Call for Internal Proposals: 2021 Mellon New Directions Fellowship

Deadline: Friday August 28, by 5:00 p.m.
Eligibility: Senate faculty who received their doctorate between 2008 and 2014

UC Davis has been invited to submit one nominee for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s New Directions Fellowship. These highly selective fellowships provide support for exceptional faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who received their doctorates between 2008 and 2014. Fellows pursue systematic training and academic competencies outside their own special fields in order to advance a cross-disciplinary research agenda. This fellowship does not aim to facilitate short-term outcomes, such as completion of a book. Rather, New Directions Fellowships are intended as longer-term investments in scholars’ intellectual range and productivity.

INTERNAL APPLICATION GUIDELINES:
We invite faculty to submit a proposal for consideration as the UC Davis nominee. Proposals should include:

• A project summary of no more than 300 words (2,000 characters, with spaces).
• A proposal of no more than 2,000 words (13,000 characters, with spaces), providing an explanation of the overall significance of the research being undertaken and how the proposed new direction will assist in the development of the field.
• A concise curriculum vitae, no more than five pages in length.

• Priority will be given to applications that manifest 1) a strong focus on issues of race, ethnicity, and migration, or 2) a focus on filling in the gaps left by more traditional narratives in the history of the Americas.
   
• In an effort to recognize and address travel and access constraints related to the COVID-19 global pandemic, supplemental funds up to $15,000 will be available for scholars who require access to collections that have not yet been digitized and cataloged, or who require the paid support of a librarian or archivist to assist with research where collections are closed to outside visitors because of the pandemic. For example, payments from this supplement may be budgeted for library or special collections partners who would work closely with the New Directions fellow to identify and define archival or library collections that can be digitized and made available for study by the fellow and—when feasible—to members of the general public.
   
• All applicants should include a concise plan of no more than two paragraphs outlining alternative arrangements should research activities be constrained by the long-term continuation or a resurgence of the COVID-19 or other pandemic. 
   

Please note that the maximum award for this grant is $300,000 (notwithstanding the supplemental $15,000 for archival research needs), although final budgets commonly range from $175,000 to $250,000. Budgets are not required of applicants for the internal review. Once selected, the campus nominee will be expected to develop a budget for the final proposal submitted to the Mellon Foundation. The campus nominee also will need a letter of recommendation from the candidate’s department chair or other senior colleague which should address the candidate’s preparation and the relationship of the “new direction” to the nominee’s research and pedagogy. An additional letter of recommendation may be submitted from a colleague in the new field, if appropriate.

Proposals will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary panel of senior faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Once selected, the campus nominee will be asked to refine their proposal for internal submission to Sponsored Programs by Monday, September 21. The final sponsor deadline is Monday, September 28, 2020. The Mellon Foundation also offers guidelines for the New Directions Fellowships.