The Institute awards up to twenty fellowships annually to scholars at various stages in their careers in the fields of
African and
African American studies to facilitate the writing of doctoral dissertations. The appointed fellows conduct individual research for a semester or two in fields broadly related to African and African American Studies. It has supported more than 300 Fellows. The institute co-hosts the W. E. B. Du Bois Society, an academic and cultural enrichment program for African American
secondary school students, along with
Ella J. Baker House in
Dorchester, Boston. The society was founded by Jacqueline and Rev. Eugene C. Rivers, and its director is Jacqueline O. Cooke Rivers.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the director of the institute. In 2013 the institute alongside the Hip-Hop Archive and Research Institute established the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship as a scholarship for the arts. ==References==