Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows

Promoting the visibility and value of the humanities PhD beyond the academy
Jennifer Cossyleon F’19 presents at a Community Change’s Power-Building Convening in Los Angeles, CA in January 2020, with housing community partners and residents.

The Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows program demonstrates the dynamic potential of the humanities PhD by placing recent PhDs in professional roles with nonprofit and government organizations in the fields of arts management, development, communications, public administration, policy, and digital media. From 2011 to 2020, the program placed recent humanities PhDs in staff positions at a diverse range of partnering agencies in government and the non-profit sector for two-year appointments. The fellowships were made possible through the generous support of the Mellon Foundation. 

Over the course of a decade, ACLS named nearly 190 Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows, who joined organizations across the country to pursue substantive portfolios of work in the fields of policy, community development, arts and culture, media, and international affairs.  

Learn more about the fellows and their work.