Created by the Congress of the United States in 1968 as the nation's official memorial to its twenty-eighth president, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars seeks to commemorate both the scholarly depth and the public concerns of Woodrow Wilson through its program of advanced research and the communication it fosters between the world of learning and the world of public affairs.The Center awards approximately 35 residential fellowships annually in an international competition to individuals with outstanding project proposals representing the entire range of scholarship, with a strong emphasis on the humanities and social sciences. In addition to its residential fellowship program, the Center conducts conferences and seminars on a broad range of topics, and disseminates the content of these meetings and Fellows' research through The Wilson Quarterly, Woodrow Wilson Center Report, and Dialogue, the Center's radio program. Providing yet another outlet for the work conducted at the Center, the Woodrow Wilson Center Press, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Press and Cambridge University Press, copublishes for an international audience the results of selected meetings and Fellows' research.

Applications from any country are welcome. Men and women with outstanding capabilities and experience from a wide variety of backgrounds (including government, the corporate world, and the professions, as well as academia) are eligible for appointment. For academic participants, eligibility is limited to the postdoctoral level, and normally it is expected that academic candidates will have demonstrated their scholarly development by publication beyond the Ph.D. dissertation. For nonacademics, an equivalent degree of professional achievement is expected. An applicant working on a degree at the time of application (even if it is to be completed prior to the proposed fellowship year) is not eligible. All applicants should have a command of spoken English since the Center is designed to encourage the exchange of ideas among its Fellows.

The basic criteria for selection are a) the importance and originality of the project (the quality of the project proposal and the degree to which the key questions have been identified and a promising approach outlined), b) the applicant's scholarly promise, capabilities, achievement, and ability to accomplish the proposed project; and, c) the likelihood that the work, when completed, will advance basic understanding of the topic under study. Projects should involve fresh, critical research both in terms of the overall field and of the author's previous published work. The Center welcomes projects that transcend narrow specialties and do not represent essentially technical methodological issues of interest only within a specific academic discipline. The main criterion is the general importance of the project; will it generate a significant book?

The Center seeks to follow the principle of no gain/no loss in terms of a Fellow's previous year's salary. However, limited funds make it desirable for most applicants to seek supplementary sources of funding: sabbatical support, other fellowships, or foundation grants. In no case can the Center's stipend exceed $61,000; the average yearly support is approximately $47,500, including travel expenses for Fellows, their spouses, and their dependent children, and health insurance.

The Center holds one round of competitive selection per year. The deadline for the receipt of applications in the annual cycle is October 1, and decisions on appointment are announced by early March of the following year.

To obtain application forms or for further information, contact:

The Fellowships Office
The Woodrow Wilson Center
1000 Jefferson Drive S.W.
SI MRC 022
Washington, D.C. 20560
Telex: 264729
Fax: (202) 357 4439
Telephone: (202) 357-2841

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars subscribes to a policy of equal educational and employment opportunities.