Mellon Foundation Challenge
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded AAS a $1 million challenge
grant to enable the Society to make permanent two important fellowships
instituted in 1998 with the foundation's support. Between now and the end
of 2009, the foundation will match dollar for dollar all gifts donated
toward the endowment of a senior scholar in residence or a
post-dissertation fellow.
In 1998, with the support of the Mellon Foundation, the Society launched a
two-pronged program to enrich research activities by initiating the two
fellowships we now seek to endow. One Mellon fellow, the senior scholar in
residence, is charged with the dual responsibility of conducting research
and providing leadership for the AAS scholarly community during an entire
academic year. The other, a post-dissertation fellow, is a recent
recipient of the Ph.D. who spends an .apprentice. year here converting his
or her dissertation into a publishable book. Jay Fliegelman of Stanford
University's English Department, our first senior scholar in residence,
set a high standard for dedication to the goal of making researchers' work
at AAS as collegial and productive as possible. His successors (Karen
Halttunen, Alan Taylor, Patricia Cline Cohen, Robert Gross, Karen
Kupperman, David Hall, and Richard Fox) have met that standard, bringing
his or her own style to the challenges of encouraging discourse and
mentoring young scholars. Each year has been different; each year has been
rewarding. As for the effectiveness of the post-dissertation program, we
are happy to say that revised dissertations by three of the seven fellows
have been published by Cambridge University Press, two more are under
contract (one to Cambridge and the other to the University of North
Carolina Press), and the remaining two are well on their way to
completion, with their authors having talked to publishers. All holders of
this fellowship have found good positions in an extraordinarily difficult
job market.
In the past, AAS has been able to endow short-term fellowships. Now we
embark on raising fellowship funds at a much higher level to endow these
two long-term residencies. In offering its $1 million challenge grant, the
Mellon Foundation has reaffirmed their confidence in the success and
future promise of the program. The foundation has, furthermore, generously
made a bridge grant to underwrite the cost of stipends for the two
fellowships through the 2008-09 academic year.
Anyone interested in contributing to the Mellon Fellowship Endowment
effort can contact Vice President for Development John Keenum --
jkeenum[at]mwa.org -- or Vice President for Collections and Programs John
Hench -- jhench[at]mwa.org.
|
|
