$10 Million for UC Humanities

UC Davis Humanities Part of Network Receiving Funding

As part of the University of California's Humanities Network, the UC Davis Humanities Institute (DHI) will benefit from a $10 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to advance humanities research and education throughout the UC system. It is the foundation's single largest award to UC.

The award is the first step in a plan to create a $30 million permanent endowment to sustain the core activities of the UC Humanities Research Institute and the UC Humanities Network, a multicampus research program.

"This is a major commitment from Mellon, one that will be transformative for the profile and impact of humanities scholarship across the system and state," said Elizabeth Spiller, dean of the College of Letters and Science.

The DHI, founded in the late 1980s, helps organize and fund research groups, lectures, symposia, film series and other events, and supports faculty and student research. Many of these are funded by recent Mellon Foundation grants.

Current Mellon Research Initiatives at UC Davis are Comparative Border Studies, Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds, Feminist Arts and Science Shop and Racial Capitalism. 

The UC Davis Mellon Public Scholars program introduces graduate students to the intellectual and practical aspects of identifying, addressing and collaborating with members of a public through their scholarship.

"This is a great moment for the UC humanities and arts community," said Jaimey Fisher, director of the DHI and professor of cinema and digital media and German. "It will provide significant support for the work we do. It also raises the profiles of the humanities institutes at all the campuses."

— Jeffrey Day, content strategist in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science