Expand your academic interests to include a policy dimension – or apply your policy expertise to a research project in your field.
As a Udall Center Fellow, you will be relieved of your UArizona teaching duties for a full semester so you can focus your attention on a research project related to, informing, or potentially impactful to public policy in your area of academic expertise.
There are a number of opportunities for research that might qualify you to participate in the Udall Center Fellows Program. Your chosen research can cover any aspect of public policy and need not relate to general Udall Center Activities.
In partnership with several other UArizona colleges, institutes and programs, The Udall Center Fellows Program offers six specialized tracks tailored to your public-policy interests and designed to propel your research forward.
Public Policy Fellowship Tracks
Fine Arts
For faculty from the College of Fine Arts. Seeking proposals that leverage any of the disciplines in the College of Fine Arts (music, visual art, dance, theatre, and film) to tell a story about or otherwise help audiences connect to or better understand some element of public policy and/or political history. Opportunities in this regard are myriad, inclusive and expansive so don’t hesitate to get creative with your proposals.
In partnership with the College of Fine Arts
TRACK NOT AVAILABLE 2025/26
Environment
For faculty in any department or unit on campus to support research in any aspect of environment and public policy.
In partnership with the Arizona Institute for Resilience (AIR)
Biosciences
For research on topics within the BIO5/Translational Bioscience strategic areas (Science, Agriculture, Engineering, Medicine, and Pharmacy) with appropriate public-policy inquiry concerning such realms as ethics, financing, legislation, governance, public dialogue, Indigenous issues, and other germane subjects.
In partnership with the BIO5 Institute
Social Sciences
For faculty from the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
In partnership with the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
TRACK NOT AVAILABLE 2025/26
Other Public Policy
For faculty in any department or unit on campus for other research interests relating to public policy not covered by the five other research tracks above.
In partnership with the Office of Research, Innovation and Impact (RII)
APPLICATIONS DUE JANUARY 31, 2025!
Project Examples
Social Sciences & Public Policy
Previous projects in this track include but are not limited to:
- Studying Americans’ Attitudes Toward Freedom of Information (David Cuillier, Asst. Prof., Journalism, 2009-10)
- Death and Life on the Yangtze: Extinction, Conservation, and Environmental Change in China (David Pietz, Prof., History, 2022-23)
- How Institutions Change: Looking Backward at Policing and Forward at Education (Jennifer Earl, Prof., Sociology, 2021-22)
Fine Arts & Public Policy
Seeking proposals that leverage any of the media of focus in the College of Fine Arts (music, theatre, experiential art, visual arts, dance, film, etc.) to tell a story about or otherwise help audiences connect to or better understand some element of public policy and/or political history. Opportunities in this regard are myriad, inclusive and expansive (book, performance, film, art installation, event or any other form of creative research/scholarship) so don’t hesitate to get creative with your proposals
Examples of projects that might fit this new research track include but are not limited to:
- "The Invisible Line", A play and public symposium around border issues (Elaine Romero, Associate Professor, School of Theatre, Film & Television;
College of Fine Arts, 2024-25) - "America’s Health: Welcome to the Game" Documentary (Yuri Makino, Associate Professor & Associate Director, School of Theatre, Film and Television;
College of Fine Arts, 2023-24)
Environment & Public Policy
Previous projects that might fit this resilience-focused track include but are not limited to:
- Real Estate Speculation, Ranching, and the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan: Long-Term Environmental Collaboration in a Largely Urban Country (Thomas Sheridan, Prof. Anthropology, 2020-21)
- AGRIVOLTAICS: A Solution to Food-Energy-Water Vulnerabilities in the semiarid Southwest (Greg Barron-Gafford, Prof., Biogeography, 2020-21)
- From Restoration to Resilience Ecology: An Emerging Paradigm for Ecosystem Management (Don Falk, Assoc. Prof. Natural Resources and the Environment, 2014-15)
APPLY NOW: Environment & Public Policy Track
Biosciences & Public Policy
Previous projects that might fit this research track include but are not limited to:
- State Policy Review of Abuse Reporting from Developmental Disability Groups (Jamie Edgin, Prof. Science, 2022-23)
- Embodying Place: Pathologizing Chinese and Chinatown in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco (Susan Craddock, Prof. Women’s Studies & Geography, 1997-98)
- Community-based approaches to monitor and improve the Southern Arizona-Sonora Borderlands Foodshed: Cultivating the Network of Collaborators (Megan Carney, Asst. Prof. Anthropology, 2019-20)
Apply now: Biosciences & Public Policy Track
Other Public Policy Research
Previous projects that might fit this research track include but are not limited to:
- The Limitations of Social Network Analysis in Studying Insurgency and Terrorism (Ronald Breiger, Prof. Sociology, 2009-10)
- Ed Tech, FERPA, and Overcoming the Privacy Paradox (Rochelle Rodrigo, Assoc. Writing Studies Specialist Dept of English, 2020-21)
- Authoritarianism, Populism, and the Partisan Policy Divide (Christopher Weber, Assoc. Prof. Government and Public Policy, 2018-19)
Apply now: Public Policy Track