About the MMUF/ADRF Fellowships
The MMUF and ADRF are fellowships that work to increase the number of students from historically underrepresented groups who pursue graduate school and academic careers. Both fellowships provide qualified and eligible students opportunities to engage in research under the supervision of faculty mentors and programming designed to prepare them for graduate school. We are currently recruiting sophomores who have an interest in research and are strongly considering pursuing a PhD after Williams.
For both programs, we are looking for students with academic promise, who have the potential to serve as mentors and teachers for a wide variety of students, and who will commit to participating fully and enthusiastically in all aspects of the fellowship programs. If you are eligible for both programs, you may apply for both. Once you have submitted a complete application, you may be called for an interview.
Selection Criteria
MMUF:
- Interest in pursuing a PhD and an academic career in a Mellon-designated field of study.
- Status as a US citizen and/or permanent resident
- Race and ethnicity (in relation to underrepresentation in designated fields of study)
- Demonstrated commitment to the goals of MMUF: “to reduce the serious underrepresentation on faculties of individuals from minority groups, as well as to address the consequences of these racial disparities for the education system itself and for the larger society that is serves.”
“Elevating the knowledge that informs more complete and accurate narratives of the human experience and lays the foundation for more just and equitable futures, Higher Learning supports knowledge production in the humanities by funding fellowships, seminars, curricular development projects, and regranting programs that center paradigm-shifting work in an array of emerging and established fields. We seek, in particular, to amplify perspectives and contributions that have been marginalized within the conventional scholarly record, and that promote the realization of a more socially just world.”
Our desire is that all MMUF fellows will be able to present academic credentials (e.g. their major, statement of research interest, portfolio of leadership and other campus activities) that are consistent with an “accurate narratives” academic framework. The themes/areas of that MMUF applicants might choose as an academic path could include:
- historical and contemporary treatments of race/racialization and racial formation;
- intersectional experience and analysis;
- gender and sexuality;
- Indigenous history and culture;
- questions about diaspora;
- coloniality and decolonization;
- the carceral state;
- migration and immigration;
- urban inequalities and ethnographies;
- social movements and mass mobilizations;
- the transatlantic slave trade;
- settler colonial societies;
- racial disparities and outcomes;
- and literary and philosophical accounts of agency, subjectivity, and community, among other areas.
ADRF:
- Interest in pursuing a PhD and an academic career in any field
- Underrepresentation in proposed field of study
- Status as at least one of the following:
- First generation college student
- African American, Latino/a, Asian American, Native American
- Non-US citizen of African, Hispanic, or Asian descent
- Preference is given to candidates who meet more than one eligibility requirement.
Program Requirements
- Ten weeks of full-time research during the summers after sophomore and junior years
- Participation in the Summer Research Colloquium after sophomore year
- Ongoing research during the semesters in lieu of campus jobs
- Full participation in fellowship-related programs
- Maintenance of a strong working relationship with a faculty mentor
- Regular contact with and completion of paperwork required by the Pathways for Inclusive Excellence Office
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