Fellowships and Competitions
In its Higher Learning program, Mellon promotes competitive fellowships and awards, and further extends funding opportunities for individuals in higher education through partnership with scholarly organizations and institutions.
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF)
A long-standing initiative of the Foundation, MMUF is a fellowship opportunity for training humanities leaders of tomorrow. Through programming that emphasizes mentoring, research support, and the benefit of students working in cohorts, Mellon partners with select colleges and universities to identify and support students who aspire to become scholars of the highest distinction.
New Directions Fellowships
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.
Sawyer Seminars
The Mellon Foundation’s Sawyer Seminars were established in 1994 to provide support for comparative research on the historical and cultural sources of contemporary developments. The seminars bring together faculty, foreign visitors, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from a variety of fields for intensive study of subjects chosen by the participants.