SUMMER FELLOWSHIPS WILL REIMAGINE NEW ENGLAND’S PAST

Applications are now being accepted for summer 2021 fellows seeking to participate in a new project entitled, Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom. The Frank C. Munson Institute at Mystic Seaport, in collaboration with Williams College and the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University, will hold virtual classes to interrogate the region’s past. The history and legacies of settler colonialism, racial slavery, servitude, dispossession, Indigenous resistance and African-American strategies for fashioning pursuits of freedom will be considered. A distinctive feature of this summer program will be the framing of these topics within the context of New England’s maritime setting, an environment that fostered interaction, mobility, and exploitation.
The Munson Institute is the leading, and often sole, center for teaching maritime history in the United States. It has offered graduate credit through the University of Connecticut for over 60 years while its faculty includes top maritime historians from across the United States.
This summer, the Institute is joining in the multi-institutional project Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This enhanced summer session will expand the Munson Institute’s cadre of scholars with specialists from collaborating faculty and representatives from the region’s Native peoples.
Applicants for the 2021 summer session may apply for one of the twelve fellowships being offered through the Mellon Foundation grant. These positions are most particularly intended for junior faculty and graduate students. We also encourage applications from the region’s tribal nations and African American communities. Each of the fellowships, set to run from June 28 – July 29, will be supported with a $2,000 stipend and the cost of book purchases.