- 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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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.” -
Andrew Feinstein
2010Andrew Feinstein is the author of ‘The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade,’ a major history of the international weapons trade after the Cold War. -
Arun Kundnani
2010Arun Kundnani is a British writer and human rights activist who examined the shortcomings of the “hearts-and-minds” approach to militancy among Muslims in the United States and the United Kingdom. -
Hisham Aidi
2010Hisham Aidi, a political scientist, will look at how governments in Europe and North America use culture to “integrate” their Muslim communities. -
Howard French
2010Former ‘New York Times’ correspondent Howard French wrote an in-depth, journalistic account of Chinese migration to Africa in the past decade. -
Ike Okonta
2010Ike Okonta, a political analyst and writer, will study the failure of democratic and civic institutions in Nigeria almost four decades after the end of the bloody civil war in Biafra. -
James Stewart
2010Open Society Fellow James Stewart is writing a manual setting out the legal basis for prosecuting arms vendors for complicity in international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. -
Jian Yi
2010As an Open Society Fellow, Chinese filmmaker Jian Yi founded the IFChina Original Studio, an innovative community art center in Ji’an, Jiangxi, China. -
Ken Silverstein
2010Journalist Ken Silverstein will look at bribery and graft in international energy markets. -
Kung Li
2010As an Open Society Fellow, litigator and human rights activist Kung Li traveled across the American South to record stories of resiliency from embattled communities. -
Marcy Westerling
2010Open Society Fellow Marcy Westerling was a community organizer who mapped progressive infrastucture in rural areas. -
Noy Thrupkaew
2010An an Open Society Fellow, Noy Thrupkaew investigated the largest human trafficking cases in the United States, which involve hundreds of Thai farmers and Indian metalworkers. -
Rabab el-Mahdi
2010As an Open Society Fellow, political scientist Rabab el-Mahdi studied the prospects for democratization and social change in the Arab world. -
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. -
Tony Camerino
2009Tony Camerino is a former U.S. Air Force interrogator who, as an Open Society Fellow, worked on a new field manual based on humane, effective interrogation techniques. -
Zack Exley
2009Open Society Fellow Zack Exley worked to identify, in Missouri, “leaderless” organizing models that would enable local leaders, activists, and social service providers to mobilize diverse constituencies that do not normally work together.
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