In 2008, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The University of New Mexico entered into a partnership to create and fund a fellowship program with the goal of “Building Future Leadership for the Advancement of Native American and Latino Humanistic Social Science” to increase faculty diversity in higher education in the U.S. The UNM-Mellon Doctoral Fellowship provides awardees with various forms of financial support so they may focus on and dedicate full-time to completion of their dissertations during the period of the award