(CLOSED) Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: New Directions Fellowships

Penn State has been invited to nominate one candidate for the fall 2022 New Directions Fellowship competition. These fellowships provide support for exceptional faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who received their doctorates between 2010 and 2016. Fellows pursue systematic training and academic competencies outside their own special fields in order to advance a cross-disciplinary research agenda. This fellowship does not aim to facilitate short-term outcomes, such as completion of a book. Rather, it is a longer-term investment in the scholar’s intellectual range and productivity.

What do you look for in candidates? "Above all, we want the idea of a 'new direction' to be prominent. We try very hard not to prescribe what that might look like. We seek a candidate who already has a demonstrated capacity for producing important work in their home discipline, who has imagination and creativity, and who has a thoughtful plan for systematic training in another field. A New Directions Fellow is someone whose intellectual spark is matched by incredible persistence." - Cristle Collins Judd, former program director

PURPOSE:

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.

• 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.
• The second field of study must be a foray into a new area of intellectual inquiry/subject and not just an enhancement of skills to go further in the primary field. Language study, technical training, or skills acquisition such as GIS mapping do not, by themselves, constitute a new direction.

In an effort to recognize and address travel and access constraints related to the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic:

• Supplemental funds up to $15,000 will be available for scholars who require access to collections that have not yet been digitized and cataloged, or who require the paid support of a librarian or archivist to assist with research where collections are closed to outside visitors because of the pandemic. For example, payments from this supplement may be budgeted for library or special collections partners who would work closely with the New Directions fellow to identify and define archival or library collections that can be digitized and made available for study by the fellow and—when feasible--to members of the general public.
• All applicants should include a concise plan of no more than two paragraphs outlining alternative arrangements should research activities be constrained by the long-term continuation or a resurgence of the COVID-19 or other pandemic.

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 and whose research interests call for formal training in a discipline other than the one in which they are expert. Such training may consist of coursework or other programs of organized study. It may take place either at fellows’ home institutions or elsewhere, as appropriate. Although it is anticipated that many fellows will seek to acquire deeper knowledge of other fields within the broadly defined sphere of the humanities and humanistic social sciences, proposals to study disciplines farther afield are eligible. The principal criteria for selection are: (1) the overall significance of the research, (2) the case for the importance of extra-disciplinary training for furthering the research, (3) the likely ability of the candidate to derive satisfactory results from the training program proposed, and (4) a well developed plan for acquiring the necessary training within a reasonable period of time.

BUDGET INFORMATION:

Budgets should include items for salary and standard fringe benefits (including yearly increases), projected training costs, and project-related travel.The budget may include funds to cover expenses related to attending vital professional meetings. In addition, lodging expense related to research and training activities can be covered for stays of no longer than a semester. Requests for housing supplements may be included for longer periods when the projected cost of living in the city where study is to be pursued substantially exceeds the costs incurred when the fellow is working at the home institution.

Funds may not be used for overhead or indirect costs nor to stage conferences, symposia, seminars, or events related to the project. The Foundation assumes the needs for equipment or research assistants will be met by the fellow’s home institution.

Final budgets commonly range from $175,000 to $250,000; the maximum is $300,000. The term of the grant should cover a minimum of two years. The Foundation does not make adjustments to the grant amount after the grant is awarded, so candidates should make every effort to base their estimated expenses on careful projections of all items in the grant budget. Candidates are advised to seek assistance from their unit’s Research Administrator, sponsored-research staff or budget officer. This is a critical necessary to ensure that all costs are accounted for prior to submitting to Mellon.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Although it is anticipated that many fellows will seek to acquire deeper knowledge of other fields within the broadly defined sphere of the humanities and humanistic social sciences, proposals to study disciplines farther afield are eligible. The principal criteria for selection are: (1) the overall significance of the research, (2) the case for the importance of extra-disciplinary training for furthering the research, (3) the likely ability of the candidate to derive satisfactory results from the training program proposed, and (4) a well‑developed plan for acquiring the necessary training within a reasonable period of time.

FOUNDATION RELATIONS INSIGHT:

In this particular program, the second field of study must be a foray into a new subject and not just an enhancement of skills to go further in the primary field, such as learning a language that would enhance the primary field of study.

Mellon has awarded 227 New Directions Fellowships since 2002 (list of awardees). The last and only recipient from Penn State was in 2007.