Important Notes
The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program aims to support the social sciences and humanities. For at least the next three years, the program will ask scholars to help Americans understand how and why our society has become so polarized. The foundation is interested in solutions-focused, pathbreaking research from across the humanities and social sciences, which may be relevant to polarization and social cohesion in America today.
The issue is characterized by threats to free speech, the decline of civil discourse, disagreement over basic facts, and a lack of mutual understanding and collaboration. In combination, these factors fracture our society, cause Americans to abandon the middle ground, and ultimately undermine our democracy.
Fellowships of $200,000 are awarded to exceptional scholars, authors, journalists, and public intellectuals. The criteria prioritize the originality and promise of the research, its potential impact on the field, and the scholar’s plans for communicating the findings to a broad audience. The funding is for a period of one or two years with the anticipated result of a book or major study.
Penn State may nominate one tenured and one untenured scholar.
Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Topic for 2026:
- Political Polarization
- The Corporation anticipates that the work of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program will explore the ways political polarization in the United States manifests itself in society and provide possible solutions to the problem. Studies of polarization in other countries will be considered providing they offer lessons that can be applied to the United States.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Proposals incorporate, among other elements, historical precedents, cultural underpinnings, and moral arguments.
- All recipients must be U.S. citizens or have permanent U.S. residency status.
- Candidates who have been nominated for the Fellows Program since the change of focus to polarization (i.e. who were nominated for the 2025 Fellowships) may not be nominated again during the current three-year period.
Nominations will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Originality and promise of the idea
- Quality of the proposal
- Record of the nominee
- Plans to communicate findings to a broad audience
- Promise to offer solutions to harmful polarization or to enhance social cohesion
Guidelines:
- Fellowships will not be awarded to support dissertations, debt repayments, lobbying efforts, the purchase of equipment, or rent.
- Fellowships may be used to support such expenses as salary, fringe benefits, project-related travel, research assistants, and translators.
- The fellowship must begin on the first of the month between June and September of 2026. It is not possible to defer the start of the fellowship. It must begin no later than September 1, 2026.
- No indirect/overhead costs will be allowed or paid to the university. Fellows shall receive the entire grant for support of the research project.
- You may choose to receive the award over a one- or two-year period. During the selected period, you may opt to go on sabbatical for the entire fellowship or a portion of it. You may also choose to teach classes part-time and/or to work on the project over the summer.
- Winners may not accept other fellowships in addition to the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship for the same period of time.
- Selected nominees will be notified by email shortly after the jury makes its final selections in late March 2026. If your nomination is unsuccessful, you will receive an email notification in April 2026.
