Thurgood Marshall Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellowship

The goal of the Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellowship is to promote student and faculty diversity at Dartmouth, and throughout higher education, by supporting completion of the doctorate by underrepresented minority scholars and other graduate scholars with a demonstrated commitment and ability to advance educational diversity. Fellows participate together in mentoring and professional development programming, including guidance in preparing for faculty careers. 

For general inquiries, please contact the Graduate School at (603) 646-2106 or email PROF.Fellows@Dartmouth.edu

Dartmouth College invites applications for the Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellowship. We seek applicants working in any geographies and disciplines and interdisciplinary spaces across African Diaspora, African American, African, or Africana Studies. Particular attention will be given to candidates whose work augments and complements current faculty in the African and African American Studies (AAAS) Department. Applicants will be selected on the basis of their academic achievement, promise in both research and teaching, and their demonstrated commitment to educational diversity. Applications from candidates who are underrepresented in their fields are especially welcome.

This is a two-year residential fellowship in which the fellow is focused on their research and writing. We seek scholars who can contribute to building the intellectual life of the AAAS department and Dartmouth College. Fellows are expected to complete the dissertation at the end of their first year and then transition to a postdoctoral appointment for the second year. In the first year, predoctoral fellows receive an annual stipend of approximately $47,000 plus benefits and an allocation for research expenses. In the second year, postdoctoral fellows receive a stipend of approximately $61,000 plus benefits and an allocation for research expenses (exact funding levels for 2025-27 will be set at the time of offer). Fellows will teach one course in the second year.

Marshall Fellows are part of the Provost's Fellowship Program, a multidisciplinary cohort of approximately ten predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars who share a commitment to increasing diversity in their disciplines. Fellows participate together in mentoring and professional development programming, including guidance in preparing for faculty careers. 

The Department of African and African American Studies and Dartmouth are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive population of students, faculty, and staff. Dartmouth recently launched a new initiative, Toward Equity, that embraces shared definitions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as a foundation for our success in institutional transformation. We are especially interested in applicants who are able to work effectively with students, faculty, and staff from all backgrounds and with different identities and attributes. Applicants should address in their fellowship statement how their teaching, research, service, and/or life experiences prepare them to advance Dartmouth's commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This statement will be evaluated as part of the selection process.

Application Materials

1. Research statement outlining completed research (including dissertation), work in progress, and plans for publication (maximum two pages single spaced);
2. Teaching statement outlining past and future teaching interests (maximum one page single spaced);
3. Fellowship program statement describing your motivations to join a multidisciplinary cohort; the statement should also describe prior and potential contributions to diversity in the context of academic research, teaching, and/or service (maximum one page single spaced);
4. Curriculum vitae;
5. Three confidential letters of recommendation, one of which must be from the dissertation advisor and address the projected timeline for completion, will be requested of semi-finalists. 

 The application for the 25-27 cycle is now available. Please apply via Interfolio. 

Brittney Frantece is a writer, artist, educator, and curator whose work delves into Black speculative literature and visual arts through the lens of Black feminist and queer theories. Her dissertation explores the new and otherworldly ways of thinking, being, and knowledge productions that Black imaginations offer. Science-fiction, surrealism, and horror are crucial concepts that run throughout Frantece's body of work. Her writing has appeared in Variable West, Black Embodiments Studio Journals, and various art writing collections. She curated Black Invention in 3 Parts (2023) at Soil Art Gallery, Portraits of Ecstatic Feeling: Al Smith Collection (2022) for MOHAI, and We Black, We Surreal (2023) and Queer Imaginations (2021) at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery.