2011 SHEAR/MELLON UNDERGRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS IN EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY - June 5- 19, 2011
Applications are limited to ONE per institution FROM PRIVATE LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES ONLY
Undergraduate Fellowships that cover travel and living expenses are to be dedicated to supporting ten students from private liberal arts colleges for two weeks of summer study at the University of Pennsylvania’s McNeil Center for the Study of Early America the summer before their senior years. Fellows will complete preliminary work on what will become, by the time they graduate, honors projects in early American history, 1776-1861.
While it is very important that applicants be able to explain clearly the focus and substance of their historical interests, it is not expected that they will have previously defined the exact topics of their honors projects. Rather, the Seminar’s main purpose is to assist students in the initial definition and development of such projects.
Individual work in the Seminar involves the completion of a formal prospectus and detailed plan of research for each student’s individual project. At the same time, common readings, discussions and other group exercises will be employed to develop skills in primary research, historiography, thesis development, critique and oral/written presentation.
As they work on individual projects, Undergraduate Fellows will be assisted in taking fullest possible advantage of the rich intellectual and archival resources of the Seminars co-sponsors, the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
2011 Seminar Directors will be Richard S. Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Stacey Robertson, Bradley University
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, Contact: stewart@macalester.edu or areeder@macaletser.edu
James B. Stewart, Project Director, Macalester College
