The Center for Puerto Rican Studies invites applications for the 2025-2026 cohort of the CENTRO Research Fellows Program. 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. 

Theme (2025-2026) 

Boricuas In Relation

El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños—CENTRO—The Center for Puerto Rican Studies is the oldest and largest university-based research institute, library, and archive exclusively dedicated to the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. It was founded in 1973 by a coalition of students, faculty, and activists to support the fledgling field of Puerto Rican Studies in the City University of New York and to promote access to higher education by those of Puerto Rican descent. At the heart of these founders’ mission was the need for scholarly analysis of Puerto Ricans’ presence in the United States and the systemic forces that have subjugated and marginalized them within American society. In the present, we continue expanding our efforts to collect, preserve, and provide access to archival and library resources documenting the history and culture of Puerto Ricans. We do so in broad and inclusive ways and encourage interdisciplinary research into new emerging fields of study and phenomena that are traditionally invisible to researchers, as well as emerging issues that are dramatically changing our lives and ways of living today.

The 2025-2026 theme, Boricuas in Relation, invites researchers 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. 

The group will be asked to consider Boricua relations with Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, and/or other communities. The theme of Boricuas in Relation attends to the lived experiences and histories of Puerto Ricans in the archipelago and the diaspora and builds on existing critical scholarship while engaging in new directions within and beyond Puerto Rican Studies. Overall this theme asks: what can we learn from the complex and overlapping relationships that Puerto Ricans have across global geographies and specific cities, sites, and communities? What do we owe one another as we strive for political and cultural decolonization, self-determination and liberation, and anti-racism in our communities? These questions, and others will guide our discussions during this year-long seminar, where we will be considering different uses of the archive and explore how these spaces, collections, and practices can be transformed through a decolonial, feminist, and queer lens. 

Possible Topics:

• Puerto Rico and other US territories
• Puerto Rican, Black, and women of color feminisms
• Radical solidarity movements
• New migration patterns
• Puerto Rico and the broader Hispanophone Caribbean
• Puerto Rico and the Anglophone Caribbean
• Puerto Rico and the Francophone Caribbean
• Puerto Rico and the African, Arab, European, and Indian World
• Asian presence in Puerto Rico
• Spiritual and religious practices 
• Puerto Ricans in the media
• Food and culinary fusions 
• Dance and movement 
• Music and Sonic relations
• Cross cultural care work 
• Collaborative artistic practices
• Linguistics and Anthropolitical Linguistics 
• Mapping and cartographies 
• Placemaking and community building
• Education 
• Legal studies
• Urban developments 
• Labor and activist movements 

We invite applications from scholars in all fields of study and disciplines, including creative writing and visual arts. 

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
• Can be hybrid or in person at CENTRO in New York City
• 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)

How to Apply

Please submit the following through Submittable:

• Cover letter describing related qualifications, experience, and proposed research activities
• Current CV
• Writing sample related to the position (20-25 double spaced pages) or artist portfolio
• One page course proposal (brief course description and selected readings)
• Contact information for 3 professional references

To apply, please fill out an application here by May 4th at 11:59pm ET.

If you have any questions about these positions, please email programs@centropr.app.