The University of Pennsylvania Wolf Humanities Center (formerly Penn Humanities Forum) awards five (5) one-year Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships each academic year to junior scholars in the humanities who are no more than eight years out of their doctorate and who are not yet tenured (may not be tenured during the fellowship year). Scholars are required to spend the year (late August–May) in residence at Penn.

The PhD is the only eligible terminal degree, and applicants must be humanists or those in such allied fields as anthropology or history of science. The fellowship is open to all scholars, national and international, who meet application terms.

The programs of the Wolf Humanities Center are conceived through yearly topics that invite broad interdisciplinary collaboration. For the 2019–2020 academic year, the topic is Kinship.

Scholars who received or will receive their PhD between December 2010 and December 2018 are eligible to apply. You must have your degree in hand or have passed your defense no later than December 2018 to be eligible.

During their year in residence, Fellows pursue their proposed research, are required to teach one undergraduate seminar during the year, and must also participate in the Center's weekly Mellon Research Seminar (Tuesdays, 12:00–1:50), presenting their research at one of those seminars. In selecting fellows, the Wolf Humanities Center aims for a balanced mix of recent Ph.D.s and more seasoned tenure-track faculty who do not yet have tenure. Preference will be given to candidates whose proposals are interdisciplinary, who have not previously enjoyed use of the resources of the University of Pennsylvania, and who would particularly benefit from and contribute to Penn's intellectual life.