The following is an opportunity for Humanities graduate faculty stemming from our Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, Humanities Engage: Re-Imagining Doctoral Education in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Humanities Engage is committed to reimagining doctoral training as we prepare tomorrow’s versatile humanists for impactful careers in the academy, government, industry, and non-profit world.

One summer stipend of $4,000 is available for a member of the DSAS Humanities graduate faculty to co-mentor the summer 2024 cohort of immersive fellows.

Humanities Engage fosters experiential learning and immersive experiences for doctoral students across our arts and humanities programs. Doctoral students have the opportunity to gain experiences in host organizations in collaborative, mission-focused project work drawing on their high-level skills as researchers and writers. Students can either apply for one of the curated immersive opportunities with regional organizations or pitch their own immersive and collaboratively design experiences with host organization in the US or overseas that cannot pay interns (e.g., non-profits, small start-ups).

For examples of recent doctoral student immersives, please see the Humanities Engage website: Funding Awardees page.

Expectations

The Faculty Mentor will co-mentor, through regular meetings from May to August, the cohort of summer fellows with the Senior Director for Graduate Advising and Engagement for the Humanities and the supervisors in the host organizations; participate in cohort activities such as a mid-summer half-day retreat; help implement assessments of the program; and review student blog posts. The Faculty Mentor will submit a blog post reflecting on their experience for the Humanities Engage website by Monday, August 21, 2024.

Restrictions

Applicants must not be employed in any way in the summer term for which they are applying. Faculty members who have contractual obligations, including monies advanced for writing, or those engaged in traditionally compensated Third Term teaching or administrative assignments, or holding other University or sponsored research summer salary support, are not eligible. Faculty may not hold this Mentoring Stipend and a Summer Term Research Stipend for Untenured Faculty in the same summer.

Applicants should submit the following materials, in this order, in a single .pdf attached to an email to HEngage@pitt.edu by April 1, 2024 at 5:00pm:

• Cover letter outlining approach to graduate student mentorship including professional development, experiential learning, and career diversity; record and/or aspirations as ambassador for post-doctoral career diversity (2 pages max.)
• CV (2 pages max.)
• Chair’s brief letter of endorsement (1 page max.)
• Optional: brief graduate student endorsements (separate emails to above address acceptable)

See also Humanities Engage resources for Helping Students Explore and Prepare for Diverse Careers. Proposals will be evaluated by a committee composed of faculty leaders and senior administrators.