Announcing The Storying Just Futures Fellowships
The Storying Just Futures Fellowships offer graduate students the opportunity to be part of the development of youth* vision and leadership at UNESCO in discussions of a “future we want.” The Fellowships will bring a collective of students together to imagine a future they wish to see, and to pitch a solution (in the form of a social change recommendation, policy recommendation, manifesto or white paper) to UNESCO leadership that they believe will lead to meaningful change by the year 2070 .
Up to ten students will be awarded a Storying Just Futures Fellowship. Fellows will co-write a pitch to UNESCO with their collective recommendation or solution for how this change will lead to a future they wish to see. Ultimately, the Fellowship will also offer Fellows insight into how large international policy-making bodies like UNESCO work, how young leaders can get involved, and how participation in global governance events can be a milestone towards each Fellow’s career goals. Fellows will receive a stipend of $200, funded by Create the Change, and be gifted copies of Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s What if We Get it Right? and Ruha Benjamin’s Imagination: A Manifesto. Those selected will be imagining, thinking, and performing collectively as a Fellows group about what they hope the world will look like in 2070, 20 years after implementation of a solution that the Fellows’ group is recommending to UNESCO for a world where we “get it right!!”
Important Dates
January 23, 2026 at 1pm: Mandatory Information Session for applicants! Come learn about all the requirements to apply for the Fellowship!
ZOOM Link or attend in person in WCPH, Room 509
February 5th: Deadline for submitting a 250 word statement with your own individual recommendations or ideas for a social change, solution or policy recommendation you believe would be crucial for leading to “a future you would like to see” by the year 2070.
February 12th Announcement: Up to ten applicants selected as fellows will be announced and contacted with information about the first fellows meeting scheduled for February 16, 2026.
About the Project::
Storying Just Futures is a global humanities initiative that empowers youth* to imagine, articulate, and co-design the futures they desire. Developed through more than a decade of humanities and sustainability work at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, the initiative gives participants the tools, language, and confidence to claim agency in shaping a just, healthy, and resilient future. Participants in the project explore how environmental justice issues including climate change are not only environmental crises but also crises of meaning, trust, and governance. They are employing the humanities (history, ethics, literature, art, film and narrative) to tell stories as a tool to help individuals and societies make sense of change and navigate the challenges of social and environmental crisis. Across all its efforts, Storying Just Futures advances one central goal: to equip youth with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to lead and contribute to the creation of the future they desire and deserve.
*Although the UN definition of youth for statistical purposes is anybody between the ages of 15 and 24, UNESCO considers youth as a “flexible category” that is guided by “context.” For the purpose of this fellowship we welcome graduate students who are under the age of 45 to apply.