Fellowships
The Initiative:
The Initiative for Community Power fosters deep community partnerships, building on decades of high-impact community organizing and power-building work. The Initiative catalyzes analysis, innovation, and project work to create a more equitable, democratic, and racially just society.
The Initiative combines scholarship, field-building, experiential education, convenings, and field placements to study and challenge inequality and anti-democracy. The Initiative works closely with non-profit, academic and government partners to reimagine the parameters of the possible, and to transform our vision of a dynamic democracy, rooted in racial and economic justice, into reality. The Initiative is housed at the Center on Race, Inequality and the Law.
The Fellowship/s:
The Initiative is seeking one to three fellows/interns interested in pursuing, or continuing, a career focused on community power-building, racial justice, movement lawyering and democratic engagement. The Fellow will work approximately 5-10 hours per week for at least a semester for a total stipend of approximately $2000 (commensurate with scope of work).
The Fellow/s will play an important role in the Initiative’s evolving work, under the supervision of the Initiative’s leadership. The Fellow will be expected to actively participate in the Center’s research, organizing, campaigning and organizational partnerships. Over the course of the fellowship, fellows have the opportunity to engage deeply with rooted community organizations working to advance innovative strategies to promote justice and equity.
The fellowships are available for Fall 2024, Spring 2025 and Summer 2025.
Priority projects for 2024 and 2025 include:
- Law and Organizing Academy: in collaboration with The Action Lab, the Initiative will host a Law and Organizing Academy (LOA) in summer 2025. LOA brings together progressive law students that are interested in law, organizing, and power building. The purpose of LOA is to provide a space for students to interrogate the relationship between law and organizing, and to come together to build solidarity with students across institutions and connect students with organizers and professions.
- Law and Organizing in Law Schools Working Group: In collaboration with doctrinal and clinical law professors from around the country, the Initiative is working on possible interventions to train aspiring lawyers to add power-building tools and strategies to the law school curriculum.
- Power to Win Follow Up: In collaboration with The Action Lab and The Forge, the Initiative published the Power to Win Report in July 2024 to help us address some of the key challenges facing the progressive movement today. The Report was based on 100 in-depth interviews and 184 comprehensive surveys from progressive organizers across the country. We are currently in the process of planning convenings to unite organizers from around the country to bring to life some of the interventions highlighted in the report.
- Curricular Modules: The Initiative is currently working to create a broad set of training materials and resources to help train law students and lawyers in effective community organizing practices and how to foster deep, collaborative relationships with empowered, constituency-based organizations.
- Sustaining Community Partnerships & Additional Miscellaneous Projects: The Initiative works with key community organizations to promote power-building initiatives and strengthening the power of the progressive Left, more generally.
To apply, please submit the materials listed below in a single PDF to the Initiative’s Director, Andrew Friedman, at andrew.friedman@nyu.edu. Please use the subject line “Fellowship Application.” Your application should include:
- Cover letter describing your interest in, and qualifications for, the Fellowship program, including an explanation of why you would like to become a Fellow of the Center;
- Resume;
- References; and
- A Writing sample
To learn more about the Initiative, please feel free to email the address above.