Scholarship Overview
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Overview
The Polyfoni Social Sciences for AI Fellowship is a four-month, part-time research programme running from November 2026 to March 2027. It connects social scientists with fieldwork experience in Global South contexts to AI governance and product evaluation. Fellows work remotely to conduct “cultural audits”—empirical analyses of how AI products encode assumptions about the communities they serve.
The fellowship addresses a critical gap: AI development teams rarely include people trained to study how societies actually work, yet social scientists possess exactly the qualitative and ethnographic methods these teams need.
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What Fellows Do
Fellows complete a structured cultural audit of a real AI product in their region of expertise. This is not theoretical research—you apply existing fieldwork knowledge to evaluate technology already deployed in communities you understand.
Each audit follows Polyfoni’s Cultural Audit Method:
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- Assumption mapping: Identifying what beliefs about users are built into the product
- Contextual failure identification: Finding where those assumptions break down
- Severity assessment: Evaluating the impact of these failures
- Recommendations: Producing actionable guidance for product teams
Example audit targets include health AI chatbots in East Africa, agricultural tools in West Africa, ocean AI in Southeast Asia, or LLMs in non-English-dominant markets.
Programme Structure and Commitment
The fellowship requires approximately 5 hours per week over four months. Components include:
- Dual mentorship from an academic collaborator and an AI industry professional
- Training in Polyfoni’s Cultural Audit Method
- Online masterclasses on AI governance and academic-to-industry career transition
- Monthly group sessions for peer feedback and guest inputs from AI practitioners
- Career discussions with mentors and the Polyfoni network
Outputs include a report written for product teams, published on Polyfoni’s Substack and Making AI Listen open-access publication under the fellow’s name.
Eligibility and Selection Criteria
Polyfoni welcomes applicants from across humanities and social sciences, including:
- Anthropology
- Sociology
- Science and Technology Studies (STS)
- Development studies
- Political science
- Area studies
Degree level: MSc and PhD students, early-career researchers, and scholars in adjacent fields. No strict degree requirements exist.
Essential requirements:
- Deep regional expertise with evidence of fieldwork in a Global South context
- Priority regions: East Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, China
- Clear motivation for working at the intersection of social science and AI
- Concrete idea of which AI product you would audit
- Comfort working in English (additional languages advantageous)
Not required: Prior AI or technical experience.
Selection prioritises diversity of region and discipline. Scholars based in the Global South are particularly encouraged to apply.
Application Process
The selection process has two steps:
Step 1: Initial application
Submit a short application with a motivation statement (500 words maximum). Successful candidates proceed to CV review.
Step 2: Interview
Final candidates complete an interview and research discussion with the Polyfoni team.
Mentor matching occurs based on regional expertise alignment (your fieldwork region and the mentor’s company market) and sector alignment (health, fintech, content moderation, etc.).
Key Dates
- Application deadline: 15 October 2026
- Review: Rolling basis—apply early
- Fellowship period: November 2026 – March 2027
About Polyfoni
Polyfoni was founded to bring social science knowledge into AI development, particularly from underrepresented regions and communities. The organisation studies AI products as social institutions—examining built-in assumptions, whose knowledge counts, and what happens when products designed in one context deploy in another.
The team combines expertise in business anthropology, global health research, AI governance, and qualitative methods. Based in Oslo, Polyfoni works with researchers and practitioners across Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Why African and SADC Scholars Should Apply
The fellowship explicitly prioritises East Africa and other Global South regions where AI deployment is accelerating but local social science expertise is underutilised in tech development. For Zimbabwean and SADC scholars with fieldwork experience, this represents a structured pathway to apply qualitative research skills to AI governance—a growing field with career implications across academia, policy, and industry.
The remote format removes relocation barriers. The part-time structure allows continuation of existing commitments. The mentorship and publication components build credentials for technology-sector career transitions.
You apply directly with the provider. We never charge for applications or ask for payment details. How we verify scholarships