Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice and John Carter Brown Library Joint Fellowship

The John Carter Brown Library (JCB) and the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University (Simmons Center) invite applications for a postdoctoral fellowship focused on any area/theme of historical scholarship around African racial slavery, and/ or Indigenous dispossession and slavery. The fellowship is also open to scholars working on the relationships between African slavery and Indigenous slavery and dispossession as well as related issues of freedom and sovereignty. Combining the mission and resources of the Simmons Center and the JCB, we expect to support a single fellow doing advanced research for a year (12 months) in residence beginning July 2026. The Simmons Center-JCB postdoctoral fellowship is expected to be offered annually in recognition of our collective commitment to advance scholarship in critical areas. Applications representing a wide range of disciplinary perspectives are welcome.

Applicants must have completed doctoral work by the time of application and should expect to submit a letter of application explaining how the combined resources of the Simmons Center and the JCB would provide particular and distinctive support to the applicants’ research. Fellows will be asked to participate in the intellectual community at Brown, in and through the Simmons Center and the JCB, to include an opportunity to share their research at a jointly sponsored event.

Please note that the deadline for this opportunity has passed.