Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships
The Fox Center's Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship is open to recent PhD graduates from any university in any humanistic field. Each year, we select two Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows to spend a year at the Center, joining an interdisciplinary community of scholars, and teach an upper level course of their own design in the spring of their fellowship year. Starting in AY 2027-28, Mellon Fellows will be appointed for one year, with the possibility of renewal for an additional year. The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship is open to applicants working in any humanistic field. Applicants who received (or will receive) their PhD from Emory University are not eligible for this fellowship.
Applications are now open. Click here to apply.
Please note: For our AY 2027-28 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships, we require that applicants' research directly engages with our theme of Humanities Plural, and project alignment with the theme is a criterion for selection. Read more about the theme below.
Is your work in the field of poetics? Learn more about our NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship in Poetics.
2027-28 Theme: Humanities Plural
At a moment when fields such as "history of the humanities" and "humanities theory" are coming into view, and as hybrid formations such as digital humanities, health humanities, and public humanities are taking humanities scholarship into new academic and extra-academic spaces, we seek to expand our horizons for thinking about the humanities as they have existed or are unfolding in our current moment.
Potential lines of inquiry include:
- What are the contexts, across time and space, where humanistic learning occurs and matters (e.g., formal or informal academic settings, places of worship, prisons, online spaces, museums)?
- Where is humanistic scholarship enlisted into serving other systems of knowledge and value (e.g., medical schools, think tanks, revolutionary movements, corporate boardrooms), and what sorts of work is it asked to do there?
- Which communities have forged programs or practices of humanistic learning without having access to formal or elite institutional structures?
- What are the distinct methods, epistemologies, aesthetics, and/or values that take shape in these sites?
- What gave rise to "theory," where and why has it taken root, and what is its future? And how do or should "the humanities" function in hybrid formations, for example in digital humanities, environmental humanities, or health humanities?
About the Fellowship
The Fox Center's Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships are intended to support exceptional early career researchers to expand their disciplinary thinking in a lively and collegial environment while providing them with the necessary time and space to advance their individual research projects. Our Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows participate in our weekly fellows' seminar, presenting their work-in-progress at one of these meetings, and nominating a scholar from their own field to be included as a guest presenter at a subsequent meeting.
In the spring of their fellowship year, our Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows offer an interdisciplinary undergraduate seminar on a subject of their choosing through Emory's Institute of the Liberal Arts, which hosts two interdisciplinary majors. If invited to continue for a second year, fellows will have additional teaching responsibilities and will receive teaching mentorship from Emory faculty in a relevant discipline. See a list of examples of past seminars and the General Education Requirements that these courses fulfill.
Fellowships are for a period of ten months, August 1 – July 31, and carry a stipend of $62,000, eligibility for a wide range of competitive benefits (including health, dental, and vision insurance), a research budget of $2,000, and a $2,000 stipend for moving expenses. All Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows have access to a private office in the Center and are required to be resident in Atlanta for the term of the fellowship.
2024-25 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Drisha Bargi with Visiting Scholar Anupama Rao.
2023-25 Two-Year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Lora Webb teaches her Emory College course.
Lucas Koutsoukos-Chalhoub, 2025-26 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
“I always look forward to going to the seminar. Every single time I go in thinking that I just read something really interesting and I'm going to meet with people who are doing terribly exciting projects. And learning how other people think is very refreshing after you've been forced to narrow everything down.”
Victoria Bergbauer, 2025-26 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
“The fellowship has formed the project in ways I had not anticipated. The conversations that I have had here with my colleagues and with people whom I have met in Atlanta have pulled the project closer to the present in ways I think will shape it for years."
Jeff Williams, 2025-26 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
“[At the Fox Center], everyone has been so helpful and I'm so happy that they set that tone. It creates a good environment for everyone. And that goes for [the entire Fox Center staff]... it makes us feel like we're at home, and we belong here, and that we're supported in whatever we want to do.”
How to Apply
All Postdoctoral Fellows must hold a PhD (or its international equivalent, such as the DPhil). Applicants may not have held a doctorate for more than five years. Preference will be given to applicants who have not held prior postdoctoral fellowships.
To apply, please complete our online application form in Interfolio.
You will be asked to upload the following documents:
- Cover letter (2 pages maximum)
- Project description (1000 words maximum, including a timeline for the fellowship year)
- Writing sample (20-25 pages)
- Syllabi for two proposed undergraduate courses
- Curriculum vitae
- E-mail information for three recommenders
It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that all required documents are uploaded to Interfolio and submitted. Incomplete applications cannot be considered after the deadline.
Application Timeline
- August 2026: Online application form goes live.
- December 7, 2026: Applications close. Letters of recommendation must be received before December 11, 2026.
- February 2027: Decisions are announced.
Frequently Asked Questions
Scholars from outside of the United States are appointed under either the J-1 visa (Research Scholar status) or F-1 OPT (Optional Practical Training), depending on their circumstances. The Fox Center reserves the right to cancel awards if the recipient is unable to meet the conditions required for a visa.
Applicants should describe the specific research planned for the period of the Fellowship and the expected output and include a detailed timeline. They should also describe their engagement with the annual theme and how they would benefit from the interdisciplinary environment.