UNCF/MELLON PROGRAMS PARTNERS
Mellon Foundation
We believe that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and we believe that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom to be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
Established in 1988 to address the barriers that result in the problem of underrepresentation in the faculty ranks of higher education, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) is committed to supporting a diverse professoriate and to promoting the value of multivocality in the humanities and related disciplines, elevating accounts, interpretations, and narratives that expand present understandings. Its name honors Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the noted African American educator, statesman, minister, and former president of Morehouse College.
Through a pipeline process that emphasizes mentoring, research support, programming, and student cohort building, Mellon partners with member colleges and universities to identify and support students of great promise and help them become scholars and professionals of the highest distinction.
United Negro College Fund
UNCF envisions a nation where all Americans have equal access to a college education that prepares them for rich intellectual lives, competitive and fulfilling careers, engaged citizenship and service to our nation UNCF's mission is to build a robust and nationally-recognized pipeline of under-represented students who, because of UNCF support, become highly-qualified college graduates and to ensure that our network of member institutions is a respected model of best practice in moving students to and through college.
Institute for Recruitment of Teachers
The Phillips Academy Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) addresses the lack of diversity in the nation's teaching faculties by recruiting outstanding students of color and other scholars committed to diversity, counseling them through the graduate school application process, and advocating for sufficient funding for advanced study. Since 1990, the IRT has built a national consortium of colleges and universities that are eager to enroll IRT students to diversify their graduate student bodies and to expand the pipeline of educators to teach, counsel, and administrate in American schools, colleges, and universities. IRT urges its students to earn their advanced degrees and teaching credentials before they launch their educational careers.
Social Science Research Council – Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program
The SSRC-Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program aims to address, over time, the problem of underrepresentation in the academy at the level of college and university faculties. Funded by grants from the Mellon Foundation, the program provides support for scholars from all backgrounds with a demonstrated commitment to this goal. To date, over 700 fellows have received doctoral degrees and nearly 700 fellows are in PhD programs.
The Graduate Initiatives Program builds upon the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF) by supporting MMUF fellows from the early stages of graduate school to the post-PhD years. It is only open to PhD students who were selected as Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows. To learn more about our programs and apply, please visit our application portal.
James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies
Established in 2007 to honor the memory and achievements of James Weldon Johnson, the mission of the James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies is to foster new scholarship, teaching, and public dialogue that focuses upon the origins, evolution, and legacy of the modern civil rights movement from 1905 to the present. The Johnson Institute is also committed to the investigation of the impact of the modern civil rights movement upon other social movements in the United States and abroad.
The Leadership Alliance
The Leadership Alliance, founded at Brown University in 1992 as a partnership of 23 institutions, came together to develop underrepresented students into outstanding leaders and role models in academia, business, and the public sector. Today, this consortium has grown to more than 35 partners and has provided research, mentoring, and networking experiences to over 5,500 scholars. The Leadership Alliance uses a time-tested model to leverage its collective resources to address the shortage of individuals from historically underrepresented groups in doctoral training programs, academia, and the broader research workforce.