Syracuse Sun

Syracuse University is inviting its faculty to apply for the Lender Center for Social Justice Faculty Fellowship for the 2025-27 term. The fellowship, now in its seventh year, supports research on contemporary social issues and offers faculty members the opportunity to collaborate with student research fellows.

Selected faculty fellows will receive financial support, including $5,000 annually and $7,500 each summer over two years for research purposes. An additional $5,000 is allocated to help publicize and present findings at the annual Lender Center symposium.

The fellowship is open to all full-time faculty members at Syracuse University. Applications must be submitted by April 11 at 5 p.m., with further details available on the Lender Center's website. Inquiries can be directed to lendercenter@syr.edu.

Kendall Phillips, director of the Lender Center, encourages applicants to approach social justice broadly: “We encourage faculty to think of social justice in a broad sense and to develop projects that engage local, regional, national or global topics.” Phillips notes that previous fellows have found their experiences "rich, engaging and transformative."

Mona Bhan, a recent fellow from 2022-24, collaborated with doctoral students on researching community impacts of artificial intelligence. Other past fellows include Miriam Mutambudzi (2024-26), Nausheen Husain (2023-25), Seyeon Lee (2021-23), Jonnell Robinson (2020-22), and Casarae Gibson-Abdul-Ghani (2019-21).

These scholars have explored diverse topics such as redlining effects on employment, media coverage of Muslim communities, AI systems' impact on human rights, wellness center designs' effectiveness, food systems during COVID-19 in Syracuse, and social media trends in social justice.