Opportunities for Graduate Students
Mellon Fellows (for incoming students)
The Mellon grant provides funding to recruit and support high-caliber graduate students at Notre Dame who work on religious themes in a variety of disciplines in ways that are likely to foster the integration of religious knowledge into the study and teaching of their academic disciplines.
Funding will be awarded to the best students in competition across eight programs or departments: English, History, Literature, Medieval Studies, Sociology, Philosophy, Political Science, and Theology (in the case of Theology, grants will be restricted, in concert with Mellon Foundation policy, to students engaged with religion as humanistic, rather than confessional, inquiry). We expect to offer five Mellon Fellowships per year for four years.
Mellon Summer Stipends (for continuing students)
The grant will support a competitive program for continuing students who are seeking one-time Mellon Summer Stipends of $6,000. The Mellon Summer Stipends will be awarded during the next three or four years to a total of twelve continuing students. They will be designed to aid students with their research and writing, in many cases their dissertation, offering them concentrated time for study and intellectual and scholarly advancement. These funds will be in addition to what the students are already receiving, so, in essence, they will earn an extra summer of funding.
Mellon Research Support
All of these students, Mellon Fellows and recipients of Mellon Summer Stipends, will be eligible to compete for research funding and conference travel through a one-time fund supported the Mellon Foundation. Applications may be made on a continuing basis to the Graduate School, beginning in the Fall of 2011.
Mellon Workshops
In the coming years, we will bring all of the students, Mellon Fellows and the recipients of Mellon Summer Stipends, together at various times in a half-day or day-long workshop or conference format to have a number of the students present the results of their research to one another and to discuss overarching questions relating to the academy, including most prominently the study of religion in the disciplines and strategies for their own advancement as scholar-teachers.
There will be a total of six workshops. Examples of topics might include a discussion on strategies for working on religion in the diverse landscape of higher education; an academic or common discussion about the vocation of a faculty member; a broader discussion on issues in higher education, including also practical issues of professionalization; a set of presentations on what great questions lie behind the research projects in the diverse disciplines; discussion of a common reading on higher education or on religion; and straightforward presentations of student research. The set of workshops will not only provide another venue for them, it will enhance their integration into the wider intellectual community, help them learn to cross disciplinary borders, and provide another avenue for their professional development.
For questions, please contact the Graduate School.