MMUF Frequently Asked Faculty Mentor Questions

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) is an undergraduate research program designed to prepare students for PhDs in the humanities. The role of the MMUF mentor is to:

• teach the Fellow how to conduct primary and secondary research in their field in a rigorous and ethical way.
• Help Fellow to prepare presentations for the Fall MMUF regional conference and the Spring Research Symposium
• give the Fellow guidance and feedback on drafts of MMUF research paper and conference abstracts, as well as Fellowship and graduate school application materials
• facilitate the Fellow's participation in relevant conferences in the field
• write letters of recommendation for the Fellow for Fellowships and PhD programs
• introduce the Fellow—when possible and appropriate—to colleagues in the field.

The program requires:

• weekly hour-long meetings (remote or in-person) between the Fellow and mentor during the 8-week summer program (typically the months of June and July)
• weekly hourlong meetings during the fall and spring semesters.
• mentors to attend the Fellows' research presentations at the Research Symposium (typically the last Friday in April) 

• The program provides a $2000 summer mentoring stipend (before taxes)
• a $500 book award for each year that the faculty member serves as the mentor to a Mellon Fellow. The book award may be used for travel and supplies to support the faculty member’s research (excluding computers and membership fees of any kind, due to Mellon Foundation guidelines).

To access these funds, please send email to OUR administrative assistant Shelby Sterk (ssterk@oberlin.edu).

A Fellow is most welcome to write a project in any language, however, please consider: 

1) In order to be in a position to share feedback, the Mellon mentor should be able to read and evaluate in the language in which the student is writing; 

2) in order to share the research with the Oberlin community and at the annual MMUF Midwest Regional Conference, the Fellow should be prepared to present in English; and 

3) in order for the MMUF research paper to serve as a writing sample for PhD applications, which is an element of the program design, the Fellow must write in the language required by the graduate programs for admission.

4) the Fellow must submit an article to the MMUF Journal in English

We encourage you to nominate any students whom you believe would be a good fit to conduct research—particularly if they are second-year or double-degree students in the second or third year. Nominations should be submitted over email to our@oberlin.edu, or through our Google Form that is sent out in late Fall. We will contact the student directly and let them know of your nomination.