[Air-L] Berkman Center Accepting Fellowship Applications for the 2014-2015 Academic Year

[Rebecca Tabasky]

Hello!

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University has 
opened our yearly call for fellowship applications. This opportunity is 
for colleagues who wish to spend the 2014-2015 academic year in 
residence in Cambridge, MA as part of Berkman's community of pioneers, 
and who seek to deeply engage in the collaborative, cross-disciplinary, 
and cross-sectoral exploration of some of the Internet's most 
interesting, challenging, and compelling issues.

We invite applications from individuals from around the globe working on 
a broad range of opportunities and challenges related to Internet and 
society, which may overlap with ongoing work at Berkman or will expose 
us to new opportunities and approaches. We encourage applications from a 
diverse group of scholars, practitioners, innovators, artists, and 
others committed to understanding and advancing the public interest.

The application deadline is Sunday December 8, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. 
Eastern Time, and applications will be **submitted online through our 
Application Tracker tool at: 
https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/apply/jobs/11?apptracker_id=3 
<https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/apply/jobs/11?apptracker_id=3>

More information about this call for applications may be found below and 
at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/opencall20142015 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/opencall20142015>.

More information about the Berkman Center Fellowship Program may be 
found at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships>.

A Fellowship Program FAQ may be found at 
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/faq 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/faq>.

Through this annual open call, we seek to advance our collective work 
and give it new direction, and to deepen and broaden our networked 
community across backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, and nations.  We 
welcome you to read more about the program below, to share this 
announcement with your networks, and to apply! 

With excitement,
Becca

---
**
Open Call for Fellowship Applications, Academic Year 2014-2015* 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/opencall20142015>*

*About Berkman's Fellowship Program*

"The Berkman 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."

Inspired by our mission statement, the Berkman Center's fellowship 
program provides the opportunity for some of the world's most innovative 
thinkers and changemakers to hone and share ideas, find camaraderie, and 
spawn new initiatives. The program aims to encourage and support fellows 
in an inviting and rigorous intellectual environment, with community 
activities designed to foster inquiry and to identify and expose the 
common threads across fellows' individual activities.

Fellows actively participate in exchanges through a weekly fellows hour, 
fellows-run working groups, and a wide-range of Berkman Center events 
and interactions. While engaging in both substance and process, much of 
what makes the fellowship program rewarding is created each year by the 
fellows themselves to address their own interests and priorities. These 
entrepreneurial, collaborative ventures -- ranging from goal-oriented to 
experimental, from rigorous to humorous -- are what ensure the dynamism 
of the fellows, the fellowship program, and the Berkman community.

Additionally, with Berkman faculty, students, staff, and other 
affiliates, fellows help to develop and advance their own work and 
Berkman Center projects, and they learn and teach through courses, skill 
sharing, hacking and development sessions, cultural productions, and 
other diverse gatherings.

Fellows are essential to the Berkman Center as nodes of intelligence, 
insight, energy, and knowledge-sharing. From their diverse backgrounds 
and wide-ranging physical and virtual travels, Berkman Center fellows 
bring fresh ideas, skills, passion, and connections to the Center and 
its community, and from their time spent in Cambridge help build and 
extend new perspectives and initiatives out into the world.*

About Berkman Fellowships*

An appointment that defies one-size-fits-all description, each Berkman 
fellowship carries a unique set of opportunities, responsibilities and 
expectations. All fellows engage issues related to the fairly limitless 
expanse of Internet & society issues, and are committed to the 
intellectual life of the Center and fellowship program activities. Some 
fellows work as researchers directly on Berkman Center projects. Other 
fellowships consist of independent work, such as the research and 
writing of a manuscript or series of papers, the vision and planning of 
an action-oriented meeting, or the development and implementation of an 
initiative or a study on issues related to the Berkman Center's areas of 
inquiry.

Fellowship terms typically run the course of the academic year, roughly 
from the beginning of September through the end of May. In some 
instances, fellows are re-appointed for consecutive fellowship terms.

While we embrace our many virtual connections, spending time together in 
person remains essential. In order to maximize their engagement with the 
community, during their fellowship terms fellows are expected to 
routinely spend time in and conduct much of their work from Cambridge, 
in most cases requiring residency. Tuesdays hold particular importance 
as it is the day the fellows community meets for a weekly fellows hour, 
in addition to it being the day Berkman hosts our public luncheon 
series; as such, we ask that fellows commit to spending as many Tuesdays 
at the Center as is possible.*

Qualifications*

We do not have a defined set of requirements for the fellows we select 
through our open call; we welcome applications from a wildly diverse 
pool of individuals.

Fellows come from across the disciplinary spectrum, different life 
paths, and are at all stages of career development. Some fellows are 
academics, whether students, post-docs or professors. Others come from 
outside academia, and include lawyers, philosophers, activists, 
technologists, entrepreneurs, journalists and other types of practitioners.

The commonality among all Berkman fellows is an interest in the 
intersections of the Internet and related emergent technologies, social 
change, and policy and regulatory developments, and a commitment to 
spending their fellowship exploring those dynamics in concert with others.

To learn more about the work and interests of our current community of 
fellows, you can read their bios 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/fellows> and find links to their 
outstanding work, check out their blogs 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/planet/current/>, and find them on twitter 
<https://twitter.com/berkmancenter/current-people-projects>.*

Commitment to Diversity*

The work and well-being of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society are 
strengthened profoundly by the diversity of our network and our 
differences in background, culture, experience, national origin, 
religion, sexual orientation, and much more. We actively seek and 
welcome applications from people of color, women, the LGBTQIA community, 
and persons with disabilities, as well as applications from researchers 
and practitioners from across the spectrum of disciplines and methods. 
The roots of this deep commitment are many and, appropriately, diverse. 
We are not nearly far enough along in this regard, and we may never be. 
It is a constant process in which there remains much to learn. We 
welcome your inquiries, comments and ideas on how we may continue to 
improve.*

Stipends, Benefits, and Access to University Resources
*/
Stipends/: Fellowships awarded through the open call for applications 
are rarely stipended. Some fellows receive partial stipends --the award 
of such a stipend is based on the nature of the responsibilities the 
applicant would assume while a fellow, and their relation, relevance, 
and application to Berkman's funded projects. Most fellows receive no 
direct funding or stipend through the Berkman Center, but rather have 
obtained funding through other means, such as an outside grant or award, 
a home institution, or other forms of scholarship./

Benefits/: Fringe benefits do not routinely accompany Berkman 
fellowships. Fellows must make their own housing, insurance, childcare, 
and transportation arrangements./

Office Space/: Most Berkman fellows work out of the greater-Boston area 
and spend a significant amount of time at the Berkman Center. There are 
many desks and workspaces available for flexible use at the Berkman 
Center, though few fellows are given their own permanent desk or office. 
We endeavor to provide comfortable and productive spaces for fellows to 
work, even if it is not the same space each day. Fellows are welcome to 
host small meetings and gatherings at the Center and on the Harvard campus./

Access to University Resources/: Fellows are allowed physical access 
into Langdell Library (the Harvard Law School Library), and fellows are 
able to acquire a Special Borrower Card 
<http://hcl.harvard.edu/info/admittance/#special_borrower> for 
privileges with the Harvard College Libraries.  At present, we do not 
routinely provide remote access to the University's e-resources, however 
access is available within the libraries.  Fellows do not have the 
ability to purchase University health insurance or get Harvard housing. 
Berkman fellows often audit classes at Harvard University, however must 
individually ask for permission directly from the professor of the 
desired class.*

Additional Information about the Berkman Center*

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is a 
research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and 
help pioneer its development. Founded in 1997, through a generous gift 
from Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman, the Center is home to an 
ever-growing community of faculty, fellows, staff, and affiliates 
working on projects that span the broad range of intersections between 
cyberspace, technology, and society.

*Frequently Asked Questions*

More information about fellows selection and the application process can 
be found on our Fellows Program FAQ 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/fellowships/faq>.*

Required Application Materials*

1.) A current resume or CV.
2.) A personal statement which should a) frame your motivation for 
applying for a Berkman Center fellowship and b) outline the work you 
propose to conduct during a fellowship. This statement should be roughly 
1,000 -- 1,500 words or should be a multi-media equivalent.
3.) A copy of a recent publication or an example of relevant work.  For 
a written document, for instance, it should be on the order of a paper 
or chapter - not an entire book or dissertation - and should be in English.
4.) Two letters of recommendation, sent directly from the reference.

In addition to the above materials, we will ask applicants to share some 
additional information in a form as part of the application.

1.) Disciplinary background: Up to three disciplines in which you have 
been trained and/or have worked.
2.) Tags: Five tags that describe or represent the themes, issues, or 
ideas you know about and on which you propose to conduct work during a 
fellowship at Berkman; and five tags that represent work, themes, 
issues, or ideas that you do not currently know much about, but would 
like to explore and learn more about during a fellowship year.  Each tag 
should be one- to three- words or terms.
3.) Berkman projects of interest.  *

To Apply for a 2014-2015 Academic Year Fellowship Through Our Open Call*

Applications will be submitted online through our Application Tracker 
tool at: https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/apply/jobs/11?apptracker_id=3 
<https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/apply/jobs/11?apptracker_id=3>

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis through Sunday, 
December 8, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

Instructions for creating an account and submitting an application 
through the Application Tracker may be found here 
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/8572>.

Note related to recommendation letters: Recommendation letters will be 
captured through the Application Tracker, and will require applicants to 
submit the names and contact information for references in advance of 
the application deadline.  References will receive a link at which they 
can upload their letters.  We recommend that applicants create their 
profiles and submit reference information in the Application Tracker as 
soon as they know they are going to apply and have identified their 
references - this step will not require other fellowship application 
materials to be submitted.