Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Postdoctoral Fellowship provides early career theological educators with vocational and professional formation through a two-year placement as a visiting scholar at a graduate theological school, college, university, or education and research organization in the United States and Canada. As part of the Louisville Institute’s Vocation of the Theological Educator (VTE) Initiative, these fellows engage in intentional, focused, professional formation and teaching as they explore a calling to be a theological educator for future pastoral leaders.

2025 Application Portal Opens June 1, 2024.  

Application due date: October 15, 2024 (11:59 p.m. EDT)

Postdoctoral Fellowship Benefits: annual minimum stipend of US$50,000, plus housing, health insurance, and moving costs (exact figures vary based on placement location)

Postdoctoral Fellowship timeframe: Fall 2025 – Spring 2027

Awards announced: Spring 2025

Vocation of the Theological Educator Gatherings: October 2025; February, May & October 2026; and February & May 2027

What are Postdoctoral Fellowships?

Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellowships provide early career theological educators with vocational and professional formation through a two-year placement as a visiting scholar at a graduate theological school, college, university, or education and research organization in the United States and Canada. As part of the Louisville Institute’s Vocation of the Theological Educator (VTE) Initiative, these fellows engage in intentional, focused, professional formation and teaching as they explore a calling to be a theological educator for future pastoral leaders. Postdoctoral Fellows receive pastoral and faculty peer mentoring as part of their formation, as well as joining their cohort at the October, February, and May VTE gatherings.

Applicants are typically scholars studying Christian faith and life, the practice of ministry, religious trends and movements, Christian and other faith-based institutions, and religion and social issues. Preference for fellowships is given to doctoral students or recent graduates who demonstrate an interest in theological education as a vocation, who express an understanding of the current challenges and opportunities of theological education, and who articulate connections between their doctoral work and these trends and dynamics.

The Postdoctoral Fellowship provides an annual minimum salary stipend of US$50,000, plus housing, health insurance, and moving costs. Final amounts are negotiated between the placement institution and the Louisville Institute to ensure the fellow receives adequate and appropriate compensation as a visiting professor. 

What do I need to know to apply?

Who is eligible for Postdoctoral Fellowship?

Eligible applicants:

    • are scholars based in the United States and Canada who will complete all Ph.D./Th.D. work, defend their dissertations, and receive their degrees no later than June 30, 2025. 
    • demonstrate appreciation for the Christian church and a commitment to theological education, and are able to articulate how their doctoral work and other experiences have prepared them to be a theological educator
    • come from diverse fields such as history, systematic and practical theology, pastoral studies, social sciences, ethics, or biblical studies, or bring interdisciplinary approaches to their scholarship
    • are aware that postdoctoral placements often require relocation in order to match fellows with appropriate schools/departments

    If you expect to complete your doctoral program after June 30, 2025, we encourage you to wait and apply for a Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2026. Previous LI Doctoral and/or Dissertation Fellows are eligible to apply to be Postdoctoral Fellows. Preference for Postdoctoral Fellowships is given to recent doctoral graduates.

What is the Vocation of the Theological Educator Initiative (VTE)?

The heart of Louisville Institute’s Vocation of the Theological Educator Initiative (VTE) is the conviction that theological schools and churches in North America need teacher-scholars who are attuned to both the life of the church and the life of a scholar. Many VTE participants are themselves ordained pastors or leaders in their religious communities, and bring together convictions of the heart, mind, and spirit through their work in the academy and the church. At VTE gatherings, fellows participate in conversation, discernment, collegiality, and connection with other scholars and pastors to engage deep questions of theology, justice, pedagogy, ministry, and vocation. 

The VTE Initiative comprises both Doctoral Fellows in the early stages of their doctoral programs, and Postdoctoral Fellows who have completed their degrees and are placed in two-year teaching positions throughout North America. 

What are VTE Gatherings?

Three times a year (October, February, & May), LI Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows gather in Louisville, KY, for vocational and professional formation, relationship building, and mutual support as part of the Vocation of the Theological Educator Initiative (VTE). With their cohorts, fellows engage vocational questions about theological education, discernment, leadership, pedagogy, mentoring, research and writing, employment and tenure, public theology, guild participation, and other relevant issues. Through peer learning and in conversation with mentor-facilitators and invited resource persons, fellows together create space for dialogue, imagination, collegiality, and growth within and across the academy and the church. All expenses for participation in the VTE gatherings are covered by the Louisville Institute.

How do I apply?

  • Download the 2025 Postdoctoral Fellowship Application Guide. The application guide contains the details you need. Read the guide carefully and refer to it as you prepare your application materials.
  • Review the eligibility requirements in the guide.
  • Create an account. Click on the “Apply” button to create an account and get started in the application portal. (Opens June 1, 2024)
  • Prepare your materials. Complete applications require the following (see the Application Guide for full details):
    • General information about your dissertation and progress
    • Application essay
    • Doctoral transcript
    • Curriculum vitae or resume
    • Two letters of recommendation
  • All application elements are submitted online through our application portal.
  • Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. EDT October 15, 2024.
  • Letters of Recommendation are due from your recommenders October 22, 2024. 

What is the selection process for Postdoctoral Fellowship?

Every year the Louisville Institute appoints a selection committee to review proposals and name Postdoctoral Fellowship semi-finalists. All applicants will be notified as soon as possible following the selection process, which usually takes place 8-10 weeks after the application due date. Semifinalists will be interviewed in January 2025 to begin the process of coordinating a possible placement. Awards will be announced publicly in Spring 2025 after all placements are finalized.

We typically receive 50-60 eligible applications for the Postdoctoral Fellowships. For 2025, we will award 8 fellowships.

What else do I need to know?

Ordinarily, the Louisville Institute will place Postdoctoral Fellows in an appropriate, ATS-accredited theological school (or less often at a college or university). We have also placed fellows in hybrid teaching/program-oriented settings. As a semifinalist, your preferences and needs will be taken into account throughout the placement process, and you will have an opportunity to discuss your hopes and desires with us. However, it is neither necessary nor appropriate for you to pursue possible placements yourself at any time during the process. The Institute arranges placements based on the needs of the institutions, the disciplinary expertise of the fellows, and theological and contextual fit between the two.

As part of the placement process, we will ask you about other placements or jobs you may be pursuing (which are kept confidential). This is for our information as we place our scholars and does not have any bearing on whether or not you will receive a Postdoctoral Fellowship. Our desire is to help find the best option for you — be it in one of our Postdoctoral Fellowships, or elsewhere — and we ask that you be open and transparent in these conversations so that we can best assist you, wherever you land.

Additional Eligibility Information for all Grants & Fellowships

  • You are welcome to apply again for any of our grants or fellowships – in fact, it’s very common! However, you may only apply for one grant or fellowship between June 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025.
  • Any previous fellowships or grants from the Louisville Institute must be completed and final report submitted before applying for another LI fellowship or grant.
  • Members of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary staff, faculty, Board of Trustees, or student body or their immediate family members (parents, spouses, or children) are ineligible for Louisville Institute grants or fellowships. Members of the Louisville Institute Advisory Board and their immediate family members are also ineligible.
  • Louisville Institute grantees may not simultaneously hold two individual grants from Lilly Endowment-funded organizations that together total more than US$55,000. Please contact us if you have any questions about this stipulation: fellowships@louisville-institute.org. Individual grants are those held by the same project

Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions — email fellowships@louisville-institute.org.

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