Application
Each year the Society admits five postdoctoral fellows, who are appointed for two-year terms. The fellows 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 application portal for 2025–2027 is now closed.
The topic for the 2025–2027 cycle will be Sites of Inquiry. We invite applications from scholars whose research focuses on places and spaces of investigation, examination, and exploration, 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 knowledge production, transmission, and translation. Approaches to the topic might involve case studies investigating specific places or spaces of inquiry as well as theoretical frameworks.
The USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities is an interdisciplinary community that supports advanced research by postdoctoral fellows and faculty members, promoting intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Fellows meet regularly in formal and informal settings to present and discuss advanced scholarly research. Postdoctoral fellows are affiliated with the Society as well as with a USC department of their choice and have faculty mentors in both. Postdoctoral fellows in the humanities engage with each other as well as humanities departments, institutes, and centers at USC and in the broader Los Angeles area.
Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria: (1) the overall strength of the application, including the applicant’s past achievements; (2) the project’s significance, intellectual merit, and relevance to the research topic; (3) the applicant’s potential to contribute to the intellectual life of the Society of Fellows, their affiliated department, and the community of scholars at USC.
Applicants select a host department where they will be based and teach. The selection of the host department is left to the preference of the applicant and does not have to match their Ph.D. Not all departments and programs participate every year. If your preferred department or program is not listed and you do not find an adequate substitute, please check back next cycle. The following departments and programs will participate in the 2025–27 cycle:
Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Department of Anthropology
Department of Art History
Department of Classics
Department of Comparative Literature
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Department of English
Department of French and Italian
Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies
Department of History
Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures
Department of Philosophy
Department of Religion
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Department of Sociology
Annenberg School of Communication
Architectural History and Theory (School of Architecture)
Division of Cinema and Media Studies (School of Cinematic Arts)
Musicology (Thornton School of Music)
Applicants can access the application portal here or by clicking the “Apply” button below. You will be asked to create an account. Please carefully review our Application Materials, Eligibility, and FAQ pages before submitting your application or reaching out with any questions. Once submitted, applications and documents cannot be changed or updated.