The 2025-2026 theme, Boricuas in Relation, invites applicants to engage with the phenomenon of Boricua archipelagic and diasporic community formation with other racial and ethnic groups. Boricuas have long developed and sustained political, social, kinship, creative, labor, and spiritual practices with multiple communities across the United States and beyond. We are interested in works that examine the experience and impact of migration, language, assimilation, cultural and linguistic resilience, and the connections between Puerto Ricans and other racial and ethnic groups.
Scroll down below to learn more about the different opportunities!
Apply to be a Hybrid Fellow, Artist-in-Residence, or Dissertation Fellow
The Center for Puerto Rican Studies invites applications for the 2025-2026 cohort of the CENTRO Rooted + Relational Fellows. This program convenes scholars, writers, and faculty in a cohort model that responds to an annual theme. The fellowships are held for one year (August 2025-July 2026). Fellows will spend their time at CENTRO working on a specific research project and will be required to attend weekly seminar meetings, as well as additional workshops, and public events.
Qualifications:
- Hybrid Fellows:
- We will select up to five hybrid fellows and will award each $25k
- Open to researchers and artists working on the annual theme who are unable to relocate to New York City for the duration of the fellowship year
- PhD is not required, but fellows must have extensive background in Puerto Rican Studies
- Artist-In-Residence:
- We will select up to one artist researcher-in-residence and will be awarded $75k
- Open to artists, of all disciplines, working on the annual theme
- PhD is not required, but fellows must have extensive background in Puerto Rican Studies
- Must be in residence at CENTRO in New York City for the duration of the 2025-2026 academic year
- Dissertation Fellows:
- We will select up to two dissertation fellows and will award each $25k
- Must be ABD (all but dissertation) in a related discipline by July 1, 2025
- One of the 3 reference letters must come from the dissertation advisor
- May be hybrid or in residence (in-residence requires a minimum of 3 on site days per week)
Apply to be a Research Associate
The Center for Puerto Rican Studies invites applications for the 2025-2026 cohort of the CENTRO Rooted + Relational Fellows. This program convenes scholars, writers, and faculty in a cohort model that responds to an annual theme. Research Associate positions are held for one year (August 2025-July 2026). Research Associates will spend their time at CENTRO working on a specific research project and will be required to attend weekly seminar meetings, as well as additional workshops, and public events.
Qualifications:
- A PhD in a related discipline is required
Must be in residence at CENTRO in New York City for the duration of the 2025-2026 academic year
Submit a Proposal for Puerto Rican Voices
Season 6 of Puerto Rican Voices is looking for pitches that center stories of Puerto Rican and diasporican placement, displacement, and migration in communities across the US and return migration to Puerto Rico.
Examples include:
- Histories and new issues in historic diasporic communities
- Stories and community efforts in lesser known diasporic communities
- Formation of new diasporic communities across and beyond the United States
- Gentrification, dispossession, and environmental battles in diasporic communities
- Rematriation and Return Migration to Puerto Rico
- Sexiles and LGBTQIA+ political, social, and economic displacement
- Mutual aid efforts, communal practices, support systems, and solidarity projects within the diaspora
- Creative individual or collective practices that bolster cultural preservation and transformation
- Historical preservation, archive development, or public memorialization projects
- Local and diasporic foodways, food justice, and food geographies in the context of shared and co-constituted communities
- Stories about place, land, bodies, and race
- Internal displacements, new migrations, and cultural exclusion or erasure in Puerto Rico
CENTRO will award $15,000 to five producers to participate in the Rooted + Relational Social Documentary Lab to each produce one of five episodes for the next season of the TV show Puerto Rican Voices.
Apply for a Micro-Grant
Applications are now open for the 2025-2026 Rooted + Relational Community Micro-Grant Program. CENTRO will award up to 12 grants of up to $5,000 each, to non-institutionally affiliated community organizations, individuals, or projects focused on community-based initiatives.
Qualifications:
- Community Micro-Grant recipients must be non-academic, non-institutionally affiliated individuals or groups, including:
- Community organizers
- Artists, creatives, and writers
- Agricultural workers, Activists and organizers
- Cultural workers
- Applicants must reside in Puerto Rico or the United States and its territories and collaborate on projects that engage participants who identify as Puerto Rican or are of Puerto Rican descent, or work on a community project related to Puerto Rican histories, legacies, or futures.