Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities

Bard College welcomes applications to the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) for the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities. This position starts July 1, 2023 with teaching responsibilities beginning in the fall semester.

The first ever endowed chair for teaching college-in-prison, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities will bring to Bard College faculty with demonstrated records of teaching excellence for appointments of either one or two years with the possibility of renewal up to three years.

The Chair will teach two in-person seminar-style courses each fall and spring semester to students earning Bard degrees while incarcerated, and they will participate more broadly in the BPI intellectual community – including its alumni community, the Bard Microcolleges, and the BardBac. BPI invites applications from distinguished scholars in fields across the humanities and is open to a range of scholarly disciplines and areas of expertise. Scholarly expertise in incarceration will not be given priority; the prison is the location rather than the subject of coursework.

Application Instructions

To apply, please upload a letter of application with a particular focus on teaching; curriculum vitae; sample course syllabi; and three letters of recommendation to Interfolio. This position requires private transportation to prisons located an average of 40 miles from the Bard College campus in Annandale-on-Hudson.

Review of application materials will begin on December 1, 2022. For additional information, please contact the search chair, Dr. Amy Cox Hall, at acoxhall@bard.edu. More information about BPI can be found here.