Claflin Awarded Second Mellon Grant To Support Global Initiative

Claflin University's global initiatives received a boost when the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the University a $500,000 grant to help students increase their knowledge of international cultures without leaving the campus.

Dr. Donald Pace, dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, will serve as principal investigator of the grant. Dr. Peggy Ratliff, professor of English, will serve as the program director.

"The grant will bring international faculty to campus for the next six semesters," said Ratliff. "The visiting faculty will help Claflin faculty incorporate other cultures into their course content.

They will also conduct sessions for the Claflin faculty, providing useful background in literature, film, music, drama, and art from six geographic locations – the Middle East, Australia and the Pacific, East Asia, Africa and the African Diaspora, Latin America, and Eastern Europe."

 This is the second grant Claflin has received from the Mellon Foundation to enhance international teaching and learning. The first was for $30,000 to finance a three-day workshop that provided resources for faculty at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The success of that workshop paved the way for the second grant.