Scholars in Exile (SiE), launched in early 2025, is a collaboration between the Institute for the Humanities (IH) and the Academy in Exile (AiE) at TU Dortmund University, Germany. SiE provides a one-year residency with the institute at U-M Ann Arbor to a scholar focused on humanities research who is living in exile due to war or persecution as the result of their academic work and/or civic engagement. A second year of the scholar’s residency will be supported by AiE in Germany.
While at U-M, the SiE scholar is actively involved in the IH fellowship program as well as the department related to their academic discipline, including being connected with a mentor in that department. They attend the IH weekly fellows seminar, present one or more lectures on campus, potentially teach a course, and actively engage with faculty and students. The program provides salary, research funds, travel support, and other assistance needed to pursue their scholarly endeavors while enriching the U-M community with their expertise, creativity, and international experience.
“In partnering with Academy in Exile, the Institute for the Humanities affirms its commitment to academic freedom, excellence in research, and global justice,” said Jason R. Young, director of the Institute for the Humanities. “The SiE program allows the institute and the larger U-M community to engage directly in some of the most pressing social and intellectual challenges facing us today.”
Founded in 2017, Academy in Exile allows scholars who are threatened in their home countries because of their academic or civic engagement to resume their research abroad, providing a forum for reflecting on the pressing challenges to intellectual life, critical thinking, reason, social and environmental justice, and diversity that define the parameters of academic freedom. SiE scholars will receive one year of support at the University of Michigan and one year through Academy in Exile. Since it began, Academy in Exile has supported 78 people from around the world, including Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Libya, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, India, Myanmar, and Hong Kong.
AiE received 258 applications from 28 countries for the 19 Mellon Foundation and VolkswagenStiftung-funded fellowships available for the 2025-26 academic year, indicating the profound and global need for such programs that support scholars and their academic endeavors.
