Commencement Group

While every student in the class of 2024 has a different story to tell, their collective undergraduate experience unfolded during an unprecedented time in human history.

Wisdom from the Class of 2024 

We need to hear from the range of Americans about these topics, which means understanding the diversity of ideas and experiences and potential solutions that they bring with them.

Climate change impacts are already present in everyday life. They are driving politics. They are driving family-level decisions. They are driving young people's concerns about their own futures.

At the Crossroads of Asia and the Pacific

A focal point of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Varney Circle is listed on Hawai‘i’s Register of Historic Places and symbolically connects old and newer parts of the campus.

An empty round stone fountain with carved native Hawai'an designs on its sides among greenery at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

On the Syllabus: New Solutions to the Climate Crisis  

By providing valuable dollars that invest in early-career scholars, we are lowering the risk of engaging in transformational research about the human condition.

PPFP really is a very powerful engine for transforming the professoriate of the future.



Mark A. Lawson directs the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, which promotes advancement of diverse faculty across the UC system. He was also a fellow himself. 

A person in a navy suit and gray tie and a fedora hat with a brown and gray beard and black shoes sitting beside a lampost on the steps of a columned building

Proof of Concept at the University of California

I envision a curriculum where Indigenous ways of knowing are more strongly present . . . and an infrastructure that can grow to support new tribes.

Understanding the plight that my people went through to try and get their identity back—it’s been extremely emotional. I owe it to my ancestors to tell this story.

A Growing Opportunity for Indigenized Learning

The University of Montana attracts students of all backgrounds; a majority are Montana residents. In 2023, UM emphasized its growing enrollment, including among Native American and Native Alaskan first-year students.

A tall red brick gothic building with a clock tower on the campus of the University of Montana

Putting Indigenous Stories Back in the Picture

“Educators can no longer afford to be shy about publicizing the practical skills their humanities students develop...” writes Program Director Philip Brian Harper for “The Hechinger Report.”

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Opinion: Studying Humanities can Prepare the Next Generation of Social Justice Leaders

30 Years and Counting: How MMUF has Paved the Road for a Truly Diverse Academy

Preview: About the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program

Lift up those things that we tend to bury, that we tend not to want to address. How do we examine our past...and how do we become better?

Agnes Scott College is undertaking historical preservation, curricular development, and community building within the college and in partnership with the City of Decatur.

A large group of people stand in front of a mural where the words "justice" and "one vote" are visible. 

Preserving, Teaching, and Sharing a Fuller History of a College and Its Community

Charleston / Courtesy of College of Charleston

A building in Charleston South Carolina with a person sitting beneath a tree on a bench outside of it

Taking Women’s and Gender Studies from Theory to Practice

Headshot of Leigh Raiford

We’re in a moment where the task of building life-affirming institutions is more urgent than ever.

Dr. Ayanna Thompson, founder of RaceB4Race, is a Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and the director of its Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 

A Black woman stands in a doorway that leads to an office. A sign on the door reads, "Research In Progress." 

RaceB4Race: How it Started and How it’s Growing

Lae'l Hughes-Watkins is the founder of Project STAND and the associate director for engagement, inclusion, and reparative archiving at the University of Maryland.

A Black librarian wearing large hoop earrings sits facing the camera.

Archiving Student Activism Means More than You Think

Author of “Postcolonial Love Poem” and “When My Brother Was an Aztec,” Natalie Diaz is Mellon’s 2022-2023 Fellow in Residence.

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A day in the life of a Mellon fellow in residence, as shared by Natalie Diaz, a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and educator. 

The Words and Wisdom of Natalie Diaz

Reimagining Racial Justice

Yashua Klos, Diagram of How She Hold It All Together, 2021. Paper construction of woodblock prints and graphite on archival Japanese rice paper. Courtesy Yashua Klos.

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The World-Building Potential of Black Studies

Writer, educator, and 2022-2023 Mellon Fellow in Residence Natalie Diaz, who directs the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University. Photo: Lelanie Foster for Mellon Foundation

An Indigenous person wearing a sport track suit sits legs-crossed on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Artists as Catalysts

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Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Borderlands Cultures

In portrait orientation, an aerial view of a major highway running parallel to a large border wall set on a hilly landscape

Civic Engagement

A man in a brown jacket stands in front of blue bulletin board that is covered with papers and advertisements  

Expanding Public Knowledge

An interior room filled with audio and video equipment 

Monuments and Memory

A multicolored painted totem pole set in front of a foggy forest landscape

Multivocality

Five people stand together in a group photo. They are laughing and smiling.

Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 