2020 Career Enhancement Fellows Announced

NEWS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE: Thursday, April 23, 2020
CONTACT: Frances Hannan, Director of Multimedia Projects | 201-587-4755 | hannan@woodrow.org
Melanie Meinzer, Mellon Program Officer | meinzer@woodrow.org

Awards Foster Career Development Opportunity For Tenured, Adjunct Faculty In The Humanities And The Arts

PRINCETON, NJ (April 23, 2020) – The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has named 32 new Career Enhancement Fellows—10 junior faculty members who will receive 12-month Fellowships, 20 who will receive six-month Fellowships, and two who will receive six-month Adjunct Faculty Fellowships.

The Career Enhancement Fellowship, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, seeks to increase the presence of underrepresented junior and other faculty members in the arts and humanities by creating career development opportunities for selected Fellows with promising research projects. The program provides Fellows with a six-month or one-year sabbatical stipend (up to $30,000); a research, travel, or publication stipend (up to $1,500); mentoring; and participation in a professional development retreat.

Career Enhancement Adjunct Faculty Fellows are awarded a six-month stipend (up to $15,000) and matched with a mentor from a professional network of tenured former Career Enhancement Fellows.

Of the 2020 Career Enhancement Fellows, 53 percent were also Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows—scholars previously supported by Mellon Foundation grants during their college years. Each of these programs bolsters the movement of scholars through the graduate pipeline and into the professoriate.

The 2020 Career Enhancement Fellows represent top institutions from across the country. Fellows work in such disciplines as African American and diaspora studies, English, LGBTQ studies, political science, sociology, and musicology. (Full list of Fellows, institutions, and departments below.)

Administered at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation since 2001, the Career Enhancement Fellowship has

supported more than 400 junior faculty members, creating a robust network of scholars committed to eradicating racial disparities in core fields in the arts and humanities.

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About the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (www.woodrow.org) identifies and develops the nation’s best minds to meet its most critical challenges. The Foundation supports its Fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American society.

CAREER ENHANCEMENT FELLOWS, 2020

12-Month Fellows

Juliann Anesi • University of California, Los Angeles • gender studies

Maria Firmino-Castillo • University of California, Riverside • critical dance studies

Armando García • University of California, Riverside • English

Joshua Guzmán • University of California, Los Angeles • gender studies

Aria Halliday • University of Kentucky • gender and women’s studies, African American and Africana studies

Renee Hudson • Chapman University • English

Desireé Melonas • Birmingham-Southern College • political science

Cassaundra Rodriguez • University of Nevada, Las Vegas • sociology

Jesús Smith • Lawrence University • ethnic studies

Frederick Staidum • Loyola University Chicago • English

6-Month Fellows

Maya Berry • University of North Carolina • African, African-American and diaspora studies

Henryatta Ballah • Washington & Lee University • history

Shantel Buggs • Florida State University • sociology

Nicole Burrowes • Rutgers University • history

Kwami Coleman • New York University, Gallatin School • musicology

Tatiana Cruz • Lesley University • American history

Crystal Donkor • State University of New York, New Paltz • English

Elizabeth Ellis • New York University • history

Chris Eng • Washington University in St. Louis • Asian and Asian-American studies, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies

Christy Erving • Vanderbilt University • sociology

Jonathan Howard • Boston College • English

Z’étoile Imma • Tulane University • English and Africana studies

Grace Johnson • University of Pennsylvania • Africana studies

Yalidy Matos • Rutgers University, New Brunswick • political science and Latino and Caribbean studies

Amaka Okechukwu • George Mason University • sociology and anthropology

Elva Orozco Mendoza • Texas Christian University • political science

Mecca Sullivan • Bryn Mawr College • English

Ester Trujillo • DePaul University • Latin American and Latino studies

Melissa Valle • Rutgers University • sociology and anthropology, African American and African studies

Matthew Velasco • Cornell University • anthropology

Sylvia Zamora • Loyola Marymount University • sociology

Adjunct Faculty Fellows

Quin’Nita Cobbins-Modica • Gonzaga University • history

Conor Reed • City University of New York, Brooklyn College • Africana studies and American studies