Overview
APARRI invites applications from scholars of Asian Pacific American religions (across all disciplines) to participate in the APARRI Media Fellows Program, a public scholarship training program for 12 scholars of Asian Pacific American religions. APARRI is proud to be collaborating with Sacred Writes to provide an in-depth, cohort-based training program that equips scholars with opportunities to acquire skills, identify resources, and build the communities of support necessary to produce public scholarship on religion. Media Fellows will have the opportunity to reflect on scholarly “vocation” and purpose, as well as practice concrete skills to translate academic research for broader audiences. There are eight units in the training program: Why Go Public?; Risks, Rewards and Responsibilities; Rethinking Your Expertise; Communicating with the Public; Social Media; Op-Eds and Explainers; Interviews; and Next Steps. Since their founding in 2018, Sacred Writes has equipped more than 100 scholars to do this work, resulting in the creation of more than 450 pieces of public scholarship. See examples of the work by training alums on sacred-writes.org.
The Media Fellows training program will be held online and in-person in June 2025. Three units will be held online (June 6, 17, 19, each from 12-1-30 ET). All other units will be held in-person at UC Berkeley following the 2025 APARRI meeting on June 13 and 14. Trainings will be led by Director Liz Bucar and Associate Director Brook Wilensky-Lanford. Media Fellows will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with Dr. Wilensky-Lanford after the workshop until September 30, 2025.
Media Fellows are required to attend the APARRI 2025 meeting in UC Berkeley (June 10-12) + post-conference training (June 13-14), and all online meetings. Media Fellows are expected to submit 2 pieces of public scholarship within a year of participating in the program.
For their participation in the program, Media Fellows will receive a $1000 stipend. APARRI will provide travel and lodging to UC Berkeley for the APARRI 2025 meeting + media fellows training. See FAQ for details.
Eligibility
Application Guidelines
Evaluation Criteria
APARRI leadership will review and assess all applicants in accordance with the following criteria:
FAQs
YES, please apply!
MAYBE. If you are a graduate student with some graduate coursework in religion, you are eligible to apply, even if you haven’t yet passed your exams or finished your dissertation. If you have another graduate degree such as an M.A., M.Div., MTS, that was focused on religion, you are eligible to apply. If you have a Master’s degree in something unrelated to religion but took religion courses as an undergrad, you are not eligible.
YES, please apply! We are seeking to build training cohorts that include a diversity of scholars.
YES, so long as your expertise is in APA religions and you meet other eligibility criteria, please apply!
It depends. We understand that some persons who might make excellent thought leaders have some legitimate reservations about doing public-facing work. If this is you, but you are willing to face your fears head-on through our training and mentoring process, then please apply. That said, we will not be spending our time trying to convince our media fellows of the value of this kind of work. If you do not anticipate being able to overcome the barriers you might have to produce at least two public-facing pieces within one year’s time of the completion of the training, then this program is probably not suitable for you.
Media Fellows will have economy class plane fares (purchased at least 21 days in advance) to the Bay Area reimbursed up to $550. Each media fellow will be housed in a single room in a UC Berkeley dormitory. APARRI will provide all meals June 10-14, except for one dinner during the APARRI conference where attendees are encouraged to form their own dinner groups. Apologies, we are not able to cover the costs of ground transportation, baggage fees, or meals en route to/from the conference.
The APARRI conference begins in the afternoon of June 10 and commences after the conference banquet on the evening of June 12. The Media Fellows training program begins at 9 am on June 13 and ends after dinner on June 14.
Fellows are not required to stay in the dorms during the APARRI meeting and post-conference training, but we will not cover lodging costs outside of the dorms.
The application portal is live from now until February 3, 2025, 11:59 pm PST.
No. Alterations are not permitted once your application has been submitted.
Applicants will be notified in early March.
Media fellows will receive their $1000 stipend upon successful completion of a check-in form that will become available in early November.