Philosophy in Media Fellowship Program (US)

The Foundation is pleased to share that they are now accepting applications for their second year of fellowships in 2025. Fellows will be academically-trained philosophers of all career stages who aim to write, speak to, and produce media for the general public in the form of essays (long- and short-form), trade-book writing, or podcasting.

Funding Information

• Successful fellows will receive a $1500 stipend and full room and board at one of their three media workshops, to be held between June 23 – July 1, 2025.

Duration

• The schedule of the workshops are organized as follows:
  • June 23-June 25, 2025: Essay Writing (Short- and Long-form):
    • Fellows will arrive the evening of June 22 and depart after the workshop concludes on June 25 at noon.
  • June 26-June 28, 2025: Trade Books and Publication:
    • Fellows will arrive the evening of June 25 and depart after the workshop concludes on June 28 at noon.
  • June 29 -July 1, 2025: Podcasting and Production:
    • Fellows will arrive the evening of June 28 and depart after the workshop concludes on July 1 at noon.

Eligibility Criteria

• Fellows will be accepted from all areas of philosophy, but should indicate both their professional areas of specialization and competence, as well as the topics or areas they would like to talk about when they speak to the public. Special consideration will be given to applicants whose professional or public-facing work focuses on race and racism, social justice, applied ethics of biology, technology, or other special sciences, and to applicants who are affiliated with HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges/universities, or underserved/under-resourced smaller regional or state schools.

Application Requirements

• The aim of this program is to find future public philosophers and for them to learn from the best. In your cover letter, they want to see evidence that you are committed to becoming a public philosopher and will execute a plan. To that end, in the cover letter, please include the following information:
  • What you plan to write/speak about: Is there a specific set of topics you’d like to cover? Are there specific views you want to get out there? Or do you want to cover something more broadly, like current events or something more timeless? Is there a certain approach you want to take, like bringing long-form, narrative journalism to philosophy? What do you want to do in the public space?
  • People or works that inspire or serve as models for you: Please include names of role models, pieces of writing, or podcasts that you want to learn from, emulate, or admire that inspire you to want to engage with public-facing work. It can be specific articles, figures, magazines, or podcasts, etc. This gives them an idea of what you’re reading, who you’re listening to, and what kind of voice you want to develop.
  • Aspirational plans/goals: Do you have a 1-year, 3-year, 5-year plan? If not a plan, what are your goals and how would you like your public scholarship to unfold? These don’t have to be ambitious, but they should be honest. There’s value in doing both a lot and a little of public philosophy, as there is value in doing both national/international and local/regional/niche work.

For more information, visit Marc Sanders Foundation.