Office of Foundation Relations
Limited Submission Funding Opportunity
Mellon Foundation: New Directions Fellowship

Summary

Serious interdisciplinary research often requires established scholar-teachers to pursue formal substantive and methodological training in addition to the PhD. New Directions Fellowships assist faculty members in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who seek to acquire systematic training outside their own areas of special interest. The program is intended to enable scholars in the humanities to work on problems that interest them most, at an appropriately advanced level of sophistication. In addition to facilitating the work of individual faculty members, these awards should benefit scholarship in the humanities more generally by encouraging the highest standards in cross-disciplinary research.

 Eligibility

Candidates will be faculty members in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who received their doctorates between 2010 and 2016 and whose research interests call for formal training in a discipline other than the one in which they are expert.

Priority will be given to applications that manifest 1) a strong focus on issues of race, ethnicity, and migration, or 2) a focus on filling in the gaps left by more traditional narratives in the history of the Americas.

Key Dates
Internal application deadline: July 25, 2022
Announcement of internal nominee: August 19, 2022
Full proposal deadline to the Mellon Foundation: September 23, 2022

How to Apply

Faculty interested in applying are required to submit the following to Sarah Fodor by email (sfodor@northwestern.edu) by midnight on the July 25 deadline:

1) A proposal of no more than 2,000 words, prefaced by a summary of no more than 300 words. The proposal should describe the overall significance of the research being undertaken and how the proposed new direction will contribute to the development of the field.

2) A brief budget narrative and draft budget. Final budgets commonly range from $175,000 to $250,000; the maximum is $300,000.

3) Name(s) of department chair or other senior colleague who can write a letter of recommendation that addresses the candidate’s preparation and the relationship of the “new direction” to the nominee’s research and pedagogy.

4) A concise CV, no more than five pages in length.

If you have questions, please contact:

Sarah Fodor, PhD
Executive Director, Foundation Relations & Corporate Engagement
(847) 491-4584, s-fodor@northwestern.edu