Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program
What is the Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program?
The Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program offers U of T doctoral students an opportunity to explore the world of public scholarship. Developing a public scholarship initiative allows doctoral students to make connections outside the university through innovative forms of scholarly communication. PhDs for Public Impact fellows focus on engaging the public through their scholarly work. This engagement can take a range of forms, from describing their work in a public forum to partnering with a school, community organization, or cultural institution in an ongoing two-way exchange of knowledge and practices.
Funding
Each fellow will be awarded $12,500 for the year (a $10,000 fellowship to be used as a top up to their stipend and $2,500 towards professional development and project expenses) to develop an innovative and impactful public scholarship initiative.
Programming
Fellows will participate in an array of workshops related to public scholarship.
Program Goals
The goal of this program is to support doctoral students in learning how to communicate their research to the public. The research done at U of T—across the disciplines—is of tremendous benefit to the public. This impact can be felt in government, schools, museums, hospitals, archives, nonprofits, and industry, both domestically and globally. Despite this extraordinary reach, a great deal of scholarly research feels inaccessible to the public. The Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program seeks to support its fellows as they build community engagement and create accessible forms of research communication. Their public scholarship intiatives could involve a range of activities: establishing a social media presence; creating a blog; writing a guest blog post; publishing an op-ed; building ties with an organization outside the university; developing YouTube content; hosting a podcast; giving a public talk; producing an app; designing an exhibit; coordinating a public lecture series. The fellows will choose the form for their public scholarship initiative based on the nature of their research and the type of engagement they wish to create.
Make scholarship more accessible to the public to increase its impact.
Support accessible pathways between the university and the public that prepare doctoral students for a variety of careers.
Support partnerships so that research, scholarship, and creative practice can better serve the needs of the public.
Fellow Responsibilities
Attend monthly fellows’ meetings
These monthly sessions include a mix of student-interest-driven programming and meetings to allow fellows to share their own work with each other.
Participate in an annual showcase event
This event will showcase the fellows’ work, process, outcomes, experiences, and learnings. In a gallery-style exhibit, fellows will provide a visual representation of their public scholarship initiative. That representation can take the form of videos, illustrations, photos, hands-on demonstrations, etcetera.
Engage in program enhancement
Fellows will be asked to participate in program development and quality assurance, including sharing their outcomes post-program and post-graduation.
Promote the Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program
Fellows will credit the fellowship as appropriate for any work completed in the year related to their project (e.g., in acknowledgements, blogs, etc).
Why should I apply?
Engagement in this program will offer you a unique opportunity to explore your interest in public scholarship within a diverse cohort of doctoral researchers. By the end of the fellowship, you will have crafted a public scholarship initiative that deepens your experience of scholarly communication; engaged people, partners, or organizations outside the university; and shared that initiative with the U of T community.
New opportunities for connection to the public and other fellows
“I’m looking forward to being part of a community of fellows who are leading the way in making an impact through creative expression, community advocacy, policy change, and more.“
Madison Giles, 2022-23 Connaught Public Impact Fellow
“Learning from and working with the cohort gives me a unique understanding of where the field is moving in a variety of disciplines.”
Peter Serles, 2022-23 Connaught Public Impact Fellow
Intellectual stimulation that comes from discussing a variety of topics from a variety of perspectives
A sense of purpose from translating inquiry to have a greater impact
“At this stage in my academic career, I have realized that the greater impact of research work comes from disseminating scientific information to the general public. Going forward, I can’t imagine not doing this sort of profoundly satisfying and meaningful work.“
Anam Shahil Feroz, 2022-23 Connaught Public Impact Fellow
Ready to apply?
Want to learn more about the Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program? Register for the upcoming information session now!
Submit your application by March 1, 2023.
Get familiar with what you need to submit in your PhDs for Public Impact fellowship application.
Fellows will be announced in Spring of 2023. In the mean time…