INQUIRY ACROSS TRADITIONS

The Inquiry Across Traditions (IAT) Fellowship Initiative is a program for the 2026-2027 academic year designed to empower students and recent graduates (within 1 year) to lead mission-aligned reading and discussion groups within the Berkeley Institute space, in conversation with our Fall 2026 semester theme, “Human Dignity” and our Spring 2027 theme (to be announced). Fellows will lead reading groups, co-sponsored with a campus RSO, department, or affiliated group, across 4 to 6 weeks. Fellows will also participate in a roundtable discussion, contribute written reflections, and have the potential opportunity to contribute to a Berkeley Institute symposium and special publication. Learn more about this fellowship initiative by reading our IAT Program Overview.

Apply for the Fall 2026 Fellowship here

Apply by Thursday, September 10 for priority consideration. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis through Friday, September 25. Email your application to iat@binst.org and info@binst.org with the subject, “IAT Fellow Application - Fall 2026”.

Get inspiration from our Ideas for Texts.

Review our FAQs below and reach out to iat@binst.org with any questions.

The Inquiry Across Traditions Fellowship Initiative has been made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

FAQs

The application requests information for two fellowship applicants. Can I apply on my own? Can more than two applicants apply together?

We require two applicants per application; an individual applicant cannot apply on their own. We may consider applications with three applicants if the application sufficiently demonstrates the need for three facilitators. As a reminder, each application needs to have a campus RSO, department, or affiliated group to advertise and promote their reading group in order to be considered.

How many fellows will be selected? How many reading groups will there be?

We aim for no more than 4 reading groups in the fall semester; we anticipate up to 8 fellows. Applicants apply to participate in the fellowship for one semester. A new call for applicants will be introduced in advance of the Spring semester fellowship.

Do you have to propose a project within the intellectual tradition you are coming from, or from which your campus RSO, department, or affiliated group represents?

Definitely not. We are interested in bringing together people from different intellectual traditions to explore our semester theme together. This might mean that you propose a text and set of questions that you’re deeply familiar with, or you might propose a text and set of questions from a new perspective you want to explore with others.

Do I have to propose a text from the list of Ideas for Texts, or can I propose a different text to think through?

Yes, you can certainly propose texts that are not on our Ideas for Texts list, provided there is a strong connection to our semester theme and the questions we’re asking under that theme. Think of the list as a starting point showing what is possible. We will give priority to applications that will focus on a single text, and we discourage applications proposing compilations of shorter texts.