Applications are now closed for CREATE Fellowships on disability, gender and sexual diversity, and intersex rights.

The CREATE Fellowship program seeks to support knowledge production, art, storytelling and community ideas for change that embrace sexual and gender diversity, intersex rights, and disability intersections and connections.

CREA is committed to cross-movement work, re-imagining collectively how to dismantle power structures and support relationship building for a more intersectional feminist activism. In line with this commitment and with growing interest from activists, CREA seeks to deepen understanding of the interplay between sexual and gender diversity, intersex rights and disability, and in particular, from a global South perspective. To do this, CREA will provide fellowships to deepen understanding and strengthen cross-movement collaboration around sexual and gender diversity, intersex and disability rights.

CREATE fellowships will support activists, artists, researchers, and community organizers who are already engaged in work at these intersections. We will bring greater attention to work that is already happening at these intersections, draw out the shared ground, faultlines, and nuances between disability, sexual and gender diversity, and intersex movements, and generate greater understanding and interest in cross-movement solidarity. It is also an opportunity to have conversations and examine inequalities within social movements (i.e. ableism within LGBTQ spaces or homophobia within disability rights movements) and propose tactics to dismantle them.

Overall aim of fellowships

The fellowships will support the production of knowledge, art, and storytelling through scholarship, art, and activism. The fellowships will strengthen individual efforts to draw out the connections and build collective knowledge and action. The knowledge, art, and experiences that emerge from the fellowships will form the basis of cross-movement dialogue and will reshape, rethink and reboot CREA’s future work.

Who can apply for a fellowship?

Activists, scholars, artists, storytellers, and community organizers working with an intersectional approach on disability, sexual and gender diversity, and intersex rights can apply.  We encourage applicants who have lived experience at these intersections and those who are involved in social change in the disability, sexual and gender diversity, feminist and/or intersex rights movements. We especially encourage individuals from the global South to apply. We also invite members of structurally excluded groups in the global North, such as indigenous peoples, people who experience racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination, immigrant communities, among others, to apply.

Fellowship scope

Fellowship themes can explore a range of topics at the intersections of sexual and gender diversity, intersex rights, and disability.  Chosen topics should address intersectionality, support cross-movement building, and bring forward new perspectives and information on under-explored issues. 

For example, fellowships could address topics such as:   

• Access to intimacy at the intersection of sexual and gender diversity, intersex and disability;
• Medicalization of transgender, intersex, and disabled bodies;
• Access to sexual and reproductive healthcare within homophobic and ableist contexts;
• Anti-colonial perspectives on sexual and gender diversity, intersex and disability;
• Mapping common advocacy priorities across intersex, disability, and sexual and gender diversity movements and documentation of emerging cross-movement spaces.

For more inspiration ideas click here.

What support CREA provides to fellows

Financial support of 8000 USD will be provided to each of 6 fellows to develop their knowledge resource over the course of nine months.  Fellows will work with resource advisors who have expertise in sexual and gender diversity, disability and intersex rights. Workshops will be held to support cross-fertilization and share ideas. Peer review will be a part of the process. Fellows can also apply for funds to cover accessibility accommodations as well as accessibility costs for their final work (for example having a film transcribed or a publication made into Easy-to-Read format). Final outcomes of the fellowships are expected to acknowledge CREA’s contribution. The output of the fellowship will be jointly owned by the fellow and CREA.  CREA will facilitate peer review and, where relevant, ethics review of the project. CREA will support wide dissemination through its networks and platforms. The outputs of the fellowships will use open source solutions to be widely available and accessible to the public.

Resource advisors 

Resource advisors are experts working with an intersectional approach on issues of disability, sexual and gender diversity, and intersex rights. They will provide strategic support to fellows on fellowship design and implementation throughout the nine months. Resource advisors will also provide peer support through monthly learning sessions and workshops for all fellows on various topics of interest on disability, sexual and gender diversity, and intersex rights.

Timeline

Fellowships will be nine months in length. Fellows will meet once a month with fellowship advisors to discuss developments and receive guidance for any challenges in their work. The fellowship will be given in three tranches and a mid-term report will be required. There will be a final meeting for fellows to share their work. 

Applications open on January 28, 2022
Completed applications due by February 16, 2022 (applications now closed)
Interviews with selected candidates February 18 – 25, 2022 (please note: interviews will extend beyond the expected timeline and will be conducted during March 2022)
Selected fellows announced in March 2022 (final timeline to be confirmed)
Fellowships begin in March 2022 (final timeline to be confirmed)

How to apply 

Fellows are invited to submit an online application by 16th February 2022. (Applications closed)

Click here to proceed to the application form. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us at fellowships@creaworld.org or check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page.