Over the past few months, the faculty in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts have demonstrated flexibility and the willingness to grow in order to ensure the highest quality of education for our students. In addition to being excellent and dedicated teachers, our faculty are also productive researchers and scholars contributing to a range of fields in the liberal arts. Several outstanding faculty members have recently been recognized with highly prestigious (award rates of less than 10%) fellowships.
“These awards demonstrate the extraordinary profile of our liberal arts faculty. Some of these awards have a 1-2% funding rate, making them truly superlative outcomes. This year’s number of successful fellowships is all the more remarkable knowing that all but one was received by our junior faculty. Prestigious awards like these enhance the visibility and impact of our faculty’s scholarship, along with LMU’s reputation as a top national university,” says Robbin D. Crabtree, dean, LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts. “I look forward to seeing how each original research project will come to fruition, and then how each will get interwoven with class content and student learning experiences in keeping with the values and practices of our Teacher-Scholar model.”
BCLA faculty recipients of highly competitive fellowships in 2020 include:
- Carla Bittel, associate professor of history, has been named a 2020-21 Dibner Research Fellow in the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library. This is a nine-month residential fellowship. It is a very competitive award. Applicants for the 2019-2020 long-term fellowship competition had only 12% award rate.
- Priscilla Leiva, assistant professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o studies, has received the very prestigious and highly recognized Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2020-21. She will also be accepting a 2021-21 Huntington Library Fellowship.
- Mairead Sullivan, assistant professor of women’s and gender studies, has received a 2020 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders (MEFL) Award. Selection is very competitive: “The Award recognizes junior faculty candidates who not only balance research, teaching, and service but also give great weight to the creation of an inclusive campus community for underrepresented students and scholars. The selectors focus on and privilege service and leadership activities that address and ameliorate underrepresentation on campus, and give preference to candidates who embody a high standard of excellence.”
- Sylvia Zamora, assistant professor of sociology, has received the 2020 Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship). This is a six-month award for spring 2021, and selection is very competitive: Only 30 Fellowships are awarded each year.
- Meng Zhang, assistant professor of history, has been awarded a spring 2021 residential membership in the Institute for Advanced Study under the auspices of the Mellon Fellowships for Assistant Professors. Selection is very competitive: Institute for Advanced Study selects approximately 200 members from an average of more than 1,500 applicants.
- Ravaris Moore, assistant professor of sociology, has been selected as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Sociology as part of Princeton’s Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellows Program. The program is intended to recognize and support outstanding early-career stage scholars who will contribute to the University’s scholarly excellence and enhance its diversity.
