Urban Doctoral Fellowship

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 and Evaluation Scientist at the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute, 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.
  • Twice-monthly lunchtime meetings to prepare and review papers and presentations, and discuss urban research with University of Chicago faculty and Institute postdoctoral fellows.

Requirements

  • Fellows meet in 16 weekday sessions, for 90 minutes, throughout the academic year, beginning at the start of the Autumn Quarter. Lunch is provided.
  • Partial hybrid attendance is possible and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
  • Students must be enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Chicago.

Applications for the 2024-25 academic year are closed; candidates will be notified this summer about their application status.

Email bcwilson@uchicago.edu with questions.

Current Fellows

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Meet our Urban Doctoral Fellows for the 2024-25 academic year:

Alexa Cinque

Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

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Emma Heidorn

Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

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Goya Razavi

Harris School of Public Policy

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Ronit Ghosh

South Asian Languages and Civilizations (SALC) and Music

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Hyunku Kwon

Sociology

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Aaron Stagoff-Belfort

Sociology

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Devin Green

Political Science

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Nina Olney

Sociology

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Nikki Grigg

Anthropology

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Fern Ramoutar

Economics

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Example Publications

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A few recent student publications include (fellows are bolded):

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

Liang Cai, Christopher R. Browning, Kathleen A. Cagney. Social Forces.

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

Bruce D. Meyer, Angela Wyse, Kevin Corinth. Journal of Urban Economics.

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

Geoffrey T. Wodtke, Kerry Ard, Clair Bullock, Kailey White, and Betsy Priem. Science Advances.

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

Andrew Greenlee, Dylan Bellisle, et al. Urban Affairs Review.

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

Jose Eos Trinidad. Sociological Inquiry.

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Alumni

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Alumni of the Urban Doctoral Fellows program, stay in touch with your cohort, network with other fellows, and share the latest news about publications, conferences, and more by following us on LinkedIn.

2023–2024

Sofia Butnaru, Department of Sociology

Likun Cao, Sociology

Andrew Frangos, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Alex Koenig, Department of Comparative Human Development

Sasha Petrov, Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics

Yunuen Rodriguez Rodriguez, Crown

Resha T. Swanson, Crown

Andrew Swift, Sociology

Kelly Wagman, Department of Computer Science

2022–2023

Chase Abram, Economics

Carlos Angeles, Crown

Rubina Hundal, Harris School of Public Policy

Betsy Priem, Sociology

Anne Ruelle, Crown

Hera Shakil, Comparative Human Development

Brianna Suslovic, Crown

Angela Wyse, Harris

Simon Yamawaki Shachter, Sociology

2021–2022

Ari Anisfeld, Harris

Nathalie Barton, Department of History

Emily Claypool, Crown

Jacob Drucker, Committee on Evolutionary Biology

Edward Johnson, Departments of History and Art History

Zihao Lin, Comparative Human Development

Alex Shams, Department of Sociocultural Anthropology

Natalie Smith, History

Stephanie Ternullo, Sociology

Jose Eos Trinidad, Departments of Sociology and Comparative Human Development

2020–2021

Eufemia Baldassarre, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Lauren Beard, Sociology

Liang Cai, Sociology

Geneva Cole, Department of Political Science

Santiago Franco, Economics

Samantha Guz, Crown

Arvind Ilamaran, Comparative Human Development

Devika Lakhote, Harris

Helen Lee, Comparative Human Development

Noah Schouela, Political Science

2019–2020

Dylan Bellisle, Crown

Matthew Borus, Crown

Justin Harty, Crown

Julius L. Jones, History

Daniel Knorr, History

Shannon Morissey, Sociology

Angelica Velazquillo, Crown

Ilana Ventura, Sociology

Lucas Wehrwein, Sociology

Tadeo Weiner, Crown