UT Austin Dedicates 2027–28 Harrington Faculty Fellowship to National Security

The University of Texas at Austin has opened applications for the 2027–28 Harrington Faculty Fellows Program and dedicated this year’s competition to national security. The selected fellows will spend the academic year in residence at UT Austin, affiliated with the Clements Center for National Security and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. 

The Harrington Faculty Fellows Program, coordinated by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, brings early- and mid-career faculty from other institutions to UT Austin for a year devoted entirely to their research. Each year’s cohort is selected around a shared theme; the 2026–27 competition focused on energy. Fellows receive a salary stipend equal to 130 percent of their salary at their home institution, a housing allowance, reimbursement for moving expenses, and $75,000 in discretionary funds to support their research, collaboration, and travel. The fellowship runs nine to eleven months, beginning in August 2027. 

The fellowship defines national security broadly and includes diplomatic and military history, international history, the history of strategy and statecraft, national security law, foreign relations law, the law of armed conflict, intelligence studies, global affairs, and global cybersecurity. Scholars in public policy, law, government, history, classics, political science, international relations, and area studies are especially encouraged to apply, and applications from any discipline will be seriously considered. 

Fellows will have the resources of one of the nation’s leading research universities behind their work. The LBJ Presidential Library and the Briscoe Center for American History are on campus. UT’s Applied Research Laboratories have operated under a Navy charter since 1945, and the University ranks fifth in the nation for research funded by the Department of Defense. A four-star Army command is headquartered in downtown Austin. A historian of statecraft and a scholar of cyber policy will each find the questions they study being worked on within a few miles of their office. 

Applicants must hold a tenure-track or tenured faculty position and must have received their doctorate, or its equivalent, in August 2016 or later. U.S. citizenship is not required; the program welcomes faculty from institutions around the world who are eligible for J-1 visas. Fellows relocate to Austin for the 2027–28 academic year and remain in residence for the fellowship period. 

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Central on August 31, 2026. Applications should include a curriculum vitae, the names and contact information of two scholars who can speak to the applicant’s work, and a two-page research statement describing goals for the fellowship year. Applications and full details are available at the fellowship website. Questions about the program or the application process can be directed to harrington@utexas.edu.