Columbia Society of Fellows in the Humanities

The Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University seeks to enhance the role of the humanities in the University by exploring and clarifying the interrelationships within the humanities as well as their relationship to other disciplines.

The Society was founded in the mid-1970s to encourage interdisciplinary teaching and research. Housed in the Heyman Center for the Humanities since the 1980s, the Society offers one-year fellowships, renewable for up to two additional years, during which Fellows teach undergraduate courses, complete scholarly work, present projects to other Fellows and University faculty, and plan and participate in conferences on areas of research interest.

The program is designed to strengthen the intellectual and academic qualifications of the Fellows: first, by affording them time and resources to develop independent scholarship within a broadening educational and professional context; second, by involving them in interdisciplinary programs of general education and in departmental courses, often of their own design; and third, by associating them individually and collectively with some of the finest teaching scholars in the University. The Society comprises the Fellows, the faculty members of the Governing Board, and other invited faculty.

The Society is funded by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the William R. Kenan Trust.