The Open Society Foundations has announced the 2021 cohort of Open Society Fellows.

Launched in 2008 to assist individuals pursuing innovative and unconventional approaches to societal challenges, the program has invited proposals around a single topic since 2017. The 2021 cohort of fellows will receive project support and living stipends ranging from $80,000 to $100,000 over a year to address economic equality.

This year's fellows include Sara Abbas, who will write a book about how communities formed collaborative groupings during the revolution in Sudan to achieve long-term socioeconomic change; Ruth Castel-Branco, who will explore the relationship between land, labor, and social welfare in Mozambique; organizer, producer, and political commentator Nizar Hassan, who will create an online video platform for informative and accessible Arabic-language content that examines links between (in)equality, justice, and democracy; Boaventura Monjane, a journalist and scholar-activist, who will research growing poverty, inequality, and the rollback of civil and political rights in Mozambique at a time when new development pathways are urgently needed; and Adriana Paz Ramirez, a labor rights organizer and popular educator, who will research policy victories won by domestic workers in Latin America to understand how grassroots action can compel employers and states to obey the law.

"The work that these new Open Society Fellows will undertake could hardly be more urgently needed in light of the circumstances shaped by the COVID emergency," said Open Society Fellowship Program director Alethia Jones. "I'm especially excited to witness and support the collaborations that will emerge among members of the fellowship cohort as they tackle the worsening problem of global economic inequality."  

For a complete list of this year's fellows, see the Open Society Foundations website.