In partnership with Penn State’s Africana Research Center, the Richards Center established a competitive, one-year postdoctoral fellowship in 2012. The fellowship rewards recently graduated Ph.D.s studying aspects of the African American experience from slavery to Civil Rights.
Since 2020, Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, Department of History, and the Richards Center have hosted a second Center-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship (in addition to our joint RCWEC/ARC fellowship). The fellowship rewards recently graduated Ph.D.s studying aspects of the Civil War Era, particularly focusing on slavery and emancipation.
Both fellowships are one year with the possibility of renewal for a second year. While in residence, the fellows have access to the Center’s professional resources, receive guidance from a mentor, and participate in a series of professional development workshops. The fellows will present their research to the graduate community and will invite senior scholars in their field to the university to review and comment on their work.
https://richardscenter.la.psu.edu/fellowships/past-postdoctoral-fellows/
Application and Submission Process
Successful applicants must have completed all requirements for the Ph.D. within the previous four academic years. Salary/benefit package is competitive.
To be considered for this position, submit a complete application packet including a cover letter describing your research and goals for the scholarship year, a curriculum vita, and a list of three references. We will request writing samples and letters of recommendation from candidates who advance in the search process. Successful candidates must either have demonstrated a commitment to building an inclusive, equitable, and diverse campus community, or describe one or more ways they would envision doing so, given the opportunity.
Review of materials will begin November 1, 2024, and continue until the position has been filled. Please direct questions about the process via e-mail to richardscenter@psu.edu.
Postdoctoral Scholar, African American History
The Richards Center and the Africana Research Center invite applications for a postdoctoral scholar in African American history, beginning July 1, 2025. This is a one-year position, with a high possibility of renewal for a second year. All research interests spanning the origins of slavery through the civil rights movement will receive favorable consideration. Proposals that align with the Richards Center’s interests in slavery, abolition, and emancipation are especially welcome. During their residency, the scholar will have no teaching or administrative responsibilities. In addition, they will attend workshops, professional development sessions and other relevant events, and will be expected to take an active part in Penn State’s community of researchers.
For more information and how to apply, see here.
Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil War Era
The Richards Civil War Era Center, in conjunction with the Department of History and the College of the Liberal Arts, invites applications for a postdoctoral scholar in the history of the Civil War Era, beginning July 1, 2025. This is a one-year position, with a high possibility of renewal for a second year. All research interests spanning the pre-war period through Reconstruction will receive favorable consideration. Proposals that align with the Richards Center’s interests in slavery, abolition, and emancipation are especially welcome. During their residency, the scholar will have no teaching or administrative responsibilities. They will attend workshops, professional development sessions and other relevant events, and will be expected to take an active part in Penn State’s community of researchers.
For more information and how to apply, see here.
Hannah Katherine Hicks, 2024–2025 Richards Center Postdoctoral Scholar in the Civil War Era
Hannah Katherine Hicks received her PhD in History from Vanderbilt University and specializes in nineteenth-century U.S. history, focusing on women and law and the intersections of gender, medicine, and law. Her dissertation, “Troubling Justice: Women and the Criminal Courts in the Post-Civil War South” draws on county-level court records to examine criminal courts in postbellum South Carolina and the primarily working-class Black and White women who frequently appeared in them as defendants, complainants, and witnesses. At the Richards Center, Hannah will work on turning this dissertation into a book manuscript. Hannah was most recently an Assistant Teaching Professor of History at UNC Charlotte, which is also her undergraduate alma mater. In Winter 2022, the Bulletin of the History of Medicine published her article entitled “A Conjure Woman in Court: African American Conjurers as Health Practitioners and Performative Poisoners in the Post-Emancipation South.” Hannah’s research has been supported by the American Historical Association, the South Caroliniana Library, the Wilson Library at UNC Chapel Hill, and the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University.
Joshua Strayhorn, 2025–2026 Richards Center Postdoctoral Scholar in the Civil War Era
Joshua Strayhorn is a scholar of 19th and 20th-century African American history. His book project, Freedom’s Promise: Black Mobility and Migration in North Carolina, 1860 -1898, chronicles the history of enslaved and freed people’s communities and cultures in Eastern North Carolina, where its topography, ecology, and local people’s spirituality, helped shape the course of freed people’s migration to the U.S. Midwest, Deep South, and abroad. His work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the North Caroliniana Society, and the Kenan School of Ethics at Duke University. In 2022, he was awarded the Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation fellowship from the Institute for Citizens and Scholars to complete his dissertation. Dr. Strayhorn earned his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in history from Duke University and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelors in history from North Carolina Central University.
Halee Robinson, 2025–2026 Richards Center Postdoctoral Scholar in the Civil War Era
Halee Robinson received her PhD in History and a graduate certificate in African American Studies from Princeton University, and she specializes in the histories of race, punishment, and freedom in the United States. Her dissertation, “‘They taken him away from us’: Race, Punishment, and the Intimate Histories of the Texas Prison System, 1865-1912” explores the effects and consequences of the Texas prison system on the intimate lives of Black, ethnic Mexican, Indigenous, and white people in Texas after the Civil War. In particular, her project illuminates the central role that family and community played not only in the punitive aims of the state, but also in the ways that incarcerated and free people alike resisted state violence and punishment and articulated their own conceptions of justice. Halee received her M.A. in History from Princeton University and her B.A. in History and Political Science from Vanderbilt University. Halee’s research has been supported by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas State Historical Association, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Lamar University’s Center for History and Culture, and the Princeton University Center for Human Values.
