Roberts Fellowship

About the Fellowship

The Clifford Roberts Graduate Fellowship is a $10,000 award that supports research dealing with the role of government in a free society, public service, public policy, and improved understanding of America's role in world affairs. The Institute offers this fellowship to encourage and assist promising individuals to pursue studies and research in fields such as history, government, economics, business administration, and international affairs. This fellowship continues President Eisenhower's goal to strengthen public awareness and understanding of the greatest problems of our time, to develop informed leaders and allow people to participate more effectively in a free society.

The fellowship is named for Clifford Roberts, an American investment dealer, professional golf administrator and friend of President Eisenhower. Mr. Roberts co-founded the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia and served as its chairman for 45 years. He was founding Chairman of the Masters Tournament.

Eligibility

Candidates should be established graduate students who have completed their coursework for a doctoral degree and are at the point of preparing for their doctoral dissertations. The review committee seeks candidates with proven capacity to make an effective contribution in their chosen career. Candidates must attend one of the following institutions: Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Stanford University, Tufts University (The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy), University of Chicago, University of Kansas, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, or Washington University at St. Louis.

All students in good academic standing from the aforementioned universities are eligible to apply, regardless of U.S. citizenship or residency.

Applications

Participating universities noted above will share this opportunity with eligible students. Each university will screen applicants through its own internal review procedures and nominate no more than two highly qualified candidates to The Eisenhower Institute for consideration. Universities may choose to rank applications.

For nomination questions or the form, please email ei@gettysburg.edu.

Each application must include:

The applicant’s curriculum vitae
The applicant's unofficial transcript
A statement describing the nature and scope of the dissertation, including expected completion date (750 words or less)
A statement of the applicant’s career aspirations, with a focus on connecting research to professional/volunteer experience and/or career aspirations and applications outside academia (750 words or less)
A statement describing how the applicant will use funding (at least 50% should be used for research-related activities)
A 1-2 page writing sample on a topic related to the dissertation
Two letters of recommendation - one must be from the applicant's doctoral advisor.

Deadlines

Applications must be received no later than the close of business on Friday, March 15, 2024. Notifications of fellowships granted for the 2024-2025 program will be sent by June 1, 2024.

Funding and Reporting Requirements

Each fellowship award is for a stipend of $10,000 which will be paid to the universities, half in September and the remainder in January the year it is awarded. Each university may make its own arrangements for disbursing the funds to the Fellows. The Institute requires a brief progress report from the Fellows' doctoral advisor no later than November 15 in order for the second half of the stipend to be paid.

Publication

The Institute requires receipt of the Fellow's dissertation once completed along with an acknowledgement of the Institute's support of the work.

2023-2024 Recipients

Amanda Martin-Hardin, Columbia University

“Greenlining: Civil Rights Struggles Over the Outdoors in the United States”

My dissertation reveals how white public authorities segregated “green spaces”–including state park land, private outdoor resorts, and crowded urban parks–as well as how people of color (and Black Americans in particular) resisted their exclusion from the outdoors. As soon as outdoor segregation emerged, people of color refused to acquiesce to a homogenous white vision of the outdoors. Black activists advocated for access to the outdoors for decades, adapting their legal strategies as the American political climate changed from the early to the mid-twentieth century. This understudied topic merits further analysis, as understanding the long legacy of Greenlining can help redress ongoing socio-environmental inequities that continue to impact public land policies today.

Andi Zhou, Harvard University

Power and Permanence: The Psychology of Territorial Nationalism

Why are people motivated to fight over territory, and how strong are the domestic political pressures that make territorial disputes difficult to resolve? This project examines the psychological anchors of individual-level territorial attachments and their role in territorial politics. Scholars have argued that territory can carry symbolic, even sacred meaning that cannot be reduced to the economic or strategic value of the land. Yet, despite widespread recognition that symbolic territorial value resides in the realm of human perception and belief, the psychological factors that bind people to these beliefs remain poorly understood, and the durability or malleability of those beliefs remain to be tested. Drawing on both existing and original cross-national survey data, I show that different kinds of territorial attachments are linked to different combinations of psychological dispositions.

Expansionism - support for the conquest of new territory - is an outgrowth of both right-wing authoritarianism, which reflects a need for ontological security and constancy, and social dominance orientation, or a belief in in-group superiority. The desire to preserve existing territorial claims, however, is associated primarily with right-wing authoritarianism. Survey experiments conducted face-to-face in India suggest that territorial attachments are difficult for leaders to manipulate. To have any chance of success, appeals to raise support for territorial compromise must be narrowly targeted to the concerns of specific constituencies. Meanwhile, leaders face significant electoral costs for taking conciliatory stances on territorial disputes, though a number of domestic issues and candidate attributes have greater influence on voting behavior. This project sheds light on why and how public opinion shapes the trajectory of territorial disputes, and the challenges around cultivating the "political will" to resolve them.

Jared Miller, The Fletcher School-Tufts

Foundations of Accountable Governance:
The Impact of Local Peacebuilding on Accountable Governance in Nigeria

Jared Miller is a Ph.D. candidate at The Fletcher School at Tufts University where he focuses on the intersection of peacebuilding, anti-corruption, and accountable governance. His dissertation looks at the impact of local peacebuilding processes on accountable governance in Nigeria. Specifically, his research examines how peacebuilding efforts attempt to transform violent, systemically corrupt political systems, and in doing so, the impact they have on accountable governance. Through this research, he hopes to contribute to a better understanding of how to strengthen accountable governance in contexts of systemic corruption

Justin Winokur, University of Virginia

“Freedom and Fear: America’s Global Warfare State, 1947-1967”

This dissertation is a history of the U.S. defense and foreign policy establishments from the end of World War II to the Vietnam War. It examines why and how U.S. policymakers built a permanent warfare state—including large national security organizations and a sprawling military-industrial complex—and explores the warfare state's impact on U.S. foreign policy, global capitalism, and American democracy.

Margaret Swenson, University of Kansas

Collaboration Toward Health Equity: Exploring the Drivers, Success, and Strategies of Cross-sector Collaborations on the Social Determinants of Health

The United States faces profound health disparities stemming from systemic racism and economic inequality. Experts advocate for cross-sector collaboration to address complex health issues by targeting these underlying causes of unequal health outcomes. However, there remains limited knowledge regarding the operations and impact of cross-sector partnerships focused on the social determinants of health. To shed light on this subject, this research leverages mixed methods to examine the formation, success, and strategies of health equity collaborations. First, an analysis of local health department data identifies key predictors of collaboration formation. Second, an examination of the relationship between cross-sector collaborations and health outcomes evaluates the success of these partnerships. Finally, interviews with public health leaders and community partners illuminate the inner workings and best practices of these partnerships. The findings provide valuable insights for public health officials to establish and sustain more effective collaborative arrangements, contributing to more equitable, efficient, and trustworthy health agencies. Further, this research advances our understanding of how cross-sector collaborations can be leveraged to address health disparities and promote an environment where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full health potential. .

Vannessa Velez, Stanford University

No Promised Land: Environmental Governance and Environmental Inequality in the Making of Globalizing Atlanta, 1945-1990

My dissertation charts the political history and environmental history of metro Atlanta’s rapid economic development between 1945, when national post-war urban planning began, and 1990, when the city won its bid to host the Centennial Olympics. While historians tend to focus on either environmental governance or environmental justice, the built environment or the natural environment, my dissertation draws on interdisciplinary frameworks to trace the interconnections between these categories. Building on the new histories of racial capitalism, I examine how Atlanta’s political and business leaders exploited the city’s built and natural environment to spur economic development and enforce racial segregation—which they understood to be fundamentally intertwined projects.

Contact

Please contact ei@gettysburg.edu or 717-337-6685.