Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative

The Scholars’ Lab and the University of Virginia Library regularly contribute programming for summer fellows from the Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative (LAMI) in residence at UVA.

Each summer, a new cohort of external LAMI students pursues original research this summer at UVA in consultation with a faculty mentor. In addition to introducing these students to the resources available at UVA and in the library system, the program aims to increase the number of demographically underrepresented students pursuing graduate work and careers in the academy.

For our part, the Scholars’ Lab and the Library have collaborated to organize a weekly series of workshops introducing the students to digital humanities and library research methods. The students get a broad introduction to digital research and the resources of the library as they think towards graduate school (in addition to some board game lunches to facilitate bonding).

The Scholars’ Lab also engages graduate students (usually two each summer) as mentors to the undergraduates in the program. There is no regular call for the position, but interested graduate students are welcome to write Brandon Walsh the fall semester if they might be interested for the following summer.