Slots: 1
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, September 6th, 2024, 5pm PT
LOI: N/A
External Deadline: Nominations should reach the Foundation no later than November 4, 2024. Submission will be completed through their online grant management portal, Fluxx.
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Award Amount: Awarded fellows receive:
- The equivalent of one academic year’s salary,
- Two summers of additional support, each at the equivalent two-ninths of the previous academic year salary, and
- Tuition or course fees or equivalent direct costs associated with the fellows’ training programs.
To permit flexibility in meeting individual scholars’ needs, these funds may be expended over a period not to exceed three full academic years following the date of the award. The award normally can be delayed for a maximum of one year, if circumstances require it. The Foundation also expects the fellow’s home institution to use budgetary relief resulting from the award for academic purposes, preferably in the fellow’s department.
Who May Serve as PI: These fellowships provide support for exceptional faculty in the humanities and
humanistic social sciences who received their doctorates between 2012 and 2018.
Eligible candidates will be faculty members who were awarded a doctorate in the humanities or humanistic social sciences within the last six to twelve years and whose research interests call for formal training in a discipline other than the one in which they are expert. Such training may consist of coursework or other programs of organized study. It may take place either at fellows’ home institutions or elsewhere, as appropriate. Although it is anticipated that many fellows will seek to acquire deeper knowledge of other fields within the broadly defined sphere of the humanities and humanistic social sciences, proposals to study disciplines farther afield are eligible. The principal criteria for selection are: (1) the overall significance of the research, (2) the case for the importance of extra-disciplinary training for furthering the research, (3) the likely ability of the candidate to derive satisfactory results from the training program proposed, and (4) a well‑developed plan for acquiring the necessary training within a reasonable period of time.
Link to Award: https://www.mellon.org/article/new-directions-fellowships
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- Please note that the summary should state the new direction that this project embodies in your research trajectory. Also note that learning a new language or a particular new tool, such as GIS, does not constitute a “new direction.”
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
Fellows undertake systematic training beyond their fields of specialization in order to acquire the new competencies needed for the pursuit of a cross-disciplinary research agenda. This fellowship does not aim to facilitate short-term outcomes, such as completion of a book. Rather, it is a longer-term
investment in the scholar’s intellectual range and productivity.
- Priority will be given to applications that manifest 1) a strong focus on questions of social justice as they pertain to minoritized populations, or 2) an investment in filling in the gaps left by more traditional narratives in the history of the Americas.
- The second field of study must be a foray into a new area of intellectual inquiry/subject and not just an enhancement of skills to go further in the primary field. Language study, technical training, or skills acquisition such as GIS mapping do not, by themselves, constitute a new direction.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.