2025 New Directions Fellowship Program
The Internal Competition is Currently in the Peer Review Stage // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 0
Limiting Language
Institutions are expected to run their own internal competitions and may only forward one nomination to the Foundation
Overview
One of the core aims of Mellon's Higher Learning Program is to elevate the knowledge that informs fuller narratives of the human experience. Supporting the expansion and evolution of humanities disciplines through investing in the range and productivity of exceptional faculty is crucial to this objective. New Directions Fellows undertake systematic training outside their fields of specialization to acquire the competencies required for advanced cross-disciplinary research – research that goes beyond traditional boundaries and offers innovative and effective ways of bringing humanistic knowledge to bear on social challenges.
With this objective in view, Higher Learning invites nominations of highly qualified scholars in the humanities or humanistic social sciences who received their doctorates between 2013 and 2019. This by-invitation competition will provide grants of up to $300,000 over three years. We anticipate allocating up to $4 million for this call; the final number of proposals selected will depend on the number and substance of the submissions.
Eligibility
Eligible candidates will be faculty members who were awarded a doctorate in the humanities or humanistic social sciences within the last six to twelve years (2013-2019) and whose research interests call for formal training in a discipline other than the one in which they are an expert. Terminal degree holders, such as MFAs, are ineligible.
The proposed field of study must be a foray into a new area of intellectual inquiry and not just an enhancement to go further into the primary field. Language study, technical writing, or skill acquisition such as GIP mapping do not, by themselves, constitute as a new direction.