Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award

Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award is sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This award supports early-career humanities and social science faculty whose scholarship deepens understanding of democracy, society, or education in the Americas and who demonstrate leadership in building campus communities.

It provides a stipend for summer research and academic-year research assistance to help junior faculty balance research, leadership, and mentoring responsibilities while working toward tenure.

Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award | Research Funding Institute for Citizens and Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation) Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award The Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders (MEFL) are building inclusive campus communities through their teaching, scholarship, and service.

Awardees are early-career faculty whose research focuses on contemporary American history, politics, culture, and society. In addition to bringing a diversity of perspectives to their fields, MEFL awardees are building support systems, networks, and affinity groups for their students and peers.

Funded by the Mellon Foundation , the MEFL award provides a $20,000 stipend—$12,000 to be used for summer research support and $8,000 for research assistance during the academic year.

Emerging Faculty Leaders may be working in any field of the humanities or social sciences—including, for example, history, sociology, anthropology, literature, art, gender studies, and related fields—with an emphasis on scholarly topics that relate to or provide context for the study of democracy, society, and education in the Americas.

Applicants eligible for the Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award will be assistant professors in tenure-track appointments who are pursuing tenure. Eligible applicants are typically in the fourth or fifth year of the tenure-track appointment and are still working to complete key items for the tenure dossier, which should not be scheduled for submission prior to the end of the award year (Summer 2028).

They will have successfully passed the standard third-year/midpoint review or their institution’s equivalent no later than January 31, 2027.

Please note that the award seeks to support progress toward tenure for scholars who are also meaningfully engaged in building campus community; therefore, applicants who are already effectively in a position to go up for tenure—for instance, those who have already submitted the dossier and/or who would be considered for tenure during the award year—will be ineligible.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States as of December 1, 2026 (please include a copy of your green card with your application supplemental items if a permanent resident). Social and Behavioral Sciences