The American Bar Foundation (ABF) seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. To further this mission, the ABF will produce timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and internationally.
ABF/AccessLex Institute Doctoral Fellowship Program in Legal & Higher Education
The purpose of this fellowship is to assist emerging scholars who are studying issues of access, affordability, or value in legal and higher education. This predoctoral fellowship program seeks to assemble and coordinate a professional network of scholars who will produce innovative, objective, empirical, and interdisciplinary research in the field.
Awards
Fellows will receive a stipend of $35,000 a year for two academic years beginning September 1, 2020. Predoctoral fellows should retain benefits, including healthcare, through their home institution. Fellows will have access to a modest research account to reimburse expenses associated with research, travel to meet with advisors, or travel to conferences at which papers are presented. Reasonable relocation expenses may be reimbursed on application.
Qualifications
The ABF/AccessLex Predoctoral Fellowship Program will support one predoctoral fellowship. Applications are invited from outstanding students who are candidates for LLM degrees, SJD degrees, and PhD degrees, across a broad range of disciplines, who have completed all doctoral requirements except the dissertation by September 1, 2020. Doctoral research must address significant issues in the field and show promise of a major contribution to social scientific understanding of legal or higher education. Students from underrepresented minority groups are especially encouraged to apply and there are no citizenship requirements for this fellowship.
To apply
Applications must include:
- 1-2 page cover letter
- 2-3 page description of a research project or interest that relates to legal or higher education
- Resume or CV
- A writing sample, reflective of a candidate’s best work and appropriate to a candidate’s discipline
- Names and contact information of three referees, one of whom should be the applicant’s dissertation chairperson or LLM/SJD advisor
- A Contributions to Diversity statement, 2-3 pages in length, highlighting demonstrated and planned efforts to promote diversity and equity through the applicant’s research or other work, including detailed examples and descriptions that demonstrate both understanding and actions in the following three areas:
- Awareness of and ability to articulate understanding regarding diversity broadly conceived, and historical, social, and economic factors that influence the under-representation of particular groups in academia; life experience may be an important aspect of this understanding
- A track record, calibrated to career stage, of engagement and activity related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; specific details about these activities should be provided, including goals, strategies, outcomes, and the applicant’s role in the cited activities
- Specific, concrete goals, plans, and priorities for engagement on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a potential faculty member
Submit all materials here by January 15, 2020. E-mail questions to fellowships@abfn.org with the subject line “ABF/AccessLex Doctoral Fellowship Program in Legal and Higher Education.”
ABF Doctoral Fellowship Program in Law & Inequality
The purpose of this fellowship is to encourage original and significant empirical and interdisciplinary research on the study of law and inequality.
Awards
Fellows will receive a stipend of $35,000 a year for two academic years beginning September 1, 2020. Predoctoral fellows should retain benefits, including healthcare, through their home institution. Fellows will have access to a modest research account to reimburse expenses associated with research, travel to meet with advisors, or travel to conferences at which papers are presented. Reasonable relocation expenses may be reimbursed on application.
Qualifications
Applications are invited from outstanding students who are candidates for PhD degrees and who have completed all doctoral requirements except the dissertation by September 1, 2020. Doctoral research must be in the general area of socio-legal studies or involve social scientific approaches to the law, legal institutions, legal processes, or social justice. The research must address significant issues in the field and show promise of a major contribution to social scientific understanding of law and inequality. Students from under-represented minority groups are especially encouraged to apply.
To apply
Applications must include:
- 1-2 page cover letter, including a statement of how the research project intersects with law and inequality
- A CV
- A dissertation abstract or proposal with an outline of the substance and methods of the research
- Names and contact information of three referees, one of whom should be the applicant’s dissertation chairperson
- A writing sample, reflective of a candidate’s best work and appropriate to a candidate’s discipline
- A Diversity Statement, not more than two pages, highlighting demonstrated and planned efforts to promote diversity and equity through their research, life experience, or other work
Submit all materials here by January 15, 2020. E-mail questions to fellowships@abfn.org with the subject line “ABF Doctoral Fellowship Program in Law & Inequality.”
ABF/AccessLex Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Legal & Higher Education
The purpose of this fellowship is to assist emerging scholars who are studying issues of access, affordability, or value in legal and higher education. This fellowship program seeks to assemble and coordinate a professional network of scholars who will produce innovative, objective, empirical, and interdisciplinary research in the field.
Awards
Fellows will receive a stipend of $65,000 a year for two academic years beginning September 1, 2020. Fellows will also have access to a modest research account to reimburse expenses associated with research, travel to meet with advisors, or travel to conferences at which papers are presented. Reasonable relocation expenses may be reimbursed on application.
Qualifications
The ABF/AccessLex Doctoral Fellowship Program will support one postdoctoral fellowship. Applications are invited from scholars who have recently received their JD, LLM, SJF, or PhD degrees (within the last four years) or who have completed all degree requirements by September 1, 2020. Research must address significant issues in the field and show promise of a major contribution to social scientific understanding of legal or higher education. Applicants from under-represented minority groups are especially encouraged to apply.
To apply
Applications must include:
- 1-2 page cover letter of application
- 2-3 page description of a research project or interest that relates to legal or higher education
- Resume or CV
- A writing sample, reflective of a candidate’s best work and appropriate to a candidate’s discipline
- Names and contact information of three referees, one of whom should be the applicant’s dissertation chairperson or JD/LLM/SJD advisor
- A Contributions to Diversity statement, 2-3 pages in length, highlighting demonstrated and planned efforts to promote diversity and equity through their research or other work, including detailed examples and descriptions that demonstrate both understanding and actions in the following three areas:
- Awareness of and ability to articulate understanding regarding diversity broadly conceived, and historical, social, and economic factors that influence the under-representation of particular groups in academia; life experience may be an important aspect of this understanding
- A track record, calibrated to career stage, of engagement and activity related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; specific details about these activities should be provided, including goals, strategies, outcomes, and the applicant’s role in the cited activities
- Specific, concrete goals, plans, and priorities for engagement on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a potential faculty member
Submit all materials here by January 15, 2020. E-mail questions to fellowships@abfn.org with the subject line “ABF/AccessLex Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Legal and Higher Education.”