UMass Boston

Over the past 25 years, the Joiner Institute has collaborated with various organizations to facilitate research about war and civil strife. Please contact our staff to inquire about any current fellowships.

U.S. Department of State

• Fulbright Scholar (2015)

Thuy Thi Minh Nguyen from the Hanoi Public School of Health (Hanoi, Vietnam) was a visiting Fulbright Fellow at the Joiner Institute for the period March 1st through August 31st, 2015.   In addition to learning about the U.S. policies, laws and programs for people with disabilities in the U.S., she collaborated with the Joiner Institute Director, Dr. Thomas T. Kane, on five different research papers about the disability situation and support programs in Vietnam.

• The Joiner Institute Fellows Program (2006–2009)

This program offered fellowship funding to writers and humanists residing either in the United States or abroad, whose work focused on issues of local, national, or international conflict. 

“We can not afford not to invest in programs that seek solutions and common ground in our local and global community. William Joiner fellows work to understand the underlying causes of conflict so we can look toward peaceful solutions--this important work must be continued.”                                                                                                — Senator John Kerry

• International Writers' Fellowship (2003)

Four writers from Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, and Vietnam arrived in Boston in April of 2003 to present their works about conflict in their countries as part of an international writers program sponsored by the U.S. State Department. During the three-month fellowship, the writers traveled to New York, Washington, D.C., Iowa City, Iowa, and San Francisco.

Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships

• Culture, Art, Trauma, Survival, Development: Vietnamese Contexts (2006–2007)

This project expanded on the work of a previous cycle of fellowships “(Re)constructing Identity and Place in the Vietnamese Diaspora,” seeking to examine the roles culture and art have played in the contexts of postwar experiences of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. Work focused on both Vietnam and the Diaspora. The project aimed to engage scholars, activists, and community leaders whose work, both practical and theoretical, sought to address the issues of culture, art, war, trauma, survival, and development. As an acknowledgement of the diverse situations of scholars, artists, and activists in the Vietnamese community, the project supported fellowships with flexible residency requirements.

• The Vietnamese Diaspora (2000–2003)

Focused on reconstructions of identity and place in the Vietnamese Diaspora after 1975 and enabled scholars to explore how diverse paradigms of Vietnamese identity and community--through the study of history, literature and culture--are shaped and reshaped in the post-war and post-refugee era across generations.

Massachusetts Cultural Council Grants (2012)

The William Joiner Institute received grants to promote, encourage, and disseminate literary, artistic, and cultural expression of the subjects of war and social consequences, political violence, and social justice.