2025 Philosophy in Media Fellowship

Directed by Barry Lam, Associate Director of Marc Sanders Foundation, Professor of Philosophy at UC Riverside, and Host/Executive producer of the Hi-Phi Nation Podcast.

Philosophy in Media aims to identify and develop academically-trained philosophers to write, speak to, and produce for the general public in the major media market spaces. We concluded a year-long initial run of the program here with support from the John D. Templeton Foundation. Now, with a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and generous funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Princeton University’s Center for Human Values and the Department of Philosophy, we are pleased to share that we are now accepting applications for our second year of fellowships in 2025. Fellows will be academically-trained philosophers of all career stages who aim to write, speak to, and produce media for the general public in the form of essays (long- and short-form), trade-book writing, or podcasting.

Fellows will be accepted from all areas of philosophy, but should indicate both their professional areas of specialization and competence, as well as the topics or areas they would like to talk about when they speak to the public. Special consideration will be given to applicants whose professional or public-facing work focuses on race and racism, social justice, applied ethics of biology, technology, or other special sciences, and to applicants who are affiliated with HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges/universities, or underserved/under-resourced smaller regional or state schools.

Successful fellows will receive a $1500 stipend and full room and board at one of our three media workshops, to be held between June 23 – July 1, 2025. Workshops will be held at Tarrytown Estates in Tarrytown, NY, just north of New York City. One workshop will focus on essay writing (short- and long-form), one on trade books and publication, and one on podcast production and distribution. All will be led by esteemed media editors, producers, publishers, and agents.

Each workshop will be three days long. Travel to and from the venue will be covered by Media Fellows.

The schedule of the workshops are organized as follows:

Learn more about the Philosophy in Media Initiative HERE.

FAQs:

1. I was a former MSF Media Fellow, can I apply again to a different workshop?
   No, we are trying to give other people the same opportunity you got. If you’d like additional help and advice, you may contact Barry directly.
2. I am an international scholar, may I apply?
   Yes, all successful fellows will receive the same $1500 USD as a stipend, and room and board at the venue, without additional travel expenses covered. If you can make it work traveling from far overseas, you are eligible.
3. I do not have a degree or am not part of a degree-program in philosophy, but I consider myself a philosopher, am I eligible?
   No, our funding agencies require that our fellows be affiliated with a degree-granting university, or have been granted an advanced degree in philosophy from such an university.
4. I have a moderately or highly successful public profile already, should I apply?
   The workshop is designed for people who are newer to doing public-facing work, to give them training and networking that can help start their career in the public sphere. It isn’t that people who are already successful are disqualified,  but it is our judgment that they may not benefit from the workshop, especially in comparison to newer people. It is like if a PhD student in philosophy wanted to apply for a summer philosophy program for undergraduates.
5. Last time I satisfied many of the criteria in your call for application, by the areas I want to work in or because of my affiliation with HBCU, Hispanic-serving institutions, under-resourced regional schools, etc. etc., but I did not get selected, why not?
   While our funding does give special spots to particular affiliations and areas, these are not our sole or decisive criteria in our selection process. We are ultimately looking for a high promise of success in the public sphere, as indicated by areas and approaches you indicate in your cover letter. These criteria are very high priorities even though we also have reserved slots for particular affiliations and areas. The selection process is holistic, no particular affiliation or area is a sufficient condition for selection.
6. I’m interested in all kinds of public philosophy, which workshop should I apply for?
   You should choose the workshop that you are likeliest to be committing to and pursuing after the workshop. We are judging the success of this program by the success of our fellows in producing public-facing work. If you know you are likelier to write than to podcast, then don’t select the podcasting workshop. If you know you are better at producing occasional small chunks of content, go for essay writing, if you are the kind of person who likes to take on a big project at a time, go for the trade book workshop. If you have no idea, look to a role model and see how they started.