Job Description

Perry World House, the University of Pennsylvania’s hub for global policy research, is partnering with Foreign Affairs, the preeminent outlet for analysis and debate of foreign policy, economics, and global affairs, for the 2025 Perry World House-Foreign Affairs Emerging Scholars Policy Prize

This $5,000 prize encourages scholars to translate their own academic work to be more accessible to policymakers in positions of influence and to advance policy debates on significant issues in global affairs. The prize recognizes outstanding, original essays on any topic related to international issues that draw on original academic research and intend to influence policy debates.

The goal of the prize is to encourage new voices with new ideas on addressing both the long-standing and new challenges the world faces. To that end, we encourage scholars from ALL disciplines to apply. Scholars should submit original essays approximately 3,000 words, based on their academic scholarship. Submissions should be written in a format and style appropriate for publication in Foreign Affairs

Prizes will be selected based on their overall excellence and alignment with Perry World House’s four pillars, which are:

• Climate Change
• Democracy
• Global Justice and Human Rights
• Security

Each winner will receive an award of $5,000 from Perry World House. Perry World House encourages prize winners to use the prize to advance their academic research and policy impact. Each prize winner will also have her/his/their essay published by Foreign Affairs online and/or in print.

About Perry World House

Perry World House is the University of Pennsylvania’s hub for global engagement. It is a center for scholarly inquiry, teaching, research, international exchange, policy engagement, and public outreach on pressing global issues. To learn more about Perry World House, go to: https://global.upenn.edu/perryworldhouse

About Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs is the leading forum for serious discussion of American foreign policy and global affairs. To learn more about Foreign Affairs, go to: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/

Questions

If you have any questions, email worldhouse@pwh.upenn.edu with the subject line “Perry World House-Foreign Affairs Emerging Scholars Policy Prize.”

Qualifications

• Eligibility is open to emerging scholars from around the world, including scholars at the University of Pennsylvania.
• This includes junior faculty, postdocs, and advanced Ph.D. candidates. (Tenured faculty are ineligible.)
• Other scholars are eligible to apply if they completed the relevant terminal degree in their field of study in 2017 or after (for example, a J.D., MA, MS, MPH, etc.).
• One submission per person. Submissions can be co-authored, as can the underlying piece of academic scholarship. All co-authors must satisfy the eligibility requirements. If a co-authored submission receives the prize, the authors will split the award equally.

Application Instructions

Applications should be in English and include the following three documents:

• The prize essay (can be single authored or co-authored);
• The underlying academic scholarship the prize essay is based on (formats can include a published or forthcoming article/chapter, unpublished academic manuscripts, etc.); and
• CV

A panel of judges will select the overall winners. Submissions will be judged on policy relevance, writing quality, the importance of the policy challenge, the feasibility of its policy recommendations, and the quality of the underlying academic scholarship.

Deadline

Applications will be accepted until 11:59 Eastern Time on May 21, 2025.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state or local law.