FOR RELEASE:  Tuesday, April 17, 2018

CONTACT:   Rayna Truelove, Mellon Program Officer| [email protected] (609) 452-7007 x121
                         Patrick Riccards, Chief Communications & Strategy Officer | [email protected], (609) 945-7885

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Foundation Recognize Outstanding Faculty Throughout Nation With Career Enhancement Fellowships

Awards Designed to Create Career Development Opportunities for Select Faculty with Promising Research Projects

PRINCETON, NJ (April 17, 2018)— To further strengthen the pipeline to the humanities professoriate and support tenure progress for junior and adjunct faculty, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation today awarded 33 Career Enhancement Fellowships, including 10 junior faculty members who will receive 12-month Fellowships and 20 who will receive six-month Fellowships.

This year’s Fellows are working in an array of humanities fields and related social sciences, including history; African American literature and culture; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; English; critical social inquiry; theatre; writing, literature, and publishing; Spanish; and conflict analysis and resolution. They represent some of the nation’s top institutions of higher education. (Full list of Fellows, institutions, and departments below.)

The Career Enhancement Fellowship, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, creates career development opportunities for selected faculty fellows with promising research projects. The program provides Fellows with a six-month or one-year sabbatical stipend (up to $30,000); a research, travel, or publication stipend (up to $1,500); mentoring; and participation in a late summer professional development retreat.

The Career Enhancement retreat, an integral part of the program, provides opportunities for Fellows to meet at length with mentors they have selected—senior academics who help advise these early-career faculty on next steps in professional development. Fellows also have the opportunity to connect with Career Enhancement Fellows from past years and other special guest scholars.

“It is essential that we continue to create new pathways and career development opportunities for promising junior faculty members,” said Stephanie J. Hull, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. “Because of the commitment and efforts of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, these 33 scholars will join with hundreds of others that are now on the path to lead the professoriate for decades to come.”

A third of this year’s recipients, including both Career Enhancement Adjunct Faculty Fellows, are also Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows (MMUF). Administered by the Mellon Foundation, the goal of MMUF is to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups and those with a demonstrated commitment to diversity who pursue Ph.D.s and eventually become faculty.

Administered at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation since 2001, the Career Enhancement Fellowship has supported 400 junior faculty members over the past 18 years. The program seeks particularly to increase the presence of junior faculty members who are underrepresented in their fields, as well as other faculty members committed to eradicating racial disparities in core fields in the arts and humanities.

###

About the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, founded in 1969, endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies by supporting exemplary institutions of higher education and culture as they renew and provide access to an invaluable heritage of ambitious, path-breaking work.

About the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops leaders and institutions to meet the nation’s critical challenges. In these areas of challenge, the Foundation awards fellowships to enrich human resources, works to improve public policy, and assists organizations and institutions in enhancing practice.

 

2018 Career Enhancement Junior Faculty Fellows and Adjunct Faculty Fellows

12-Month Fellows

Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi •University of California, Riverside • History

Maleda Belilgne • University of Maryland, Baltimore County • Africana Studies

* Shermaine Jones • Virginia Commonwealth University • English

Raúl Pérez • University of Denver • Sociology

Rachel Afi Quinn • University of Houston • Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

* Kenton Rambsy • University of Texas, Arlington • English

* Donavan Ramon • Kentucky State University • Liberal Studies

Marquita Smith • William Paterson University • English

Nicole Spigner • Columbia College Chicago • African American Literature and Culture

*Brandi Summers • Virginia Commonwealth University • African American Studies

 

Six-Month Fellows

* Gavin Arnall • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor • Romance Languages and Literatures

Roosbelinda Cardenas • Hampshire College • Critical Social Inquiry

Carla Della Gatta • University of Southern California • Theatre

Christina Diaz • University of Arizona • Sociology

Benjamin Frey • University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • American Studies

* Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann • Emerson College • Writing, Literature, and Publishing

* Saida Grundy • Boston University • Sociology

Rebeca Hey-Colón • Temple University • Spanish

Mai-Linh Hong • Bucknell University • English

Karen Jaime • Cornell University • Performing and Media Arts

Doug Kiel • Northwestern University • History

Tehama Lopez Bunyasi • George Mason University • Conflict Analysis and Resolution

* Toussaint Losier • University of Massachusetts, Amherst • Afro-American Studies

Jordanna Matlon • American University • Sociology/School of International Service

Michael Niño • Willamette University • Sociology

Lena Palacios • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities • Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies

Andrea Pitts • University of North Carolina, Charlotte • Philosophy

Ashanté Reese • Spelman College • Anthropology

Derron Wallace • Brandeis University • Sociology

Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh • Vanderbilt University • Religious Studies

 

Honorary Career Enhancement Fellow

* Jamie Thomas • Swarthmore College • Linguistics

 

Adjunct Faculty Fellows

* Lauren Eldridge • Spelman College • Sociology and Anthropology

* Awendela Grantham • Virginia Commonwealth University • African American Studies

 

* denotes an MMUF faculty member

---