaffer
2012Jameel Jaffer worked on a book tracing the erosion of individual privacy and the expansion of official secrecy since September 11, 2001. -
James Forman, Jr.
2012As an Open Society Fellow, James Forman, Jr., was working on an account of crime and criminal justice policy in Washington, D.C., from the early 1970s to the present. -
John Feffer
2012John Feffer interviewed leading activists and writers in Eastern Europe to derive lessons about the Soviet collapse and its aftermath. -
Mark Gevisser
2012As an Open Society Fellow, Mark Gevisser examined the reach and effect of the growing global campaign for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and intersexed people against the backdrop of globalization. -
Martina Vandenberg
2012Martina Vandenberg created a legal clearinghouse to assist trafficking victims in the United States. -
Petina Gappah
2012Petina Gappah surveyed the rising influence of Pentecostal churches in Africa and their effect on human rights, democracy, and social justice. -
Sarah Spencer
2012As an Open Society Fellow, Sarah Spencer investigated the provision of essential services to irregular migrants across Europe. -
Suki Kim
2012Suki Kim researched the political economy of migration from North Korea and recorded the stories of ordinary people caught in the division of the two Koreas.
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