The University of Utah has been awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to support the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program focused on environmental justice and community engaged learning. The three-year grant provides $600,000 to fund graduate fellowships, create leadership pathways for students from underrepresented groups, collaborate with communities directly affected by climate change and environmental racism and work closely with grassroots leaders.

The Mellon Foundation is the nation’s premiere funder for humanities education with a mission to support exemplary and inspiring institutions of higher education. As a leader in the field, the U’s program trains its students to solve environmental problems using the tools of the humanities.

Mellon support will help the program build an inclusive, community-based environmental movement. The fellows in the program will affirm indigenous voices, foreground social justice and empower communities at the frontlines of environmental degradation.

Established in 2005, the Environmental Humanities Program lives in the U’s College of Humanities and draws its faculty from departments including philosophy, communications, languages and English. The program has built stable and deep campus partnerships with contributing faculty from the Law School, Social and Behavioral Sciences and the university’s new School for Cultural and Social Transformation.