The National Park Service’s Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program places recent humanities PhDs with National Park Service sites and programs across the agency. Its aim is to advance the National Park Service education mission through new research and study in the humanities. Mellon Fellows work with National Park Service mentors, scholars, and community partners to complete original research projects, and develop new interpretive and educational programming. 

For over a century, the National Park Service has worked to preserve American heritage and to interpret our nation’s past through its historic places. Yet NPS strives to be more accurate in its storytelling, and to fully reflect the diversity of the American population. As NPS launches its second century of service, the Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program will help the agency meet its goal of connecting more people to places that matter by incorporating new sources and perspectives into its storytelling. Fellows will engage communities and use innovative tools, technologies, and approaches to shape new understandings of the meanings of our historic places, and to share these stories with broad audiences.  

The Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is a signature element of the National Park Service’s commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, during which the Park Service will join with other agencies and all Americans to celebrate and contemplate the meaning of the Declaration of Independence and its relevance to our lives today. As the steward of our nation’s parks, heritage sites, and special places, NPS is committed to learning from the complex and challenging histories contained within them, building toward a future of freedom and possibility for all Americans. 

This program is generously supported by Mellon Foundation in partnership with National Park Foundation and American Conservation Experience. We invite you to learn more about our Partners who are supporting the work of this Fellowship.