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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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Year
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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. -
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. -
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.