The 2025 Sandra K. Abell Institute for Doctoral Students (SKAIDS) will be held July 21-25, in Evanston, IL, hosted by Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy. Organizers are Jason Buell, Christa Haverly, Brian Reiser and Yang Zhang.
Applications are due February 28, 2025 at 6pm local time. Fellows will be notified by March 14 and mentors will be notified by March 21.
We invite doctoral students to apply to be a Fellow. Thirty fellows will be mentored by scholars in the field of science education, participate in critical friends groups around their research, attend workshops based on their needs, and have dedicated time for writing. Programming will be oriented toward advanced candidates. For our purposes, we think students will get the most out of the Institute if they have advanced to the stage where they have at least a well-defined research questions, a research context, and the beginnings of a research plan for a dissertation proposal but will not have defended a dissertation by the beginning of the Institute.
Submission includes a 2-page CV, a 1-page letter of intent expressing the goals you hope to accomplish or make progress on through participation in the Abell Institute, and a 2-3 page summary of your current dissertation research that includes a brief positionality statement. If it is not already described in the letter of intent, the research summary should also include an area that you hope to make progress on during the Institute. Submit each as separate PDF documents. The letter of intent and research summary should be double- spaced and 12-point font, and use headers or footers so that your name is on each page.
We also invite scholars in science education to apply to be a mentor. Up to eight additional scholars will be selected to serve as mentors alongside the 2025 organizers. Mentors will work closely with Fellows at a 1:3 ratio, often partnering with another mentor/fellow group. Submission includes a 5-page CV and 1-page letter addressing your mentoring commitments, mentoring strengths, and goals for the Institute. Mentors should have a PhD in science education or a related field but do not need to have a university affiliation. We encourage applicants from alternative academic careers. Submit each as separate PDF documents.
NARST and the Abell Institute are committed to fostering equity and justice in science education. We encourage students and potential mentors who come from historically marginalized backgrounds and from diverse lived experiences including but not limited to: race, ethnicity, culture, language, gender, sexual orientation, institution, home country, etc. to apply. The Abell Institute aims to engage folks from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives with fairness and dignity to build community and exchange ways of being, knowing, and working toward mutual flourishing.
