The Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society (BKC) seek a Fellow for the 2025-2026 Academic Year. This joint fellow will work closely with the Allen Lab’s research program on technology and democracy and with the Berkman Klein Center’s growing slate of research projects and tools centered around the public interest. As multidisciplinary research labs, this fellow’s interests should span technology, policy, and ethics, and their work should be translatable and scalable from research to impact.
The goals of this fellowship are two-fold: First, to ensure that technologists at BKC confront the ethics and politics of specific technologies being developed; and, second, to train an advanced student in the humanities or social sciences to contribute humanistic knowledge to the work of research, policy, and industry practices. Sharing time between these two organizations will empower the fellow to engage in both academic research and applied work.
The fellow will aim, in their work with the Allen Lab, to develop a research agenda on the ethics and/or political economy of emerging technologies, with particular attention to issues of power, democracy, political equality, and human flourishing. Simultaneously, the fellow will be involved in shaping the implications of policy and the processes and considerations for its implementation into technological development through the Berkman Klein Center.
Fellows will share their time approximately 50/50 between Allen Lab and the Berkman Klein Center – developing relationships, advising on projects and initiatives, and conducting events that support the work of both labs.
The duration of a Fellowship is typically one academic year, running from September 1 to August 31. Fellows are offered a wide range of academic and professional resources at Harvard, including physical and online library access and use of a shared workspace.
In this fellowship, we anticipate that you will do the following:
Allen Lab
- Work with Lab leaders and contributors to identify opportunities to embed robust ethical frameworks in the development of innovative technologies, identify potential policy actions to support the development and use of ethical technology, and surface outstanding questions and challenges to doing so
- Develop relevant essays, white papers, briefs, etc. in coordination with Lab leadership, which will be published by the Allen Lab/Ash Center and amplified through communications channels
- Engage with the Allen Lab community, as well as the Ash Center broadly. This includes attending monthly Lab meetings, presenting work at Lab meetings, and participating in weekly GETTING-Plurality Research Network meetings.
Berkman Klein Center
- Work closely with Center leadership, faculty, and community members to define scope, plan projects, and drive research efforts across the Center’s workstreams
- Serve as a primary and/or contributing author on publications and work products, including white papers, community posts, etc.
- Lead and/or participate in events that are oriented around presenting research findings and/or product developments from the Center’s workstreams
Joint efforts
- Host one public-facing convening (ie book talk, speaker series, panel, salon, etc.)
The BKC-Allen Lab Fellow will receive a total stipend of $75,000. This fellowship will be based in-person on campus in Cambridge, MA.
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Who should apply?
Required Qualifications
- Emerging scholars with expertise in law, public policy, philosophy, political theory, political science, history of science, or a related field; individuals who will be enrolled in a degree program in the Fall of 2025 are not eligible for this position. You may not hold another position simultaneous with this fellowship.
- Demonstrated interest in ethics, public policy, and the history of science and technology.
- Research portfolio developing novel frameworks for the ethics and governance of emerging digital technologies
Application Timeline
We are opening the call for proposals and conducting a thorough review of all applications. We expect to conduct interviews with select candidates in the coming months and make our final selection by June 2025.
How to Apply
Applications will be accepted until Wednesday, April 30, at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. We are accepting applications for the Berkman Klein-Allen Lab fellowship as part of the broader Berkman Klein Center's open call for fellowship applications. In addition to personal and work-related questions, applicants will be required to upload the following documents. Please consider this information carefully and ensure your attachments meet these requirements:
- CV
- 1-2 page cover letter: Indicate interest in the BKC<>Allen workstream and share relevant background. If applicable, kindly alert us to any relevant deadlines at your home institution that might affect your ability to accept a fellowship appointment.
- 2-3 page project proposal:
- Please share one of the following:
- A summary of a past project, including outcomes and the publishing of any results. What did your project set out to accomplish? What were the outcomes? How does this project reflect your work, skill, and interests? How would you apply these to the initiatives at the Berkman Klein Center and the Allen Lab?
- A proposal for a new project – please include its goals, an estimate of related costs, and requested staff support (if applicable). What question or problem will the project address? How will the project address it? How, specifically, would you propose using your time as a BKC<>Allen Lab fellow to advance this project? How would this project benefit from collaborations with other faculty, staff, students, and fellows in your workstream?
- 1-3 work samples
Important Information
Please note: Harvard University recently provided a statement on financial stewardship that applies to the Berkman Klein Center’s fellowship roles. Current uncertainties in funding and appointments may affect the size of the cohort, or the ability to host one at all, for the 2025-26 academic year. The call described below solicits concrete candidate interest, and we’ll provide an update on next year’s program as soon as we have more certainty.
Please note that this fellowship is not considered employment, and upon completion, the BKC-Allen Lab Fellow will not be entitled to severance pay or layoff benefits.
Applicants that are based in the United States but are not United States citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents (“green card” holders) must ensure that their immigration status allows for the receipt of a stipend.
BKC-Allen Lab Fellows are responsible for tax reporting on their stipends. Please see more information on Harvard’s Policies page.
Fellows selected through this open call may be eligible to purchase health insurance through Harvard University.
For additional questions, please contact: [email protected].
International Applicants
We work with the Harvard International Office (HIO) to sponsor immigration paperwork for our eligible international fellows. An outline of the visa application process and requirements may be found on the HIO website: http://hio.harvard.edu/scholar-visa-process.
About the Berkman Klein Center
Mission
The Berkman Klein Center's mission is to explore and understand cyberspace; to study its development, dynamics, norms, and standards; and to assess the need or lack thereof for laws and sanctions.
We are a research center, premised on the observation that what we seek to learn is not already recorded. Our method is to build out into cyberspace, record data as we go, self-study, and share. Our mode is entrepreneurial nonprofit.
About the Center
We bring together the sharpest, most thoughtful people from around the globe to tackle the biggest challenges presented by the Internet.
As an interdisciplinary, University-wide center with a global scope, we have an unparalleled track record of leveraging exceptional academic rigor to produce real-world impact. We pride ourselves on pushing the edges of scholarly research, building tools and platforms that break new ground, and fostering active networks across diverse communities.
United by our commitment to the public interest, our vibrant, collaborative community of independent thinkers represents a wide range of philosophies and disciplines, making us a unique home for open-minded inquiry, debate, and experimentation.
About the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation
The Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation addresses threats to democracy that come from weakening institutions, interpersonal and informational distrust, and polarization with research and field-building to support healthy democracy. Our multidisciplinary community of scholars, practitioners, and partner organizations work together to shepherd concepts and reforms into practice—to translate research into impact. From community-led initiatives to national-level policies and structural reforms, the Allen Lab works to renovate American democracy.
The Lab launched in 2023 under the leadership of Danielle Allen, the Harvard University James Bryant Conant University Professor and Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and seeks to identify and develop emerging scholars and scholarly cohorts whose research will contribute to advances in democracy renovation. Our strategy for supporting healthy democracy derives from Danielle Allen’s political philosophy of power-sharing liberalism. The Lab is a program of the Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.
Community Principles, Policies, and Resources
The Berkman Klein Center community and how we interact with one another is governed by norms and policies developed and maintained by Harvard University and Harvard Law School. The Harvard Law School Community Principles, found in the Handbook of Academic Policies, read:
The Law School's commitments to fairness, respect for the rule of law, and free inquiry require an environment of trust and mutual respect, free expression and inquiry, and a commitment to truth, excellence, and lifelong learning. Students, program participants, faculty, staff, and alumni accept these principles when they join the Harvard Law School community and thereby agree to respect the rights, dignity, and differences of others, pursue honesty and integrity in dealing with all members of the community in person and online, and accept personal responsibility in these efforts.
Note that the Handbook has other sections applicable to BKC activities, notably the policies on Academic Honesty and Protest and Dissent.
The Berkman Klein Center maintains a page highlighting these policies and other applicable policies and resources for accessing additional University support.
Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging
The work and well-being of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society are profoundly strengthened by our differences in background, culture, experience, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, ability, and more. We actively seek and welcome applications from people of diverse backgrounds, including Black, Indigenous, Asian, Hispanic, and Latino/Latina/Latinx people; LGBTQIA+ people; non-binary people; women; people with disabilities; people at intersections of these identities; and people from and working across the spectrum of disciplines.