Abe Fellowship

Amount: 1-3 years full-time salary
Deadline: 09.01.08
To Submit: http://fellowships.ssrc.org/abe/detailed_app_criteria/

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP), and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) announce the annual Abe Fellowship Program competition. Funding for the Abe Fellowship Program is provided by CGP.

The Abe Fellowship is designed to encourage international multidisciplinary research on topics of pressing global concern. The program seeks to foster the development of a new generation of researchers who are interested in policy-relevant topics of long-range importance and who are willing to become key members of a bilateral and global research network built around such topics. It strives especially to promote a new level of intellectual cooperation between the Japanese and American academic and professional communities committed to and trained for advancing global understanding and problem solving.

Applicants are invited to submit proposals for research in the social sciences and related disciplines relevant to any one or any combination of the three themes below. Research proposals bearing on these themes may address issues related to human security, multilateralism, bilateralism, U.S.-Japan relations, transnational economic relations, the empowerment of peoples and communities, and sustainable development, among others. The themes are:

1) Traditional and non-traditional approaches to security and diplomacy: Appropriate research topics include transnational terrorism, internal ethnic and religious strife, infectious diseases, food safety, climate change, and non-proliferation, as well as the role of cultural initiatives in peace building.

2) Global and regional economic issues: Suitable topics include regional and bilateral trade arrangements, globalization and the mitigation of its adverse consequences, sustainable urbanization, and environmental degradation.

3) The role of civil society: Appropriate issues include demographic change, immigration, the role of NPOs and NGOs as champions of the public interest, social enterprise, and corporate social responsibility.

Across the Program's three dominant themes, priority is given to projects that demonstrate important contributions to intellectual and/or policy debates and break new theoretical or empirical ground. Applicants are expected to show how the proposed project goes beyond previous work on the topic and builds on prior skills to move into new intellectual terrain.

Please note that the purpose of this Fellowship is to support research activities. Therefore, projects whose sole aim is travel, cultural exchange, and/or language training will not be considered. However, funds for language tutoring or refresher courses in the service of research goals will be included in the award if the proposal includes explicit justification for such activities.

This competition is open to citizens of the United States and Japan as well as to nationals of other countries who can demonstrate strong and serious long-term affiliations with research communities in Japan or the United States, and who do not already hold a Japan Foundation Fellowship for the same fiscal year (April 1-March 31).

Back to other Member Opportunities