The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) Program is committed to broadening the range of scholarly perspectives in the US academy, with a focus on the humanities and the humanistic social sciences. The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship honors Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, a noted educator and civic leader. A scholar of religion, Mays earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1935.
The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Program at the University of Chicago has three key components: research development, mentoring, and cohort-effect and community building. Our program is, first and foremost, a research development program. It is dedicated to preparing scholars committed to enriching society through their teaching, research, and leadership in the arts, humanities, and humanistic social sciences. Once admitted to the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Program at the University of Chicago, students are mentored in multiple ways. Throughout their two-year tenure, the program supports fellows as they endeavor to build relationships with faculty and graduate students. It also hosts a bi-weekly seminar, sponsors a structured summer research development program, and offers year-round academic guidance, community-building activities, social gatherings, workshops, and occasional research roundtables.
Every year, the University of Chicago admits up to five sophomores to the MMUF. Students begin their tenure in the program in the summer that immediately follows their second year in the College.
Please visit the Mellon Foundation website to learn more about the History of MMUF