Two philosophy doctoral students – Anna Bates and Erika Versalovic – have been awarded a Mellon Collaborative Fellowship for Reaching New Publics in Community Colleges. They will be part of three two-person teams, sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities, who will shadow faculty members at one of Seattle District Colleges during the 2020-2021 academic year.
The fellowship, which facilitates immersive cross-institutional experiences, is part of a program—Reimagining the Humanities PhD and Reaching New Publics: Catalyzing Collaboration—funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Fellows will spend 30 hours per quarter in immersive experience at their assigned College and participate in quarterly professional development working meetings as well as attending opening and closing activities to bookend the experiences during the academic year. All activities will hone skills and capacities related to critical pedagogy, job market readiness, and the work of collaboration.
Philosophy graduate students have a history of seeking out opportunities to build connections with Seattle Colleges through these types of programs. Recent Alum, Janice Moskalik was one of the inaugural Mellon Fellows for the Simpson Center’s original Reimagining the Humanities PhD and Reaching New Publics project, followed more recently by doctoral candidate Paul Tubig. While these students completed individual fellowships, in 2019 the Simpson Center decided to pivot to a more collaborative approach, offering fellowship to teams of two.
While the program continues to pursue change in humanities doctoral education by “reaching beyond academic professional spheres to new publics,” the new focus on “catalyzing collaboration” aims specifically to support collaboration within departments as well as across institutions.
Congratulations to Anna and Erika on this award! We look forward to learning from their experiences.