Mellon Engaged Scholar Initiative Undergraduate Fellowship Programme 2022-2023
Deadline: 2nd of October, 2022
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation set ambitious goals for improving and expanding the connections between public universities and communities in the US. These goals are being honored by the Engaged Scholar Initiative: A Texas Model (ESI).
The ESI initiative has a long history of intellectual and civic collaboration and joins a number of The University of Texas at Austin programs with significant community investments. The $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation is in part a tribute to The University, to the many illustrious departments and centers housed on campus and in the College of Liberal Arts, as well as to the many institutional interdisciplinary treasures like the Humanities Institute and the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies.
Engagement denotes a variety of concepts, including dedication, adherence, involvement, employment, activity, unity, connectedness, and reciprocity. Interdisciplinary study is celebrated by The Engaged Scholar Initiative at The University of Texas at Austin as an active and developing dialogue about humanity and society in the twenty-first century. The graduate and undergraduate ESI fellows will work toward the scholarly and communal aims of forming intellectual connections, cross-pollinating ideas, and renewed and reimagined relationships. The ESI Fellows share a love of learning, as well as a passion for politics, ethics, the arts, languages, and the imagination. Beyond the confines of their conventional research disciplines, the ESI initiative seeks to expand the educational resources accessible to the Ph.D. and undergraduate fellows in order to improve the advantages.
Eligibility
- Applicant should have a minimum GPA of 3.2;
- Junior or Senior class standing by Fall 2022;
- Preference for applicants who are College of Liberal Arts students majoring in Humanities or Humanistic Social Science disciplines;
- Preference for applicants without other concurrent major research fellowships.
Expectations
- A commitment to creative and risk-taking research; an inclination toward affiliation and translation; a vibrant sense of civic and intellectual engagement; and a shared endeavor to make public-facing scholarship a mission of generosity and conviction.
Application
This application calls for the following materials:
- ESI Undergraduate Fellowship Application questions
- ESI Essay (limit: 2 pages, double-spaced, 1” margins)
- Resume (limit: 1 page)
- Sample Paper: scholarly essay written for a class at UT Austin
- The name of a UT Austin professor or instructor who will be asked to write a Letter of Recommendation if the Applicant is selected for interview
