A research and writing cohort of doctoral students focused on urban issues

Scholarship and effective communication in urban fields increasingly requires multiple competencies that are difficult to acquire working alone within traditional departments or programs. The Urban Doctoral Fellows Program organizes an academic year cohort of up to ten students whose research focuses on urban issues, with an emphasis on strengthening writing and developing effective evidence-based arguments.

The program consists of lunch-time meetings to increase the clarity and substance of Urban Doctoral Fellows’ research, ideas, and approaches and explore their implications from a diverse set of views. Students share and improve papers and presentations aimed at within- and cross-disciplinary audiences and learn how various disciplines engage in urban research through discussions with University of Chicago faculty and postdoctoral fellows.

Meetings are facilitated by Stephen Baker, Senior Research & Evaluation Scientist at the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, who organizes and moderates discussions.

The goal of each student’s full-year experience is to generate a paper and talk to be presented at a leading conference in their field. Travel and accommodation funding are provided by the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation. The program has resulted in fellows’ work being presented at many diverse professional conferences and in award recognitions by groups such as the American Sociological Association and the Urban Affairs Conference.

The fellowship has become a well-known opportunity for University of Chicago graduate students, running for over 10 years. Students may come from any department or school at the University of Chicago, and they may be in any year of their PhD.

Benefits

Funding of up to $1,000 per fellow to cover registration, hotel, meals, and transportation costs for presentations at academic conferences. Fellows must be current students in order for reimbursements to be issued.

Twice-monthly lunchtime meetings to prepare and review papers and presentations, and discuss urban research with University of Chicago faculty and Institute postdoctoral fellows.

Apply by completing the application form below, including the following information:

Research Project Description

Proposed Conference and Publication Information

As you think about your path to your PhD, what would you like to learn, develop, or experience in your Urban Fellows year?

What methods, tools, or perspectives in your particular discipline do you think will be most informative, surprising, or useful for the other fellows in your cohort?

What makes your research distinctly “urban”?

Applications are currently closed and will re-open in spring 2026.

Current Fellows

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Meet our Urban Doctoral Fellows for the 2025-26 academic year:

Natalie Leclerc

Political Science

Urban Doctoral Fellowship

A research and writing cohort of doctoral students focused on urban issues

Benefits

Apply by completing the application form below, including the following information:

Current Fellows

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Natalie Leclerc

Ilqua Lutfi

Jiayi Zhu

Tatjana Washington

Hayley Birss

Yuwei Zhou

Hazal Çorak

Seongbo Son

Gabriel Rojas

Jacob Herbstman

Example Publications

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Exposure of Neighborhood Racial and Socio-Economic Composition in Activity Space: A New Approach Adjusting for Residential Conditions.

The Size and Census Coverage of the U.S. Homeless Population.

Concentrated Poverty, Ambient Air Pollution, and Child Cognitive Development.

Financial Instability in the Earned Income Tax Credit Program: Can Advanced Periodic Payments Ameliorate Systemic Stressors?

Meaning-Making, Negotiation, and Change in School Accountability, Or What Sociology Can Offer Policy Studies.

Alumni

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2024–2025

2023–2024

2022–2023

2021–2022

2020–2021

2019–2020