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NEH GRANT SUPPORTS MELLON POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM AT OBERLIN COLLEGE
MARCH 23, 2001--Oberlin College has received a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to endow the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The grant is one of just 10 challenge awards made nationally by the NEH this year.
The program, which has been supported by the Mellon Foundation since 1996, took a first--and major--leap toward permanence in March 2000 when the Mellon Foundation gave a $1.5-million challenge grant to form the basis of an endowment.
The College intends to create an endowment of $3 million by 2003 that will allow the appointment of four new fellows over three years. To fund the program completely, the College must raise $1 million from individual donors.
The postdoctoral program has two purposes. First, it helps recent Ph.D. recipients successfully move from graduate school to professional careers in academia. Fellows are appointed for two-year terms and teach one course per semester. They devote the rest of their time to research and professional development under the guidance of Oberlin faculty mentors.
Second, the program promotes systematic curriculum development. The fellow’s work allows regular faculty members to be given released time to develop or amend courses or to pursue study in areas pertinent to continued curricular development in their department.
"Leading liberal arts colleges like Oberlin are very important and appropriate places for young scholars to carry on their work after earning their doctoral degrees," said President Nancy Dye.
"The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program introduces the culture and work of liberal arts colleges to young scholars who may be unfamiliar with this kind of institution, and it exposes them to the idea that at schools like Oberlin, a professor can and must be both a teacher and a scholar. Such exposure is critical to our efforts to recruit the best young Ph.D. recipients from leading graduate programs to liberal arts faculties."
To date, Oberlin has hosted postdoctoral fellows in the politics, Russian, English, history, and religion departments. Two fellows have completed their Oberlin terms and been offered tenure-track positions at other institutions. Their presence has enabled continuing faculty members to augment or develop 25 courses.
Such course development is crucial to sustaining a current, intellectually vital curriculum, said Clayton Koppes, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
"Postdocs enable us to benefit by having some of the brightest minds, fresh from graduate programs, on our campus. And curriculum development opportunities give Oberlin faculty members the time to develop new courses, reinvigorate areas of their teaching, or branch into entirely new areas within their disciplines," Koppes said. "The generosity of the Mellon Foundation and the NEH, assisted by Oberlin donors, will ensure the long-term vitality of this critical area of faculty support, which directly benefits our students."
The National Endowment for the Humanities is a federal agency that makes highly competitive grants to colleges, universities, and individuals for research and curriculum development. This is Oberlin’s second challenge grant from NEH; in 1984, the NEH awarded Oberlin $970,000. When matched, that grant helped establish several new faculty positions in the humanities, including positions in Latin American history and Soviet and East European politics.
The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was established in 1997 with a $380,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation, which also funded its continuation through 2003 with a $500,000 renewal grant in 1999.
Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli
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