About the Society of Fellows
The USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities is an interdisciplinary community that supports advanced research by faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students, promoting intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.
The USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities is an interdisciplinary community of faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. The Society promotes intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Members meet regularly in formal and informal settings to present and discuss advanced scholarly research.
The Society normally admits five postdoctoral fellows each year. Fellows are appointed for two-year terms, during which time they pursue research and teach three courses over four semesters, with one semester for full-time research. They are expected to reside in the Los Angeles area during the academic year and to participate in the scholarly life of the Society, the host department, and the university. The salary for postdoctoral fellows is $70,000 per year plus fringe benefits, with an additional research and travel account of $6,000 per year.
Postdoctoral fellows are affiliated with the Society as well as with a USC department of their choice, and have faculty mentors in both. They engage with each other as well as humanities departments, institutes, and centers at USC and in the broader Los Angeles area.
Launched in Fall 2016, the Society of Fellows in the Humanities emerged from a previous program, the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellows in the Humanities. The Society builds on other programs sponsored by the Office of the Provost that champion the importance of the humanities for USC’s academic community, including Visions & Voices, faculty grants for Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and expanded support for outstanding humanities Ph.D. students through Provost’s Ph.D. Fellowships.
The USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities is a member of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes
The Society has several goals:
To support advanced scholarly research in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.
To build on USC’s commitment to interdisciplinary enquiry.
To further the professional development of junior scholars by providing: time for research and writing, the opportunity to establish a teaching portfolio, and mentoring to help them prepare for careers as tenure-track faculty.
To add new voices from other institutions to conversations within and across disciplines in the humanities and humanistic social sciences at USC.
To emphasize the value and place of the humanities within the university and in society at large.
To recognize and reward faculty excellence in research and mentoring.
To contribute to the intellectual and professional development of doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.
Research Topics
Each two-year cohort of the USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities is organized around a research topic that engages scholars across the humanities and humanistic social sciences. The topic for each cycle is announced in October.
2025–2027: Sites of Inquiry
Topic Director: Nancy Lutkehaus, Professor of Anthropology and Political Science, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Focusing on places and spaces of knowledge production such as the archive, the museum, the library, the university, the field, the laboratory, the clinic, the book, or the body, as well as questions of the politics and geography of the production, transmission, and translation of knowledge.