With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the New England Humanities Consortium’s Faculty of Color Working Group is pleased to accept applications for two (2) Mellon Faculty Fellowships in the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences for the 2021–2022 academic year. The fellowship is intended for full-time faculty members from historically disadvantaged racial groups or those whose projects specifically confront institutional blocks for BIPOC faculty.
Applicants are limited to faculty from NEHC member institutions, which include Amherst College, Brown University, Colby College, Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, Northeastern University, Smith College, Tufts University, University of Connecticut, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, University of Vermont, Wellesley College, and Wheaton College.
Applicant eligibility is determined by the following criteria:
- Must be faculty at a NEHC member institution
- Research must have high relevance for addressing the support needs of and/or issues and obstacles faced by BIPOC faculty at PWIs
- Demonstration of a viable research project
- A research project in the humanities/humanistic sciences
Criteria for successful applicants include, but are not limited to: quality of research proposal; strength of reference letters; stage of tenure/promotion dossier preparation and fulfillment of tenure and promotion requirements; scholar’s support needs to fulfill these requirements; likelihood of support or failure thereof related to scholar’s professional advancement at home institution; likelihood of applicant to contribute to a larger support network for faculty of color in the region and/or to understanding and addressing the impediments to success for FOC in higher education. Fellows should not teach during the fellowship year.
The Mellon Faculty of Color Fellowship program seeks to relieve scholars of these institutional hindrances by providing resources to reduce many of the barriers that make it difficult for faculty of color to research, think, and engage in their transformative work at their home institutions. These fellowships will provide resources that will allow them the time and space to focus on their scholarship away from the typical demands levied on their own campuses. Fellows will spend their fellowship year at a NEHC host institution with opportunities to interact with a broad and relevant intellectual community.
The Mellon Faculty Fellows will receive a stipend of $40,000 and a $2,500 moving expense if needed. The award funds will be remitted to the successful applicant’s home institution (the institution that formally employs them as faculty), who will use the funds to offset the fellow's salary and benefits. Fellows will be in residence at a host institution (the institution at which the fellow spends the fellowship year). Both institutions must be NEHC members. While the host institution does not pay salary or benefits to the Fellow while they are in residence, they are expected to provide the professional amenities to the visiting Fellow typically granted to visiting faculty and scholars.
The Mellon Fellows will be expected to give at least one public lecture or its equivalent at the hosting institute or center. The lecture will be publicized by the FOCWG and the NEHC.
Each application must contain:
- A Short Curriculum Vitae (3 pages max.)
- A Proposal Narrative (3 pages/1500 words max.)
- A Letter from a NEHC Institute/Center Director indicating support for hosting the fellow during the fellowship year.
To receive full consideration applications should conform to our application guidelines..
All documents must be submitted to Interfolio by February 1, 2021 at 11:59 pm (EST).
Applicants to this position receive a free Interfolio Dossier account and can send all application materials, including confidential letters of recommendation, free of charge.