Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor

Term:

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Three-year appointment, renewable for up to two additional years. Start date August 2027.

About AAR

Founded in 1894, the American Academy in Rome is a leading American overseas center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities. Each year, the Academy awards the Rome Prize to approximately 30 artists and scholars who join a dynamic, transdisciplinary residential community on the Academy’s eleven-acre campus on the Janiculum Hill—enriched further by invited Residents and Affiliated and Visiting Artists and Scholars, reaching a community of approximately 100 at any given time.

The Academy is led by the President & CEO who sets its direction and serves as its chief fundraiser and public representative. A Chief Operating Officer manages the Academy’s business and administrative functions across Rome and New York. The Director is responsible for the daily intellectual and communal life of the residential community. The Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor and the Andrew Heiskell Arts Director report to the Director and, together with the Director, constitute the Academy’s intellectual leadership team in Rome—the primary intellectual resources for the Rome Prize Fellows and the animating force behind the Academy’s scholarly and creative life.

Role

The Humanities Professor is a member of the Academy’s intellectual leadership team. This is a role for a humanist of genuine distinction—someone with a record of rigorous, imaginative scholarship, the range to engage with work across disciplines, and the commitment to place their intellectual life in service of a community.

The Humanities Professor works alongside the Director and the Arts Director to shape the Academy’s intellectual vision in Rome. Their primary institutional responsibility is to the Rome Prize Fellows: offering scholarly guidance, facilitating engagement with Rome’s academic and cultural communities, and helping Fellows make the most of their time at the Academy. The Humanities Professor also carries a distinctive set of institutional responsibilities—overseeing the Academy’s Classical Summer School, its archaeology initiatives, and its learned journal that root the role in the Academy’s long scholarly traditions. For the Humanities Professor to fully embody the role the Academy needs them to be an active scholar working at the highest level. Both the Arts Director and the Mellon Professor are expected to engage generously with Fellows across the full breadth of the residential community.

Key Responsibilities:
Intellectual Leadership and Support of the Fellows (60%)

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• Serve as a primary intellectual resource for Rome Prize Fellows across the Academy’s humanities disciplines—Ancient Studies, Medieval Studies, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Modern Italian Studies, and Historic Preservation and Conservation—offering scholarly guidance, substantive engagement with Fellows’ work, and mentorship calibrated to each Fellow’s stage of career and project.
  
• Work in close partnership with the Director and the Arts Director to foster intellectual exchange across disciplines; encourage and facilitate dialogue among Fellows, Residents, Italian Fellows, and Affiliated and Visiting Artists and Scholars.
  
• Facilitate introductions and sustained relationships between Fellows and their counterparts in Roman and Italian academic, cultural, and institutional life—in universities, foreign academies, and the wider scholarly community.
  
• Design, organize, and lead site visits and longer trips in and around Rome, Italy, and the Mediterranean that deepen Fellows’ engagement with the material, historical, and cultural dimensions of their work.
  
• May participate in the selection of Rome Prize and Italian Fellows, and assist as needed in the selection of Residents, Affiliated and Visiting Artists and Scholars.
  
• Conduct their own research and set an example for the Fellows of what a life of the mind could look like.
  

Programming and Institutional Vision (30%)

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• As a member of the Academy’s intellectual leadership team, contribute to the design and execution of programming that serves the institutional mission in close collaboration with the Director, the Arts Director, and Programs staff.
  
• Serve as staff liaison to the Humanities Committee and Publications Committee of the Board of Trustees, and as primary point of contact for the Managing Editor of the Academy’s learned journal, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome.
  
• Oversee the Academy’s Classical Summer School, working closely with the Classical Summer School Director on program direction, pedagogy, itinerary development, participant selection, and alignment with the Academy’s mission.
  
• Oversee the Academy’s archaeology initiatives, including the Norton Van Buren Study Collection, affiliated archaeology projects, and the relationship with the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies.
  
• Attend meetings of organizations where the Academy holds a board seat or institutional partnership, as necessary.
  

Community Stewardship and External Engagement (10%)

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• Maintain a visible and engaged presence in the life of the residential community—at meals, at internal and public events, in communal spaces—as an active participant in the community the Academy exists to sustain.
  
• Represent the Academy in Rome’s scholarly and cultural communities; build and expand relationships with Italian universities, foreign academies, and other institutions that constitute the Academy’s network of advisors and partners.
  
• Support fundraising efforts as requested.
  

Qualifications
Required

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• A PhD in a humanities discipline, with a record of published scholarship commensurate with national or international standing in the field, and a minimum of five years of experience in one or more of the Academy’s humanities fellowship disciplines.
  
• Demonstrated intellectual generosity and disciplinary range: the ability and genuine desire to engage with scholarly and creative work across fields, and to design and lead programs that extend beyond one’s own area of expertise.
  
• Fluency in spoken and written Italian; the ability to operate effectively in Italian academic, cultural, and civic contexts is essential.
  
• Strong working knowledge of the artistic, archaeological, and cultural sites and institutions of Rome and Italy.
  
• Proven ability to mentor scholars and artists at varying stages of career, with superior interpersonal skills and the ability to build trust across a diverse and talented community.
  
• Demonstrated ability to represent an institution professionally—interacting diplomatically with Fellows, staff, board members, donors, institutional partners, and government officials.
  
• Strategic thinking and organizational capability, with experience managing programs and working collaboratively across teams.
  
• Flexibility to work outside standard hours given the Academy’s evening and weekend programming, and willingness to travel between Rome and New York.
  

Preferred

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• Established relationships with scholars, institutions, and cultural organizations in Rome and Italy.
  
• Experience with publication oversight, journal editing, or scholarly program management.
  
• Familiarity with archaeological fieldwork, study collections, or related programs.
  

Leadership Profile:

The ideal candidate will be recognized by Fellows, colleagues, and peers in Rome for the following qualities:

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• Scholarly distinction. A humanist whose work commands genuine respect—whose presence at the Academy lends intellectual authority to the community and whose engagement with Fellows’ projects carries real weight.
  
• Disciplinary range. The curiosity and capacity to engage substantively with work far outside one’s own specialty—to follow the argument of an architect, to ask a good question of a composer, to understand what a conservator is working through.
  
• Institutional commitment. A genuine orientation toward community and collaboration—someone who finds meaning in supporting the work of others and understands that their role is as much about creating conditions for excellence as producing it themselves.
  
• Roman fluency. A real connection to Rome—its scholarly landscape, its institutions, its rhythms—and the ability to move through the city’s academic and cultural communities as a trusted participant.
  
• Mission conviction. An authentic belief in what the Academy does and why it matters—in the value of sustained individual scholarly and creative work, in Rome as an irreplaceable context for that work, and in the Academy’s unique role in American cultural life.
  

Compensation

Secondment appointments will be compensated in accordance with the terms of the secondment. Salary range for direct employment is $100,000–$200,000, based on experience and qualifications.

To Apply

Nominations and expressions of interest are welcome and will be held in strict confidence.

Candidates should submit a letter of interest of no more than two pages outlining their interest in the Academy and the contributions they expect to make to its mission, along with a current CV, and three references. xysqume Applications should be submitted to with the subject line "MELLON" and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Submission deadline is October 15, 2026.

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