Carleton College has been awarded two grants totaling $695,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York. $445,000 will be used to support four two-year postdoctoral fellowships and $250,000 will strengthen the College's faculty development program.
Under the first grant, Carleton will host four young teacher-scholars in the humanities and social sciences over a five-year period, beginning in 1999-2000. The two-year visiting fellowships will help fill vacancies created by faculty sabbaticals, create new subfields and add new perspectives to the College's curriculum.
The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows will be able to utilize Carleton's unique Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, which provides resources for their development as teachers, including workshops and mentoring programs. In addition to teaching one course per term, the Fellows will receive support for research or to prepare their Ph.D. dissertation for publication.
The $250,000 grant, to be used over five years, will enable the College to supplement its already strong faculty development program, by offering faculty limited time off from teaching to pursue activities that further their professional development and contribute to their effectiveness as teachers.
Such activities might include traditional scholarly research, creative work in the arts, major curriculum development, mastering a new specialty within a discipline or in interdisciplinary studies, or undertaking a substantial on-campus educational experience for students or faculty.
The faculty recipients of such a "targeted release" will be selected by Carleton's Faculty Grants Committee and through discretionary action by the president and dean of the college.