From June 30 – July 4, 2025, Harvard Law School’s IGLP will collaborate with Stellenbosch University to convene the Global Scholars Academy in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Applications due: Monday, February 24, 2025
Click here to apply!
About the Academy
The Global Scholars Academy is an intensive residential experience designed to enable junior faculty and post-doctoral scholars to engage in sustained, interdisciplinary, peer-to-peer collaboration under the close mentorship of research faculty drawn from the world’s top universities. The Academy is open by application to junior scholars working to understand and map the levers of political, economic, and legal authority in the world today. We particularly welcome applications from scholars from the Global South and those working on policy challenges of particular concern to communities in the Global South.
Building on the IGLP’s decade of successful workshops and Stellenbosch’s dedication to high-level interdisciplinary research, the Global Scholars Academy will engage a growing community of scholars developing new thinking about the world’s most pressing policy challenges. While in residence, participants will workshop their ongoing research, review current scholarship developments, reconsider canonical texts, and network with colleagues from across the world.
The Format
The 2025 Academy offered a unique interdisciplinary curriculum and included thematic minicourses, plenary lectures, and writing workshops. Writing workshops offered participants the opportunity to receive detailed, valuable feedback on their research from their peers and senior colleagues in small group settings.
The 2025 Curricular Themes
Critical and Social Theory
Clinical Education and the Global South
“Decolonization” and “Post-Colonialism” in a Multipolar World
Formality and Informality in the Law of Property
Gender, Identity, and Poverty
Global Corporate Power and Social Justice
Harnessing the Global Powers of Private Law
International Economic Law in Global Political Economy
Law in Economic Development: North and South
Mapping the World: Law in the Global Geography
Racial Hierarchies and the Future of Work
…and more!
The 2025 Faculty
Our carefully curated global faculty hails from the world’s leading institutions with years of experience in teaching and educating the next generation of young scholars.
…and more!
The Application – Due February 24, 2025 – Click here to apply!
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many participants attend?
A: The Academy is by accepted application only. We anticipate convening between 75 – 100 global scholars.
Q: Where do your faculty come from?
A: All over the world! Our mentoring faculty hail from top universities such as SciencesPo, Harvard, NYU, SOAS, University of London, Melbourne Law School, Stellenbosch University, Tilburg, and many more!
Q: Is there a cost to attend? What is covered?
A: There is no registration fee. The Academy is committed to keeping out-of-pocket costs for participants as low as possible. Admitted out-of-town participants will receive lodging throughout the Academy along with a travel scholarship. Most meals for all participants will be covered by the Academy with some being the responsibility of the individual.
Q: If accepted, will Academy organizers support my visa application?
A: Yes. We will assist with providing the necessary documentation for accepted participant’s visa applications. Participants are responsible for knowing lead times and applying for and securing the necessary visa on their own.
Q: Will I be presenting a paper at the Academy?
A: No – this is one of the unique elements of the Academy. While each admitted participant must submit an 8000-word piece, draft, or work in progress of academic writing in advance of the Academy for the Writing Workshop element of the program, you will not present your own work. More information on the IGLP Approach to Writing Workshops, and to understand how this all works, can be found here: https://iglp.law.harvard.edu/presenting-feedback/
The Collaboration
The collaboration will encourage scholarship exploring such pressing issues as the structural reproduction of poverty and inequality; the policy challenges and benefits of new technologies; links between local and global security; environmental sustainability and the impact of environmental change on communities across the global South, women’s empowerment, SDG’s; as well as the management of cultural difference, exclusion, and intolerance in a world of ever-increasing movement and communication.
Stellenbosch University (SU) is home to an academic community of 29,000 students (including 4,000 foreign students from 100 countries) as well as 3,000 permanent staff members (including 1,000 academics) on five campuses. The historical oak-lined university town amongst the Boland Mountains in the winelands of the Western Cape creates a unique campus atmosphere. On the main campus, paved walkways wind between campus buildings – some dating from previous centuries; others just a few years old. Architecture from various eras attests to the sound academic foundation and establishment of an institution of excellence. This, together with the scenic beauty of the area; state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly facilities and technology, as well as visionary thinking about the creation of a sustainable 21st-century institution, makes for the unique character of SU. The Faculty of Law, which commemorated its centenary in 2021, as well as the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences are both situated on the main campus. At SU, this project underwrites our commitment to promote the global SDG 2030 agenda as well as our commitment to the continent in supporting the Africa Agenda 2063. The Academy aims to stimulate rigorous academic conversation contributing specifically to Agenda 2063 theme 4 “A Peaceful and Secure Africa” and theme 5 “Good Governance, Democracy, Human Rights, Justice and Rule of Law”.