CAMRA Mellon Fellowship Program
Applications for the 2022–2025 cohort are now open!
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The CAMRA Mellon Fellowship Program seeks to harness the potential of visual methods to democratize the production of knowledge in academic spaces. The program’s fundamental objective is to increase the national pipeline of undergraduate students who pursue graduate careers that engage with both the theoretical and practical underpinnings of multimedia research and scholarship. These students aim to complete Ph.D. programs in core fields that interrogate the politics of representation and the power dynamics at play in multimodal (e.g., film, photography, performance, auditory) scholarship and in popular media. As a three-year pipeline, the program also aims to increase the presence of individuals from underrepresented groups pursuing Ph.D. programs on college and university faculties. In this sense, the program strives to help democratize and broaden both what counts as “scholarship” as well as who we think of as “scholars”.
The CAMRA Mellon Fellowship Program is open to students with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities with media including students who, though not from traditionally underrepresented groups, have otherwise demonstrated a commitment to the goals of the program. CAMRA Mellon applicants must be highly motivated towards gaining a Ph.D. and teaching at the university level. The CAMRA Mellon Fellowship Program provides undergraduate students with support for applying to and persisting in graduate programs. It offers opportunities to explore and engage multimedia forms including filmmaking and photography for research projects. CAMRA Mellon Fellows receive support and guidance from program scholars and graduate mentors. Ideally, during the first year, Fellows assist on a Mentor's media-based project. Then, during the second year, Fellows complete their own media-based project (e.g., documentary film, photo essay, podcast, installation). Preference will be given to projects that focus on social justice themes. The project can be for a course requirement, an independent project, or a senior thesis. During the third year of the pipeline, the program will continue to support participants through their first year in graduate school. Eligibility and Qualifications: This program is open to all rising juniors at the University of Pennsylvania. That is, we ask students to apply while they are matriculated in the second (spring) semester of their sophomore year. Applicants from Howard University and the University of Southern California are also encouraged to apply. We strongly encourage students from groups traditionally underrepresented at the graduate level and first-generation college students with demonstrated financial need to apply. Students must show interest in an individual media-based project but need not have prior formal training in visual methods. The program is designed to encourage Fellows to enter Ph.D. programs that prepare students for academic careers. Each CAMRA Mellon Fellow will become part of the CAMRA community and will be expected to participate in the three-year pipeline program (the final two years of their undergraduate degree and the first year of graduate school). Fellows are expected to:
As part of this Fellowship, participants will receive the following:
Additionally, Fellows will receive program support for the following activities:
About CAMRA: CAMRA Mellon Fellows will be part of the CAMRA (Collective for Advancing Multimodal Research Arts) community, a Penn-based institute that (i) trains undergraduate and graduate students to use multimedia in their research, (ii) mounts multimedia undergraduate and graduate courses that graduate students help to conceptualize, organize, and teach, (iii) collaborates with other units across campus to produce multimedia research, and (iv) organizes an annual academic conference (the Screening Scholarship Media Festival) that attracts hundreds of graduate students and faculty from all around the world. Learn more at www.camrapenn.org. CAMRA Fellows Program Team:
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You can find the CAMRA Mellon Fellowship application here.
Applications are due Friday, April 8, 2022.
If you have questions about the program, the application process, or an application you have already submitted, please contact Amitanshu Das at dasa@upenn.edu.
Given the recent global disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the CAMRA Mellon Fellows Program may have to change and adapt in the future. Changes will be communicated to participants.
Given the recent global disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the CAMRA Mellon Fellows Program may have to change and adapt in the future. Changes will be communicated to participants.
