Application

Fellowship Information

The Oak Fellowship annually offers an opportunity for one prominent human rights activist to take leave from frontline work and spend the fall semester in residence at Colby.

The Oak Fellow’s responsibilities include regular meetings with students through a small seminar class and informal discussion groups. Additionally, the fellow works with Colby’s faculty to share a lecture series or symposium on their human rights interests. The fellow participates in intellectual life on campus, providing Colby students the opportunity to work with an internationally recognized human rights activist.

In addition to a $36,000 stipend, the fellowship includes health benefits, housing, a campus meal plan, and transportation. The fellowship also provides an office, access to the College’s computer and library resources, a student assistant to help with the seminar and research, and secretarial support. To ensure that the fellow fully benefits from the extended respite and safety of the fellowship experience, the program is designed to allow dependent family members to join the fellow in residence at Colby. A limited budget is allocated to help offset the cost of transportation, housing, and meals for family members who accompany the fellow.

Application Timeline:

By early September: Online application submission is available
November 30, 2022: Nomination deadline (Nomination Deadline extended to January 15, 2023)
December 30, 2022: Application deadline (Application Deadline extended to January 31, 2023)
January, 2023: Review of applications and research on candidates
February, 2023: Selection committee meetings to select final candidates
Late February – Early March: Phone interviews with finalists
April 15, 2023: Decision notification to all applicant

2023 Theme: Health and Human Rights:

The Oak Institute’s 2023-2024 theme is Health and Human Rights. Our goal is to identify a practitioner who works tirelessly in defending one of our most basic and essential rights as human beings. Although it can be hard to define, health is not, as the World Health Organization (WHO) reminds us, simply the absence of disease. Instead, health can be understood as a holistic and affirmative way of existing in the world. We can think of health at many different, interconnected scales: individual, family, community, society, and planetary. After all, the preamble of the 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization states that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.”

But reality falls far short of this declaration because of ever-changing climate and environmental factors, pandemics, politicization of health-related issues, lack of access to the social and structural factors that make health possible such as safe drinking water and adequate sanitation; nourishing and nutritious food and housing; healthy working and environmental conditions; health-related education and information; access to health care; and racial and gender equality. The activist’s work should focus either on exposing and organizing against health and human rights violations or on affirmatively working to build systems, structures, or initiatives that promote health and well-being.

Personal Data

Name(Required)

First Middle Last

Date of Birth

Gender

Country of Residence

Country of Citizenship

Work Address(Required)

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Home Address(Required)

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Home Phone

Mobile Phone

Email(Required)

What is your preferred mode of contact?(Required)

Website

If you have a personal website, or you belong to an organization that has one, please provide the address:

Occupation/Profession(Required)

Organization(Required)

Your Position Title(Required)

Examples: director, producer, editor

Other Ways To Contact You(Required)

We realize that your work may require you to be out of phone or email contact for periods of time. In the event that you are selected for an interview and we are unable to reach you directly, please identify an individual whom we can contact for your schedule or to help us find you? Also, please indicate if there is a possibility that you might be out of contact for a prolonged period (3-5 days) in February or March.

How did you learn about the Oak Human Rights Fellowship?(Required)

Recommendations

List the two persons you will ask to submit a recommendation on your behalf. Please note recommendations MUST be submitted by the recommender. PLEASE REMIND THE RECOMMENDERS OF THE APPLICATION DEADLINE.

Recommender #1 Name

First Last

Organization #1

Title #1

Phone #1

Email #1

Recommender #2 Name

First Last

Organization #2

Title #2

Phone #2

Email #2

Personal References

Please provide the names and contact information for two individuals whom we can call or email as additional references to learn more about your work.

Reference Name #1

First Last

Organization #1

Title #1

Phone #1

Email #1

Reference Name #2

First Last

Organization #2

Title #2

Phone #2

Email #2

Health and Human Rights - Organization Affiliations

Please list any organizations with which you are currently affiliated (if any) that address Health and Human Rights.

Organization #1

Contact Name #1

First Last

Address #1

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Phone #1

Email #1

Organization #2

Contact Name #2

First Last

Address #2

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Phone #2

Email #2

Human Rights Organization Affiliations

Please list any human rights organizations with which you are affiliated.

Organization #1

Contact Name #1

First Last

Address #1

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Phone #1

Email #1

Organization #2

Address #2

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Phone #2

Email #2

Websites To View Your Work

Please provide links to any websites where we can view your work or learn more about you and your work. Feel free to provide as many as you like. Please include the name of the website and the URL.

Personal Data

Please answer the following questions (no more than 500 words for each).

Briefly summarize your experience in the field of human rights, with specific reference to your work addressing Health and Human Rights. What is your current work and your plans for the future? What are the achievements of which you are most proud? What are the primary challenges in your work?*(Required)

Have you ever been offered or accepted any other fellowships, residencies, or awards for your human rights work?(Required)

Why are you interested in the Oak Human Rights Fellowship?(Required)

Why is time away from your human rights work desirable at this point in your career?(Required)

Does your work involve some personal risk? If so, has that risk increased in recent months?(Required)

What contributions could you make to human rights activities on campus?(Required)

More specifically, the Oak Institute has a lecture fund to bring people to campus to give talks or sponsor human rights related events (i.e., films, debates, panels, etc...). What suggestions would you make regarding speakers or topics for the Oak Lecture series on Health and Human Rights?(Required)

The Oak Fellow is expected to co-lead a weekly 90 minute seminar with students on the theme: Health and Human Rights. How would you structure this class? What would be its major themes? What kinds of books and articles might you ask students to read? What else might you plan to incorporate into a course on Health and Human Rights?(Required)

If you have a more detailed lesson plan for this course, please attach it here.

Max. file size: 64 MB.

With which academic departments or programs at Colby do you have shared interests? Please consult http://www.colby.edu/academics/majors-minors/ for a list of majors and programs. What kinds of collaborative efforts do you envision?(Required)

If you were selected as the Oak Fellow, is there any reason you can imagine that you would not be able to be in residence at Colby from August through December of 2023?(Required)

Is there any other information about yourself or your work that you would like to share with the committee that you feel distinguishes you from other candidates?*(Required)

Please Upload Your Resume/CV/Bio Here

Max. file size: 64 MB.

Please upload any additional printed materials about your human rights organization.

Max. file size: 64 MB.

Theme Specific Questions

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Application

Fellowship Information

Application Timeline:

2023 Theme: Health and Human Rights:

Application

Personal Data

Recommendations

Personal References

Health and Human Rights - Organization Affiliations

Human Rights Organization Affiliations

Personal Data

Theme Specific Questions

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