Enrichment Opportunities

Fellows Symposium

Symposia take place throughout the academic year and are designed to give Jefferson Fellows an opportunity to prepare and deliver academic talks to a public audience early in their careers. Presentations allow Fellows to gain experience, share their research, and nurture a rich interdisciplinary community.

Forum for Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Designed and organized by current Jefferson or National Fellows, these interdisciplinary conferences bring together scholars across a wide range of fields and universities to address a selected topic of social or cultural significance. Three conferences were held in the 2020-21 academic year and were hosted digitally, bringing together hundreds of individuals from all corners of the globe.  

All Memory Has Water: Rivers and American History
Scot McFarlane, the current Birdsall National Fellow, organized this multi-day conference, which explored the ways in which both rivers and their residents remember history through three interrelated themes–slavery and freedom, indigenous resistance, and environmentalism. 

Media, Telecommunications, and Empire
Sarah Nelson, the current Ambrose Monell Foundation National Fellow in Technology and Democracy, led this four-part series featuring 12 leading scholars, journalists, public policy experts, communications specialists, and historians.

Aesthetics in Art & Aesthetics in Time
Jessica Swoboda, the Irby Cauthen Jefferson Fellow, organized this two-day conference, which brought together 11 scholars from eight universities and colleges to examine how aesthetic encounters forge ties and create social bonds.

Jefferson Journal of Science and Culture

The Jefferson Journal of Science and Culture offers Fellows the opportunity to design, edit, and manage an academic journal. The journal publishes articles that address topics of broad interdisciplinary interest and accepts submissions from a wide range of fields and perspectives.  The Journal is managed and edited entirely by the Jefferson Fellows.  Please visit the Journal website to view the most recent issues.

Exploratory Fund

To help support the creativity and innovation of all Fellows, the Foundation invites them to apply for merit-based seed funding to implement cutting-edge ideas that create sustainable social, cultural, or economic change. New commercial or philanthropic enterprises within or outside the University are eligible for funding consideration.