Fellowships
The Taubman College Fellowship Program, inaugurated in 1984 by Former Dean Robert Metcalf and Former Architecture Chair Kent Hubbell, was the first of its kind in an architecture school.
Since then, other institutions have followed suit and sponsored similar programs of various degrees and scales. However, Taubman College Fellowships remain among the most recognized and sought-after positions of their kind.
Taubman College Fellows are among the most innovative practitioners and academics in America today, including many who are current members of the intellectually diverse, internationally renowned Taubman College faculty.
While at the University of Michigan, Taubman Fellows develop their work and teaching within an intellectually diverse and dynamic academic context composed of dedicated faculty and talented students from around the world.
Each of the fellowships includes teaching related to the candidate’s area of interest, resources for the development of work, possibilities to interface with scholars and researchers in the wider university context, and the opportunity to share the outcome of the fellowship with the college.
These fellowships are not intended to support dissertation completion, post-doctoral stays, or serve as a pipeline for tenure track positions at the institution. While these are not post-doctoral fellowships (note the teaching demands and expectations of engagement in studio instruction), we welcome applications of recent doctoral graduates committed to design education.
Architecture Fellowships
The architecture fellowships at Taubman College are among the oldest and most recognized positions of their kind, offering early career opportunities for individuals seeking to make a significant development of their work within an intellectually wide-ranging and dynamic academic setting. Each fellowship entails teaching related to the candidate’s area of interest, resources for the development of work, possibilities to interface with scholars and researchers in the wider university context, and the opportunity to share the outcome of the fellowship with the college. Fellows spend two years in residence, typically teaching three classes in their first year and four in their second, in addition to pursuing their fellowship project. Public dissemination of fellowship work takes place in the winter of the first fellowship year.
The three areas of interest for the fellowships offered are:
Research
Research focused on some aspects of the range of social, formal, environmental, political, and aesthetic concerns that form the framework of contemporary and historical perspectives regarding architecture and urban issues.
Design
Design efforts related to specific proposals, or general models, for architectural propositions addressing an area of interest to the fellow and of concern to the field at large.
Project
Projects centered on the development and realization of a significant physical production (explorations of building and environmental systems in fabrications, installations, and other formats of materialized exploration).
Fishman Fellowship
The Fishman Fellowship offers an opportunity for early-career scholars and practitioners in urbanism to develop a project that may take the form of a publication, exhibition, or symposium. The fellowship is open to those who have completed a Ph.D. or other terminal degree in planning, architecture, urban history, urban design, or a related field. Scholars and practitioners pursuing work in the areas of urban technology and/or climate change are particularly encouraged to apply.
Robert Fishman joined the Taubman College faculty in 2000 and retired in 2022 as a highly respected professor of architecture and urban planning. He is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of urban history and urban policy and planning, and he has authored several books regarded as seminal texts on the history of cities and urbanism.
Sojourner Truth Planning Fellowship
The Sojourner Truth Fellow position in the Master of Urban Planning Program was created as a way to engage scholars and reflective practitioners who can bring into our program rigorous attention to issues of race and ethnicity as they relate to the theory and practice of urban and regional planning.
The Sojourner Truth Fellow gives a lecture open to the university community during the academic term and visits campus for workshops with Taubman College students.
