The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation recently awarded Vanderbilt University more than $1.475 million to form the Mellon Partners for Humanities Education initiative, a partnership with Tennessee State University, Tougaloo College and Berea College.
The funding will allow Vanderbilt to create two new education programs for doctoral students. The Mellon Seminar in Liberal Arts Teaching will focus on issues relevant to teaching in liberal arts and historically black colleges and universities. The Mellon Institute for Early Career Scholars in the Digital and Public Humanities will train doctoral students in the use and development of the public and digital humanities, which combine the methodologies from traditional humanities disciplines with computer technology.
The award also will fund a postdoctoral and faculty exchange among the four schools that will support faculty development and undergraduate education at each school. The exchange program will allow faculty of the partner schools to visit the other campuses, promote the sharing of ideas and perspectives, and provide opportunities for research.
Three recent Vanderbilt graduates from doctoral programs in the humanities or humanistic social sciences will receive Mellon postdoctoral fellowships and teach at Tougaloo, Berea or TSU in fall 2014. Six more fellowships will be awarded in subsequent years.