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Center for Advanced Genocide Research

Call for Applications: 2026-2027 PhD Candidate Fellowships

Call for Applications from PhD Candidates

Greenberg Research Fellowship

Katz Research Fellowship in Genocide Studies

Breslauer, Rutman, and Anderson Research Fellowship

2026-2027

Deadline: January 15, 2026

The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research invites proposals for three research fellowships for advanced-standing PhD candidates: the 2026-2027 Margee and Douglas Greenberg Research Fellowship; the 2026-2027 Robert J. Katz Research Fellowship in Genocide Studies; and the 2026-2027 Breslauer, Rutman, and Anderson Research Fellowship.

Each fellowship provides $5,000 support and will be awarded to an outstanding advanced-standing PhD candidate from any discipline for dissertation research focused on testimony from the Visual History Archive and other unique USC resources.

The recipient will be required to spend one month in residence at the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research in Los Angeles during the 2026-2027 academic year. Each fellow will be expected to provide the Center with fresh perspectives, to play a role in Center activities, and to give a public talk during the stay.

Award decisions for each fellowship will be based on the originality of the research proposal and its potential to advance research with testimonies in the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive or other research resources at USC.

The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research distinguishes itself from other Holocaust and genocide research institutes by offering access to unique research resources and by focusing its research efforts on the interdisciplinary study of currently under-researched areas. (For more information, visit our website here.)

USC Resources

The Visual History Archive is a collection of over 59,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides, including the Rwandan, Armenian, Guatemalan, Cambodian genocides, the Nanjing Massacre in China, anti-Rohingya mass violence, and war and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The majority of testimonies are life history interviews in which interviewees discuss their lives before, during, and after genocide and mass violence. With interviews conducted in 70 countries and in 44 languages, testimonies capture both the individual experience of mass violence and the social and cultural history of the 20th century on a global scale. Learn more about the Visual History Archive here.

Other internationally unique and growing research resources at USC include the extensive Holocaust and Genocide Studies collection at USC Libraries, which contains 30,000 primary and secondary sources including the original transcripts of the Nuremberg trials and the materials of the New York Life Insurance settlement regarding the Armenian genocide. Unique primary sources in the Special Collections at USC include the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, which also houses the private papers of dozens of emigrants from the Third Reich, as well as private collections from Jewish Holocaust survivors and liberators.

Academic Disciplines

Since the Center’s founding, graduate students across disciplines have worked with these resources in innovative and creative ways, including in the fields of Anthropology, Art, Cinematic Arts, Comparative Literature, Critical Media Practice, Cultural Studies, English, European Studies, Geographic Information Science, Geography, History, Holocaust Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, Law, Literature and Creative Writing, Music, and Sociology.

Application Instructions

To submit an application:

Email the following materials to cagr@usc.edu or upload them to the Fellowships page of the Center’s website. (Visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/cagr/fellowships, click on any of the PhD candidate fellowships listed above, and click Apply.)

  • cover letter (including proposed dates of residency)
  • CV
  • proposal abstract (1-3 pages)
  • writing sample
  • recommendation letter from your PhD advisor submitted directly to cagr@usc.edu

Applications are due by January 15, 2026.

Each submission will be considered for all three fellowships so only one set of materials is required.

For questions, please contact cagr@usc.edu.

Download the Call for Applications here. Please circulate widely.