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.
The call for applications will be posted fall 2026.
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, 2027. 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, please check back in September.
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, 2027. 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, please check back in September.
Erica Duncan, Richards Center and Africana Research Center Postdoctoral Scholar
Erica Duncan received her PhD in History, with specializations in African Diaspora and early North America histories from New York University (NYU). Her research and interests are in histories of race, gender, childhood, the body, slavery, and freedom. Erica’s dissertation, “Contested Childhoods: Black Children and the Making of Freedom in South Carolina and the Bahamas, 1700-1833,” draws on the interdisciplinary methods of Black feminisms, childhood studies, and critical disability studies to piece together the lives of enslaved children of African descent. By following the lives of those captured and traded in West Africa, South Carolina, and the Bahamas, she locates a vital aspect of the Black Atlantic in the networks of care that attempted to protect these children and re-articulate what a Black childhood meant to their communities. She argues their assertions of Black childhoods both critiqued the systems that dispossessed them and became an essential freedom practice. Prior to NYU, Erica earned an M.A. in African American Studies from UCLA and a B.A. in African American Studies and Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley. Erica’s research has been supported by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, Gilder Lehrman Institute, OAH, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and NYU, among others.
Heather Menefee, Civil War History Postdoctoral Scholar
Heather Menefee completed her PhD in Native American and U.S. history at Northwestern University, where she was a Mellon Cluster Fellow in Native American and Indigenous Studies, a T.H. Breen Fellow in History, and a Presidential Fellow. Her dissertation, “Kinship in Daḳota Maḳoc̣e, 1815-1862,” demonstrates how conflicting settler and Dakota conceptualizations of kinship shaped the political development of the United States and the Dakota oyate (nation) throughout the nineteenth century and beyond. Her research interests include transformations of Indigenous sovereignty and U.S. citizenship since the early nineteenth century, Dakota history, the relationship of federal Indian policy to U.S. imperialism, John Trudell’s political philosophy, and histories of the Great Lakes. As a non-Native historian, Heather is committed to supporting the return of Dakota land and the health of the Dakota language. She earned an MA in American Studies at UNC Chapel Hill in 2019, and a BA (summa cum laude) from Northwestern in 2015 with an ad hoc major in Native American Studies. She enjoys the White Sox, choral singing, studying languages, and befriending other people’s dogs. Heather’s family’s donkey (pictured) is named Jackson and lives in Georgia, where he protects cows from coyotes. She is thrilled to join the Richards Center as a postdoctoral fellow and welcomes anyone to reach out.
