Non-Resident Fellow

Non-Resident writing fellows are key contributors to S&S’ digital publications. They provide insightful ideas and editorial rigor for the blog. The program consists of both graduate students and professionals who can contributor at a higher level than normal Contributors. 

Supervisor: Editor in Chief

Position Length: 12 months

The primary responsibility of a non-resident fellow will be to publish regular content (at least one piece per month), based on their specific expertise. For instance, an economist would synthesize and translate emerging research in climate change economics, or development and education. An engineer might provide case studies on sustainable cities, tying these cases to broader themes in the urban ecology and urban sustainability literature. 

Further, non-resident fellows will be paired with one another to edit and provide review of draft articles. The editorial role is an important one and should be taken seriously. Editing should be done with a critical eye and should not be overly deferential to the original content. Edit your peers as you would self-edit. This process is the primary quality control on content produced by non-resident fellows. 

Non-resident fellows will have the opportunity, but will not be required, to publish their own research as S&S Working Papers. Further, as funding and time allows they will be given the opportunity to present at the weekly S&S seminars in Cambridge, MA. Finally, pending the availability of funding, Non-resident fellows will be first in line behind Resident Graduate fellows to receive funding from S&S. 

Fellows will be expected to sign up for individual deadlines on the publication calendar at the beginning of each semester (Fall, Spring and Summer). These will be the dates by which they will submit publishable content to the Content Coordinator. 

We expect our articles to be rigorous but not original research. Rather, the articles should be pieces that bring out new information, or make new connections between existing information, related to the fellows’ research or areas of interest. These will likely take three primary forms:

1.     Publication, for a lay audience, of results related to the graduate fellows research. These could be written prior to the publication of an academic article or subsequent to a journal article. Alternatively, these could be pieces that explain the importance of the graduate fellow’s research but do not include specific results in order to build to future pieces with results. For an example of this type of post see here.

2.     A piece that reviews the state of the art in the field and explains why it matters for a lay audience. These should focus on a single new advancement or publication rather than a broad overview. Ideally they would cover the publication of a new journal article related to the graduate fellow’s research. The most important part about these pieces is that they frame, explain and connect the new research to existing policy debates or current events. The ultimate goal is to take a specific example and connect it to the broader themes that the fellow explores in their research. For an example that connects a pilot education project to the Big Data theme see here.

3.     A discussion of a recent, or pending, policy development that has a direct relationship to academic research. The relationship could be one where recent academic research has something relevant to say about the shape that the policy should take or it could be one where the policy is an example of something predicted by academic theory. In either case, the goal is to explain how the research and the policy development are connected and what additional research might suggest about future policy developments. 

We do not expect that articles will be original research or something on par with what would be published in an academic journal. Articles of that nature require far more time than what we expect fellows to be spending on each article (around 10 hours).

For additional guidance on writing style and content see the Editorial Guidelines or talk to the Editor in Chief.  For additional details about S&S feel free to visit our webpage www.senseandsustainability.net or send us an email with any questions you may have. 

To apply, please send CV and cover letter to editor@senseandsustainability.net.