The Institute for the Humanities has launched Scholars in Exile, a one-year residency on the Ann Arbor campus for a scholar focused on humanities research and who is living in exile due to war or persecution as the result of their academic work or civic engagement.
The new University of Michigan program is a collaboration with the Academy in Exile at TU Dortmund University, Germany. A second year of the scholar’s residency will be supported by AiE in Germany.
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While at U-M, the SiE scholar will be actively involved in the IH fellowship program as well as the department related to their academic discipline, including being connected with a mentor in that department. They will attend the IH weekly fellows seminar, present one or more lectures on campus, potentially teach a course, and will actively engage with faculty and students.
The program will provide salary, research funds, travel support and other assistance needed to pursue the recipient’s scholarly endeavors while enriching the U-M community with their expertise, creativity and international experience.
“In partnering with Academy in Exile, the Institute for the Humanities affirms its commitment to academic freedom, excellence in research, and global justice,” said Jason R. Young, director of the institute. “The SiE program allows the institute and the larger U-M community to engage directly in some of the most pressing social and intellectual challenges facing us today.”
Founded in 2017, Academy in Exile allows scholars who are threatened in their home countries because of their academic or civic engagement to resume their research abroad, providing a forum for reflecting on the pressing challenges to intellectual life, critical thinking, reason, social and environmental justice, and diversity that define the parameters of academic freedom.
The selected scholar will receive one year of support at U-M and one year through Academy in Exile. Since it began, Academy in Exile has supported 78 people from around the world, including Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Libya, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, India, Myanmar and Hong Kong.
U-M’s Scholar in Exile is not yet known, but is expected to be named later this month.
AiE received 258 applications from 28 countries for the 19 Mellon Foundation and VolkswagenStiftung-funded fellowships available for the 2025-26 academic year, including U-M’s scholar, indicating the profound and global need for such programs that support scholars and their academic endeavors.
The collaboration recently received a $25,000 support grant from the Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institute’s Global Justice and Humanities Practices Initiative.
The CHCI is a global forum that strengthens the work of humanities centers and institutes through advocacy, grant-making and inclusive collaboration. Its Global Justice and Humanities Practices Initiative brings humanistic research into urgent dialogue with contemporary struggles for justice, equity and collective memory.
Grant awards were based on projects that not only examine justice from an academic perspective but also engage with the lived experiences of communities facing historical and ongoing injustices.
