Melissa Welshans, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA), walks us through the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Award, a generous and unusual award for early-stage doctoral students.

This award is meant to support early-stage doctoral students pursuing innovative approaches to dissertation research in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, and I asked Melissa to join me to talk about the award and what the funders are looking for.

Among other reasons for applying: the award is $42,000 base stipend for the fellowship year, plus up to $8,000 for project-related research, training, development, and travel costs! The award also provides a separate $2,000 stipend for external mentorship.