Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Recognizes 35 Scholars

$7 million in support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York awarded to scholars for work in the social sciences and humanities.

By Celeste FordApril 26, 2017

 

$7 million in support from Carnegie Corporation of New York awarded to scholars for work in the social sciences and humanities.

2017 Carnegie Fellows Program Announcement
 

In keeping with its mission to advance and disseminate knowledge and understanding, Carnegie Corporation of New York today announced 35 recipients of the 2017 Andrew Carnegie fellowships, with awards totaling $7 million. Each fellow will receive up to $200,000 toward the funding of significant research and writing in the social sciences and humanities—the most generous stipend of its kind. 

 

The program recognizes an exceptional group of both established and emerging scholars, journalists, and authors with the goal of strengthening U.S. democracy, driving technological and cultural creativity, exploring global connections and global ruptures, and improving both natural and human environments. 

The winning proposals address issues such as inequity in U.S. education, radicalization via social media, human trust and autonomous technology such as driverless cars, global governance of technology that can engineer climate change, voting and election processes in the United States, the legal limbo facing immigrants, misinformation that exacerbates the European refugee crisis, the global increase in violence against women in politics, and explorations of W.E.B. Du Bois’s democratic vision and Edmund Burke’s political theories.

“The health of our democracy depends on an informed citizenry, and our universities, academies, and academic associations play an essential role in replenishing critical information and providing knowledge through scholarship,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. “The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is designed to support scholarship that brings fresh perspectives from the social sciences and humanities to the social, political, and economic problems facing the United States and the world today.”

Gregorian noted that the selection committee comprises 16 distinguished scholars and intellectual leaders representing some of the world’s premier institutions of learning. Ten of them are either current or former university presidents. 

“It is inspiring to see proposals to carry out exceptionally high-caliber research on an extraordinary range of important topics,” said Susan Hockfield, chair of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program jury, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and president emerita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “As a lifelong scientist, I know firsthand what a difference a fellowship can make in developing the potential of a research plan and the continued growth of a scholar, whether the person is well established or relatively new to a field.” 

Each year as part of the fellows program, the Corporation seeks nominations from more than 600 leaders representing a range of universities, think tanks, publishers, independent scholars, and nonprofit organizations nationwide. For the class of 2017, they nominated some 200 candidates whose proposals were reviewed and rated by one or more of the 33 prominent scholars, educators, and intellectuals who serve as anonymous evaluators. 

The jurors were asked to consider the merits of each proposal based on its originality, promise, and potential impact on a particular field of scholarship. This year, 19 men and 16 women, representing 14 public and 21 private institutions, received fellowships. 

The anticipated result of each fellowship is a book or major study. Read more about the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, including the work of past honorees, and view an interactive timeline featuring the history of scholarly research at the Corporation. 

2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellows

Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Jurors

  • Chair: Susan Hockfield, president, American Association for the Advancement of Science and president emerita, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • The late Ralph Cicerone, president, National Academy of Sciences
  • Jared L. Cohon, president emeritus and university professor of engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Mary Sue Coleman, president, Association of American Universities and president emerita, University of Michigan
  • John J. DeGioia, president, Georgetown University
  • Robbert Dijkgraaf, director and Leon Levy Professor, Institute for Advanced Study
  • Jonathan Fanton, president, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
  • Amy Gutmann, president, University of Pennsylvania
  • Rush D. Holt, CEO, American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
  • Ira Katznelson, president, Social Science Research Council
  • Arthur Levine, president, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
  • Earl Lewis, president, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
  • Don Randel, chair of the board, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
  • Louise Richardson, vice-chancellor, University of Oxford
  • Pauline Yu, president, American Council of Learned Societies

Follow news about the fellows at #CarnegieFellows and @CarnegieCorp.


About Carnegie Corporation of New York

Carnegie Corporation of New York was established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation's work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, education and knowledge, and a strong democracy. 

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