Call for Applications: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar
Purpose
The Mellon Foundation's Sawyer Seminars were established in 1994 to provide support for comparative research on the historical and cultural sources of contemporary developments. The seminars, named in honor of the Foundation's long-serving third president, John E. Sawyer, have brought together faculty, foreign visitors, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from a variety of fields mainly, but not exclusively, in the arts, humanities, and interpretive social sciences, for intensive study of subjects chosen by the participants. Foundation support aims to engage productive scholars in comparative inquiry that would (in ordinary university circumstances) be difficult to pursue, while at the same time avoiding the institutionalization of such work in new centers, departments, or programs. Sawyer Seminars are, in effect, temporary research centers.
Each seminar normally meets for one year. Faculty participants have largely come from the humanities and social sciences, although faculty members in the arts and from professional schools have also been key participants in a number of seminars. Seminar leaders are encouraged also to invite participants from nearby institutions, such as community colleges, liberal arts colleges, museums, research institutes, etc. As the Foundation reviews proposals, preference is given to those that include concrete plans for engaging participants with diverse affiliations.
Sawyer Seminar awards provide support for one postdoctoral fellow to be recruited through a national (or international) competition, and for the dissertation research of two graduate students. It is expected that the graduate students will be active participants in the intellectual life of the seminars. The seminars' contributions to graduate education in the humanities and social sciences will be carefully considered even though they are not intended to be organized as official credit-bearing courses.
There is no requirement that they produce a written product.
View a complete list of funded seminars.
Selection and Award Process
Please send a notice of intention to apply as soon as possible to elp25@cornell.edu, so that we can keep you abreast of any new information.
Please send completed proposals to elp25@cornell.edu by 11:59pm, Thursday, February 14, 2019, for review by committee.
One proposal will be selected to be submitted to the Mellon Foundation. The successful candidate will be notified by Friday, February 22, 2019, and will be asked to submit their final materials for submission to Mellon by Friday, March 15, 2019. After they are submitted to the Foundation, proposals are reviewed by an advisory committee of distinguished scholars. In a typical year, approximately two-thirds of proposals are recommended for funding. The seminars recommended by the committee are put before the Foundation's Board of Trustees for its approval. Following approval by the Foundation's Trustees, funds are disbursed to the host institution. Past experience suggests that it can take a year or more to organize the seminars.
Proposals should describe:
(1) the originality and significance of the central questions to be addressed; (2) the cases to be compared (e.g., nations, regions, social aggregates, time periods) and the rationale for the comparisons that are selected; (3) the thematic "threads" that will run through the seminar; (4) the institution's resources and suitability for the proposed seminar; and (5) the procedures to be used in selecting graduate and postdoctoral fellows. Additionally, proposals should include a budget and a well-developed preliminary plan for the seminar that outlines the specific topics to be addressed in each session and provides the names and qualifications of the scholars who would ideally participate.
Past experience suggests that it can take a year or more to organize the seminars, so they need not be scheduled for the coming academic year. Proposals are judged on the significance of the subject of inquiry, the aptness of plans for seminar meetings, the opportunities they present for comparative study, the rationale for the comparisons, and on the scholarly accomplishments of the participants. A more detailed description of the program’s aims, structure, budgetary guidelines, and selection procedures is appended and available on the Mellon Foundation’s website.
Budget
Maximum award is $225,000. It is expected that each seminar's budget will provide for a postdoctoral fellowship to be awarded for the year the seminar meets, and two dissertation fellowships for graduate students to be awarded for the seminar year or the year that follows. The amount for postdoctoral fellowship awards and dissertation fellowship stipends should follow institutional practices. To acknowledge the sustained intellectual involvement of those graduate students in the seminar, institutions may include tuition support or, for those funded by existing fellowships, supplementary support such as research and travel funds. Travel and living expenses for short stays by visiting scholars and the costs of coordinating the seminar, including those incurred for speakers and their travel, may also be included. The grants may not, however, be used for the costs of release time for regular faculty participants, or for indirect costs.