Junior scholars who have received their doctoral degrees within the past five years may apply to be unpaid postdoctoral fellows. The focus of the proposed research project needs to be aligned in some way with research conducted by one or more members of the HDS faculty. Read profiles of the 2023-24 HDS postdoctoral fellows.
A postdoctoral fellow is considered an independent researcher and may not register for and take classes for credit. For information on how to audit classes (not for credit) at HDS, please consult the instructions on auditing.
The deadline for applications is January 31 of each year for appointments commencing the following academic year. Candidates will be informed in early March whether they have been accepted as postdoctoral fellows at HDS for one or both terms of the next academic year.
All one-term appointments run from August 1 to December 31 or from January 1 to May 31 (with a minimum stay of at least three months). All full-academic-year appointments begin August 1 and end May 31. Extension of an appointment beyond 10 months is not allowed.
Postdoctoral fellowships are unpaid.
(Discover more information here about the paid Buddist Ministry Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowship.)
How to apply
An application must contain the following:
- Current curriculum vitae;
- Description of proposed research project (including a timetable);
- Two letters of recommendation from members of the applicant's doctoral committee;
- Doctoral studies transcript showing the completion date of the doctorate (if this is not available at the time of application, it must be submitted before the start date of the appointment, or the appointment will be revoked);
- A signed statement or email message from a permanent member of the HDS faculty indicating his or her willingness to supervise the applicant's project while he or she is at HDS; and
- For those seeking J-1 Visitor Visas, a Certification of English Language Proficiency (PDF) to be completed by the sponsoring member of the HDS faculty sponsor (see Note for Faculty Sponsors: Certification of English Language Proficiency below).
- A completed Visiting Scholar/Postdoctoral Fellow Form for Unsalaried Appointment (PDF)
- Please put all the information into an email and send it to academicaffairs@hds.harvard.edu.
- Your recommenders may also send their letters of recommendation to academicaffairs@hds.harvard.edu.
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please also note that no HDS funding is available for a postdoctoral appointment. This is an unpaid appointment. No assistance is available for housing, insurance, moving expenses, visa fees, research funding, office space, etc.
An appointment as a postdoctoral fellow entitles the fellow to a Harvard University ID card (which allows access to the Harvard University Libraries) for the duration of the appointment. Postdoctoral fellows are cordially invited to attend all HDS community and public events. However, HDS is unable to offer courtesy library cards, or appointments, for any additional members of a fellow's family.
HDS receives a large number of requests each year and is only able to accommodate a small number of postdoctoral appointments. Therefore, an extension of the term of the appointment is generally not possible, unless it is with the explicit permission of the associate dean for faculty and academic affairs and is supported by a permanent HDS faculty member.
Only members of the Voting Faculty at HDS may act as sponsors for visiting scholars or postdoctoral fellows. The faculty are asked to kindly connect with the Office of Academic Affairs at HDS if they have any further questions about the requirements and/or process. Any research affiliation (visiting scholar, or postdoctoral fellow) can only be issued if the stay at HDS is three months (minimum) or up to 12 months. We are unable to appoint anyone for shorter affiliations and time-commitments. So-called “summer affiliations” from June to August are generally not possible.
For further questions, and/or inquiries, please contact the Office of Academic Affairs.
English language proficiency
Note for Faculty Sponsors: Certification of English Language Proficiency
Harvard Divinity School faculty members who are considering sponsoring a postdoctoral scholar who will require a J-1 Visitor Visa should note that they will be required to confirm that the prospective postdoctoral scholar’s English language skills are sufficient to function on a day-to-day basis in the environment that is required to complete their program, based on the following criteria:
- Recognized English Language Test (i.e. TOEFL, IELTS);
- Document from an academic institution or English language school;
- In-person interview (conversation);
- Videoconferencing/Skype;
- Telephone Interview (if in-person or videoconferencing is not possible);
- Transfer/Repeat Visitor (English language proficiency established in previous J-1 stay); and
- Other criteria, to be described by the sponsoring faculty member.
2023–24 postdoctoral fellows
Daniel Ross Goodman, Aharon Ariel Lavi, Dhruv Raj Nagar, and Benjamin White are the Harvard Divinity School postdoctoral fellows for the 2023–24 academic year.
Daniel Ross Goodman, supervised by Professor Charles Hallisey, is a scholar of Jewish thought and Jewish theology, especially in the area of Judaism’s relationship to Christianity and other world religions. A faculty member of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University, he also works in the areas of comparative literature, religion and literature, and religion and film. He is the author of Soloveitchik’s Children: Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America (University of Alabama Press, 2023) and Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Wonder and Religion in American Cinema (Hamilton Books, 2020), and is a co-editor of the forthcoming Beyond Dialogue: New Paradigms in Interfaith Discourse (SUNY Press, 2025). His novel A Single Life (KTAV, 2020) was a Catholic World Report Best Book of 2020. As a postdoctoral fellow this academic year at Harvard Divinity School, he will be working on his next monograph, a study of Jewish philosophical and theological views about the Land of Israel from antiquity to modernity, as well as a book on Dante’s Divine Comedy for scholarly and lay readers.
Aharon Ariel Lavi, supervised by Professor Dan McKanan, is the founder of Hakhel, the Jewish Intentional Communities Incubator in the Diaspora (awarded the 2020 Jerusalem Unity Prize), and MAKOM, the Israeli umbrella organization of intentional communities. Lavi is now the general director of the Ohr Torah Interfaith Center. He holds rabbinic semicha and academic degrees in economics, geography (BA), and history and philosophy of ideas (MA). He recently completed his PhD dissertation on the migration of ideas between U.S. Jewry and Israeli society at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Lavi's expertise extends to Judaism and economics, environmentalism, and other topics. His research focus while at Harvard Divinity School will be community building. He will compile the Community Manual, which will integrate professional methods, experience from the field, and Jewish philosophy. It will offer practical and theoretical tools for community builders worldwide. When not working, Lavi enjoys mountain biking as a professional racer, trainer, and trail builder.
Dhruv Raj Nagar, supervised by Professor Frank Clooney, holds a PhD in the philosophy of religions from the University of Chicago Divinity School. His dissertation title was Thinking Spiritually: Grammar, Action and Embodiment in and before Advaita. His areas of research are Indian philosophy, philosophy of religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sanskrit studies, and continental philosophy. At HDS this year, Dr. Nagar plans to read manuals and commentaries in the traditions of Advaita and Mīmāṃsā and write monographs. He also plans to develop several themes from his dissertation towards understanding the role of action 13 (kriyā/karman) in the study of Hindu philosophical and religious texts, particularly exploring the nexus of traditional grammar, hermeneutics, and philosophy.
Benjamin White, supervised by Professor Giovanni Bazzana, holds a PhD from Durham University, where his thesis was entitled, Pain and Paradox in 2 Corinthians: The Transformative Function of Strength in Weakness (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021). His research areas include New Testament, theological interpretation, and Early Christianity. During his time at HDS, he will be working on his next major book project, which considers the political dimensions of Paul's strength in weakness theology, including the role it played in the growth of the earliest Christian communities and how it might challenge notions of power and cultural witness in contemporary American Christianity.