CUNY Summer Research Fellow - APPLICATION EXTENDED 3/21

Who we are:

The Vera Institute of Justice is powered by hundreds of advocates, researchers, and policy experts working to transform the criminal legal and immigration systems until they’re fair for all. Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City, Vera is now a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change. We develop just, antiracist solutions so that money doesn’t determine freedom; fewer people are in jails, prisons, and immigration detention; and everyone is treated with dignity. For more information, visit vera.org.

Vera has a staff of 224 people, is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York and has offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and New Orleans. We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace. We expect our staff to embody respect, independence, collaboration, commitment, anti-racism, and equity—both in our outward-facing work and the internal culture of our workplace. We value a range of experiences in people’s educational backgrounds and encourage people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system to apply.

About the team:

Vera’s research is an essential component of our work to deliver justice and end mass incarceration. Our research is founded on social science principles of independence and methodological rigor and designed to deliver the knowledge that will lead to real world impact. Vera researchers generate and interpret the evidence required to understand problems, develop solutions, shift policies, and change beliefs and norms that perpetuate inequity and impede justice. 

Vera researchers work as part of inter-disciplinary teams to develop and implement theories of change that weave together research, advocacy, communications, and site-based technical assistance (TA). We conceptualize issues and collect the evidence that is needed to understand problems, highlight inequities, design interventions, and advocate for transformative change. With impact at the fore, we work with our teammates and allies to ensure that the knowledge we produce reaches decision-makers in a format that is designed to spur action.

About the role:

The Vera Institute of Justice and CUNY Graduate Center invite applications for Summer Fellows who will be based in Vera’s New York City office. These $4,000 fellowships will be offered to Graduate Center Ph.D. students from any program with research interests in criminal or immigration justice and the work of the Vera Institute. The primary responsibilities of the award winners will be to collaborate with researchers in one of Vera’s 4 centers or programs on research relating to a specific project, including but not limited to data collection, analysis, fieldwork, report writing, stakeholder engagement, and dissemination.  

While Vera’s centers and programs span the criminal legal system, Vera is offering CUNY Fellows projects in select areas. Please see the list of potential projects below and indicate in your application which project or projects are most relevant to your experience and interest. If you are interested in more than one project, be sure to fill out the last page of this document, listing those projects in order of preference. While you can apply for up to 3 projects, successful applicants will be assigned to work with one initiative over the course of the fellowship. 

Fellowship recipients will work with their assigned initiative for 120 hours over the summer of 2025. While there is some flexibility in remote working, fellows will be expected to work onsite at Vera’s offices in Industry City, Brooklyn for at least 60 hours over the course of the summer in line with Vera’s hybrid schedule. In addition, recipients will be required to attend a welcome reception at the beginning of the fellowship, to do a brief presentation on their work at the end of the summer and write a blog post about their experiences before the end of the Fall 2025 semester.

Summer Fellowship Initiatives

Advancing Universal Representation 

Vera welcomes applications from students from all academic backgrounds (e.g., economics, sociology, political science, demography, criminal justice, geography, computer science, mathematics). Candidates with a strong understanding of quantitative methods (such as regression discontinuity, differences-in-differences, etc.) are preferred. Preferred candidates will also have coding skills and training in R, Stata, or Python.