CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Illinois Program for the Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois has been awarded a six-year, $1.25 million grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The grant will fund 10 post-doctoral fellowships in the humanities and humanistic social sciences during the next six years, with the first appointments to begin in the fall. IPRH will name two fellows each year, who will engage in research and teaching at Illinois, pursuing scholarship on a wide range of humanities topics and teaching four courses each during their two-year terms in the appropriate academic departments.
“This generous award presents us with an opportunity to attract to our campus outstanding emerging scholars in the humanities” said Dianne Harris, the director of IPRH and principal investigator for the grant. “Their presence and engagement in our interdisciplinary intellectual environment promises to further enrich our teaching and research missions in multiple spheres, and we are enormously grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for this opportunity.”
Chancellor Robert Easter called the award an affirmation of the outstanding quality of humanities scholarship at Illinois. “We are well aware of our prize-winning authors, historians, anthropologists, and other gifted scholars that comprise the humanities here. A grant of this size can only be interpreted as recognition by others of our strengths in areas across the humanities,” Easter said.
“The scholars who come to Illinois as Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellows will bring with them a set of fresh perspectives that will invigorate our ongoing discourses in the humanities,” said Christine Catanzarite, senior associate director of IPRH. “And, at the end of their two-year terms, they will take our reputation for excellence with them. In addition to that, any publications and presentations resulting from their fellowships will credit IPRH, Illinois, and Mellon. We will have a lasting impact on their careers.”
The Mellon Fellows must have recently completed a doctoral degree in a humanities discipline, with expertise and research that falls into one of four broadly interdisciplinary areas: race and diaspora studies, the history of science and technology, empire and colonial studies, and memory studies. Each Fellow will teach four courses that range from undergraduate lectures to graduate seminars.
“This progression will enable the Fellows to acquire teaching experiences with students at various levels of the university while simultaneously allowing the broadest exposure for U. of I. students to the Mellon Fellows,” Harris said.
Each Fellow will work with a senior faculty member, who will serve as a mentor, and Fellows will be encouraged to participate in departmental activities, campuswide collaborations, and IPRH programs, including seminars and reading groups.
IPRH was established in 1997 to promote interdisciplinary study in the humanities, arts, and social sciences and to serve as the central site of engagement for a broad spectrum of humanities inquiry at Illinois.
IPRH, based in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, awards fellowships to U. of I. faculty members and graduate students; organizes numerous public lectures, symposia, and panel discussions; hosts a Digital Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow funded by the Illinois Informatics Institute; administers the Odyssey Project in Champaign-Urbana; and coordinates and hosts a yearlong film series.
More information about the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is available on its Web site.
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