Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow

Overview

Haverford College invites applications for a two-year, full-time Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship. The John

B. Hurford '60 Center for the Arts and Humanities at Haverford College invites applications for a two-year, full-time Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship to begin Fall 2026. We seek a scholar-practitioner whose research and artistic practice focus on contemporary—21st century—Global Majority diasporic art. We welcome applications from candidates whose work challenges colonial modes of disciplinarity through creative practice and scholarly inquiry.

We welcome applications from scholar-practioners whose work moves beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries and engages with Global Majority diasporic artistic and intellectual traditions. Artistic practices of interest include installation art, socially engaged art, video art, sound design, curation and other experimental forms. Humanities fields of interest include sound studies, Asian American studies, Black studies, and Latinx studies.

During the first year of the program, the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow will participate in the faculty seminar "Un-disciplined:
Experiments in the Humanities and Contemporary Diasporic Art" led by Professors Emily Hong (Anthropology, Visual Studies) and Ava Shirazi (Classics), which will bring together faculty, artists, scholar-artists, and curators from a variety of disciplines. The seminar will explore how contemporary diasporic art can challenge colonial and disciplinary modes of knowing, focusing on anti-disciplinary research methods and artistic-scholarly forms. We will explore how thinking, feeling, and sensing the diaspora through and alongside contemporary art enables new liberatory research and artistic practices that center Black, Indigenous, Asian and Latinx communities' intellectual and artistic traditions.

During each of their four semesters at Haverford College, the Fellow will teach one course at the intermediate/advanced level and engage a diverse student body.

Candidates are encouraged to explain in their applications how their creative practices can be incorporated into their teaching while  postdoctoral fellow will deliver a lecture in the spring semester of the first year and will pursue mentorship opportunities in the second year to support their professional growth. While the Fellow is under no obligation to organize any additional activities – they are to focus on their own writing and protect their time – we encourage the Fellow to make use of our proximity to Philadelphia and engage with artists, activists, and intellectuals in the Greater Philadelphia area.

The Fellow will have an office, but not an art studio, in the interdisciplinary VCAM (Visual Culture Arts and Media) building, the College's 24/7 creative hub for students, faculty, staff, and the wider community. Home to Haverford's Visual Studies Program, the Haverford Innovations Program, and the John

B. Hurford ‘60 Center for the Arts and Humanities, VCAM features a host of flexible spaces for teaching, including a Film/Media Edit Studio, Maker Arts Space, two Create Spaces, Artist Residency Studio, Object Study/Media Production Classroom, and exhibition spaces. Candidates are encouraged to explain in their applications how their creative practices can be incorporated into their teaching while at Haverford.

Candidates who have earned their Ph.D. no earlier than 2021 and will have completed all requirements for the Ph.D. by May 1, 2026, are eligible to apply. Candidates should submit application materials via Interfolio (). Materials should include:

• A cover letter that includes descriptions of research and artistic practice
• A C.V.
• A syllabus for an advanced undergraduate seminar that the candidate could teach
• A single PDF with links to work samples consisting of up to 10 images of visual work, 10 minutes of time-based work (if the video/audio files are longer than 10 minutes, please indicate which 10 minutes the committee should evaluate, or the equivalent documentation for other artistic forms) including titles, dates and media
• Applicants should…