Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program

Overview

The SSRC-Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program aims to address, over time, the problem of underrepresentation in the academy at the level of college and university faculties. Funded by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program provides support for scholars from all backgrounds with a demonstrated commitment to this goal. To date, over 700 fellows have received doctoral degrees and nearly 700 fellows are in Ph.D. programs.

The Graduate Initiatives Program builds upon the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF) by supporting MMUF fellows from the early stages of graduate school to the post-Ph.D. years. It is only open to Ph.D. students who were selected as Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows. Fellows must enroll in doctoral programs within 39 months of receiving their undergraduate degrees, and they must be in one of the fields listed below.

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Upcoming Events and Announcements

The Ph.D. Professional Development Conference will take place in February 2018 in New York City. Applications will be available in December 2017 through our Fellows Portal.

 

Eligible Fields of Study
• Anthropology and Archaeology
• Area/Cultural/Ethnic/Gender Studies
• Art History
• Classics
• Computer Science *
• Geography and Population Studies
• Earth/Environmental/Geological Science and Ecology *
• English
• Film, Cinema and Media Studies (theoretical focus)
• Foreign Languages and Literatures
• History
• Linguistics
• Literature
• Mathematics *
• Musicology and Ethnomusicology
• Oceanographic/Marine/Atmospheric/Planetary Science *
• Performance Studies (theoretical focus)
• Philosophy and Political Theory
• Physics and Astronomy *
• Religion and Theology
• Sociology
• Theater (non-performance focus)
• Interdisciplinary Studies

* No longer applicable for new undergraduate fellows

Fellows who enter Ph.D. programs in a field not listed above must formally petition for recognition of the graduate program. For more information on SSRC-Mellon Mays benefits, please contact mellonmays@ssrc.org.