Five (5) one-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships are available for the academic year for untenured scholars in the humanities who received or will receive their Ph.D. between December 2000 and December 2008. The fellowship is open to all scholars, national and international, who meet application terms (see Guidelines below).
The programs of the Penn Humanities Forum are conceived through yearly topics that invite broad interdisciplinary collaboration. For the academic year, we have set Connections as the theme. Humanists and those in related fields are invited to submit research proposals on any aspect of this topic, except educational curriculum building and the performing arts.
Fellows teach one undergraduate course each of two terms in addition to conducting their research. The fellowship stipend is $46,500, plus health insurance. Fellows are required to be in residence during their fellowship year (September–May).
Application Guidelines
The Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at the Penn Humanities Forum, University of Pennsylvania, is open to scholars who are not yet tenured and who are no more than eight years out of their doctorate. Candidates may hold a tenure-track position but may not be tenured either before or during the fellowship year. For the Fellowship, candidates must have received or will receive their Ph.D. between December 2000 and December 2008. You must have your degree in hand or have passed your defense no later than December 2008 to be eligible. Your application will not be considered unless this condition is met. The Ph.D. is the only terminal degree eligible (i.e., MFAs and other doctorates such as EdD are ineligible).
During their year in residence, Penn Humanities Forum Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows will have the opportunity to pursue their own research. That research must relate to Connections, the Forum's topic of study. Fellows must also participate in the weekly Mellon Research Seminar of the Penn Humanities Forum (Tuesdays, 12:00–2:00), and present their research at one of those seminars.
In addition to conducting their research, Mellon Fellows are required to teach one undergraduate course each term in an appropriate department: a College freshman seminar in the fall semester and an upperclass course in the spring. In writing your course proposal for the fall freshman seminar, please consider carefully the university's description of those seminars (click here for examples of Penn Freshmen Seminar descriptions).
Preference will be given to candidates whose proposals are interdisciplinary, who have not previously used the resources of the University of Pennsylvania, and who would particularly benefit from and contribute to Penn's intellectual life.
