NIAS Theme Group Fellowships

A Theme Group Fellowship is a full residency. Members step away from their regular obligations to work together daily on the shared topic and on their own projects in the humanities and/or social sciences. They are part of the wider community of fellows, taking part in the communal lunches and the weekly seminar at which fellows present their work in progress. Theme groups are selected through the annual Open Call, and the NIAS Director may also invite a group.

The fellowship is open to scholars from the Netherlands and abroad whose project falls broadly within the humanities and/or social sciences. Each member should have at least three years of academic experience after obtaining their PhD by the date the call closes. Scholars without a permanent position at a university or research institute are also eligible.

The working language at NIAS is English. Applicants should speak and write it well enough to take a full part in the life of the institute and to benefit from the responses of their peers.

NIAS aims for a balanced cohort each year in terms of academic culture, gender, career stage and discipline. The full list of formal requirements is set out under formal requirements.

Each member receives a personal stipend. For members affiliated with a Dutch university or research institute, a Dutch University Grant is paid to their institution instead. NIAS provides each member with an office and research facilities and, depending on availability, subsidised accommodation in Amsterdam for members from abroad.

A fellowship at NIAS is a full-time commitment. Fellows are expected to be at the institute four days a week from the start to the end of their fellowship, including Thursdays for the weekly seminar. They are also expected to take part in the introduction period in the first two weeks of their fellowship and to acknowledge NIAS in publications and other work resulting from it.They are advised to make arrangements with their home institutions well before the fellowship begins. More information is available under What NIAS offers and Commitment, rules and regulations.

A Theme Group application consists of a group proposal and an individual application from every member, including the coordinator. Both are submitted through the application module on the NIAS website. Only complete applications are considered, so the coordinator is advised to make sure all members have submitted their forms before the call closes.

The group proposal may not exceed 1,500 words, including footnotes and excluding references. It covers the following points.

• The title, topic and main idea of the project
• Its relation to the existing literature
• Its academic and societal relevance
• The methodology
• The interdisciplinary character of the project, the benefit of working as a group and the contribution of the NIAS environment
• The intended output, such as articles, monographs, lectures, databases or websites
• A definitive list of the two to four members

The individual application follows the instructions under Applying for a NIAS Fellowship. Sample forms for both parts are available there.

Theme Group applications go through the same five stages as applications for Individual Fellowships, as described under Selection procedure. The three groups with the highest scores from the external referees are presented to the Fellowship Advisory Committee, which advises the NIAS Director. By 15 December 2027, the Director informs each coordinator whether the group has been selected, placed on reserve or rejected.

• Why do adults change their beliefs?
• Ecology and Belonging: In Search of a New Political Space
• Early Dutch Commerce and Indigenous Landscapes
• Re-imagining Security Labour
• Future of Progressive Politics
• The Spatial Segregation of Neighborhood Organizations and Entrepreneurs: Connecting Urban Inequality to the Built Environment
• Political theories of involuntary servitude within Europe (1600 – 1850)
• The Politics of Defamiliarization: the Common and the Strange in Contemporary Europe
• Legal Mobilization: Analyzing Law-based Advocacy
• Commodity Frontiers and the Making of Global Capitalism