Since 2001, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has supported postdoctoral fellows at Dartmouth in the humanities and social sciences, and the grant was recently renewed, providing $500,000 over the next four years. The fellowships support emerging scholars as they pursue academic careers.
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"It's been an extremely successful program," says Jonathan Crewe, Willard Professor of English and Comparative Literature and director of the Fannie and Alan Leslie Center for the Humanities. "It's useful to bring people to Dartmouth who recently earned their PhDs. They energize learning."
Crewe reports that the Mellon Fellows strengthen the departments they work in through teaching undergraduates at all levels, pursuing interdisciplinary research, networking with colleagues, and participating in special events. He says the selection committee, composed of Crewe, Associate Dean of the Humanities Lenore Grenoble, and Associate Dean of the Social Sciences Michael Mastanduno, primarily looks for scholarly accomplishment among the candidates.
The 2004-06 Mellon Fellow is John Bowes, who works in the Department of Native American Studies (NAS). Bowes earned his PhD and MA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his BA from Yale. His current research focuses on the removal and post-removal experiences of American Indians from the Great Lakes region in the 19th century. Specifically, he examines how the Delawares, Shawnees, Potawatomis, and Wyandots attempted to maintain a measure of cultural and political autonomy during successive waves of American expansion.
Bowes also is interested in curricular, as well as professional, development. He is learning from his colleagues about becoming a more effective teacher and mentor to undergraduates.
"I am trained as a historian, and it is important for me to learn as much as I can from my colleagues trained in other disciplines," he says. "There is a lot I can learn, and I only have two years."
By SUSAN KNAPP
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