Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowships: Applications Invited

Rackham and CRLT offer several exchange and mentorship programs with nearby colleges and universities to create opportunities for graduate students to grow as scholars and teachers beyond the U-M campus. Among these professional development initiatives is the Postdoctoral Teaching Fellows program funded by the Mellon Foundation for students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

This year, four one-year postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded to new U-M Ph.D.’s, providing the opportunity to develop teaching skills and research agendas at Oberlin and Kalamazoo Colleges. Details and application materials are available on the Rackham website. Applications are due on February 18, 2013.

Several current and past Teaching Fellows shared with us how valuable the program has been for their career development.

One of the current Teaching Fellows, Corine Tachtiris, received her Ph.D. from U-M in Comparative Literature. She says of the fellowship, “Even though the postdoc is only a one-year position, everyone here at Kalamazoo has welcomed me as one of their own. I get as much support, training, and mentorship as new tenure-track members of the faculty and always feel included in the life of the college. The members of my department have been particularly helpful in preparing me long-term for my future career and also short-term for the job market.”

Cari Carpenter, who received her Ph.D. from U-M in English and Women’s Studies, reflects on the long-term impact of the program. She is now Associate Professor of English at West Virginia University and shares that, "As a Mellon Postdoctoral fellow at Kalamazoo College from 2002-2004, I had the wonderful opportunity to develop teaching skills in an environment quite distinct from the University of Michigan. The contrasts between the two schools gave me perspective on higher education that I would not otherwise have had. And although this is a teaching fellowship, it afforded me crucial time to work on my research before I faced the tenure-line constraints of a regular professorship."

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