We will be accepting applications for the following Mellon Initiative Fellowships for the 2024-2025 academic year:


Mellon Initiative Faculty Fellowship

DEADLINE: February 23rd, 2024
Application Open: December 4th, 2023
Expected Start Date: September 3rd, 2024

The New School invites applications for five, one-year Mellon Faculty Fellowships in conjunction with its Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence. The fellowships carry a nine-month appointment beginning September 3rd, 2024.

The application is open to both full- and part-time faculty. Full-time faculty will each receive one course release from teaching requirements to be taken in the academic year 2024-25, subject to agreement with their home department and division; part-time faculty will receive equivalent compensation. Additionally,  if you are already receiving a course release, you may not apply to the fellowship, as you can only be offered one course release per academic year. 

Faculty applicants are invited to propose projects in the humanities, social sciences, or public policy concerned with the ways structural inequality – intersecting structures of social, political, and economic power -shape social relations of race, ethnicity, marginalization, inequality, gender, and indigeneity. The Mellon Initiative will foster intersectional intellectual projects unfolding within a transdisciplinary framework to build a university-wide community and conversation that centers the significance of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity to our understandings of the world as it is and informs our pragmatic imaginations toward a world with more just arrangements of power. The Mellon Initiative seeks to nurture the development of myriad projects helmed by academics and activist practitioners. Fellows are expected to complete a substantial portion of the proposed project during the fellowship period.

The Faculty Fellows will be required to be in residence for the 2024-2025 academic year, contingent on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rules of the University. The fellows are expected to be active participants in the Mellon Transformative Seminar, a biweekly meeting that will take place throughout the academic year with other fellows who are also working in the areas of interest listed above. Primary responsibilities will be to make substantial progress in their proposed research topic related to the Mellon; to attend and participate in the biweekly meetings and other activities; and to present their research at one of the sessions of the seminar. Faculty from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and indigenous groups are especially encouraged to apply.

In addition to the quality of the proposal and its relevance to the Initiative’s mission, selection of faculty fellows will take into account the openness of the proposed project to engagement with community-based activists and organizers, diversity of discipline, approach, and rank of the incoming cohort of fellows. Faculty from any division of The New School may apply. Preference will be given to faculty whose work will benefit from and contribute to the Transformative Seminar’s emphasis on intersectional and transdisciplinary scholarship.

Prior to applying to the Mellon Fellowship, we request that all applicants are required to commit their time and efforts exclusively to the Mellon project, making it their primary fellowship. 

For questions about the Mellon Initiative Faculty Fellowship, please contact melloninitiative@newschool.edu. For more information about the Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence, visit mellon.newschool.org.


Mellon Initiative Dissertation Fellowship

DEADLINE: February 23rd, 2024
Application Open: December 4th, 2023
Expected Start Date: September 3rd, 2024

The New School invites applications for six, one-year Mellon Dissertation Fellowships in conjunction with its Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence. The fellowships carry a nine-month appointment beginning September 3rd, 2024 and a stipend of $30,000, subject to any relevant tax withholding. Applicants must be ABD in the final writing phase of their dissertation (“All-but-dissertation”) and in good standing.

We invite proposals from scholars in the humanities,  social sciences, and public policy whose projects center  the ways structural inequality – intersecting structures of social, political, and economic power – shape social relations of race, ethnicity, marginalization, inequality, gender, and indigeneity. The Mellon Initiative will foster intersectional intellectual projects unfolding within a transdisciplinary framework to build a university wide intellectual community and conversation that will center the significance of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity to our understandings of the world as it is and inform our pragmatic imaginations of a world with more just arrangements of power. The Mellon Initiative seeks to nurture the development of myriad projects helmed by academics and activist practitioners that expand our knowledge and diversify our approach to understanding these topics and their impacts and implications. Scholars from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and indigenous groups are especially encouraged to apply.

The fellow will be required to be in residence for the 2024-2025 academic year, contingent on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rules of the University. The fellows are expected to be active participants in the Mellon Transformative Seminar, a biweekly meeting that will take place throughout the academic year with other fellows who are also working in the areas of interest listed above. Primary responsibilities will be to make substantial progress in working towards the completion of their dissertation research and/or writing on a topic related to the Mellon Initiative; to attend and participate in the biweekly meetings and other activities; and to present their research at one of the sessions of the Seminar.

Prior to applying to the Mellon Fellowship, we request that all applicants are required to commit their time and efforts exclusively to the Mellon project, making it their primary fellowship.  

For questions about the Mellon Initiative Dissertation Fellowship, please contact melloninitiative@newschool.edu. For more information about the Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence, visit mellon.newschool.org.


Mellon Initiative Community Fellowship

DEADLINE: March 15th, 2024
Application Open: December 4th, 2023
Expected Start Date: September 3rd, 2024 

The New School invites applications for two community fellowships in conjunction with its Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence. These fellowships are meant to sponsor two non-academic community-based activists or organizers who seek to make an intellectual contribution by developing a project of their choice that centers the impacts or race and or indigeneity on their work in the world. This fellowship is not a Postdoc and is not designed for those already involved in graduate study. Ideal candidates should be based in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania. One Fellow will be chosen whose work is concentrated in an urban area and one whose primary sites of work are in rural areas. The fellowships carry a nine-month appointment beginning September 3rd, 2024 and a salary of $37,500, with full benefits, subject to any relevant tax withholding.  

Fellows are required to attend seminar biweekly with other members of the Fellows community which will include graduate students, postdoctoral students, and faculty whose work is concerned with the ways structural inequality – intersecting structures of social, political, and economic power – shape social relations of race, ethnicity, marginalization, inequality, gender, and indigeneity. In the seminar, works-in-progress will be workshopped and guest speakers (selected by participating fellows) invited. Fellows are also required to present their in-progress work once during the academic year.  

This fellowship aims to bridge the gap between practice-based justice work in communities and the research that takes place at university because we believe that the pursuit of more just power relations is a complex endeavor and will require diverse knowledge resources – both those based in practice and those based in   scholarship.      

If your activism and organizing centers racial justice and intersects with areas of gender justice, economic justice, environmental justice, disability justice, or other related fields and you would like the time and space to reflect on your work in the world and start or complete ongoing intellectual or creative projects, you are qualified to apply! Folks from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and indigenous groups – particularly those who are not academics by training – are especially encouraged to apply.

Prior to applying to the Mellon Fellowship, we request that all applicants are required to commit their time and efforts exclusively to the Mellon project, making it their primary fellowship. 

For questions about the Mellon Initiative Community Fellowship, please contact melloninitiative@newschool.edu. For more information about the Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence, visit mellon.newschool.org.