The nationally competitive award, involving a seven-week session for just ten rising seniors, supports students with interests in African-American, African and African Diasporan Studies in pursuing PhDs in the humanities.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation created the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute to encourage minority students and others with an interest in African-American, African and African Diasporan Studies to pursue PhDs in the humanities. The program mixes seminars and research. It invites students to explore how the past is influencing the present and how the present can shape the future. Institute fellows will explore a variety of disciplines (including history, literature, arts, religion, and cultural studies) and historical periods. The Fellows will have an opportunity to examine, among others, questions about identity, culture, arts, gender, migrations, mental health, and criminal justice, and reflect on how they will affect the future. Read more
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874–1938) was an Afroborinqueño (Black Puerto Rican) bibliophile, archivist, activist, and institution-builder, who sought to systematically refute the mythology of racism in the Americas. His nearly unrivaled personal collection of books, manuscripts, and art engaging realities of the black experience became the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library.
