The SoFCB is a community of scholars reinvigorating bibliographical studies within the humanities. The Society gains specialized skills, engages in professional networks, and conducts advanced research with material texts.
Members of the SoFCB community work across many disciplines, study a wide range of time periods and geographies, and occupy diverse roles and career stages within the academy. RBS courses are central to the fellows’ intellectual growth. The SoFCB also sponsors symposia, lectures, classes, and field schools at fellows’ home institutions, and at libraries and museums around the world.
The SoFCB holds an annual meeting of its members and sponsors an annual Essay Prize to recognize and reward published work that advances the mission of the Society
Current Junior and Senior Fellows are librarians, archivists, curators, doctoral students, independent scholars, and faculty members who hold tenure-track, teaching, or postdoctoral research positions.
Become a Junior Fellow
Each year, ten Junior Fellows are selected to join the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) through an open application process. After completing two years in good standing as Junior Fellows, participants will have the option to become Senior Fellows.
Connect with Other Fellows
Stay informed of events, search the directory, and register for our annual event.
SoFCB News
Program History
Rare Book School received three major grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund an innovative fellowship program at RBS, the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography. The fellowship aimed to reinvigorate bibliographical studies within the humanities by introducing doctoral candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty to specialized skills, methods, and professional networks for conducting advanced research with material texts. The fellowship’s first cohort was admitted in 2015.
The Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) developed out of a desire to maintain and expand the community of scholars brought together by the original fellowship, and it admitted its first cohort of Junior Fellows in 2018. Scholars now join the SoFCB through the Junior Fellows Program; after completing the program in good standing, they have the option of becoming Senior Fellows in the Society. The Society’s Council may appoint a limited number of honorary Fellows whose work advances the intellectual, pedagogical, and service aims of our community but who are ineligible for the Junior Fellows Program.
SoFCB Council and Committee Members for the 2025–26 Term
Council of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography
- President: Joseph Howley (Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Columbia University)
- Vice President: Amy Gore (Associate Professor, Department of English, North Dakota State University)
- Immediate Past President: Devin Fitzgerald (Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing, University of California, Los Angeles)
- Secretary: Aaron Pratt (Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Curator of Early Books and Manuscripts, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin)
- Diversity & Outreach Committee Chair: Xiaoyu Xia (Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University)
- Program Committee Chair: position currently unfilled
- Selection Committee Chair: Daniel Radus (Associate Professor, Department of English, The State University of New York at Cortland)
SoFCB Diversity & Outreach Committee
- Chair: Xiaoyu Xia (Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University)
- Heng Du (Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Chinese, East Asian Languages & Literatures, Wellesley College)
- James Hodges (Assistant Professor, School of Information, San José State University)
- Yeidy Rosa (Lecturer, Department of Art History, Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto Rio Pedras)
SoFCB Programs Committee
- Chair: position currently unfilled
- Ayesha Ramachandran (Associate Professor, Comparative Literature, Yale University)
- Murad Mumtaz (Assistant Professor, Art History and Studio Art, Williams College)
- Damian Fleming (Professor, Department of English and Linguistics, Purdue University Fort Wayne)
SoFCB Selection Committee
- Chair: Daniel Radus (Associate Professor, Department of English, The State University of New York at Cortland)
- Xiaoyu Xia, ex officio, (Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University)
- Georgia Henley (Associate Professor, Department of English & Communication, Saint Anselm College)
- Kailani Polzak (Assistant Professor, History of Art/Visual Culture, UC Santa Cruz)
- Noam Sienna (Jerome and Lorraine Aresty Visiting Scholar, Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Rutgers University)
SoFCB Nominating Committee
- Chair (ex officio): Devin Fitzgerald (Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing, University of California, Los Angeles)
- Committee currently unfilled
SoFCB Communications Committee
- Chair (ex officio): Aaron Pratt (Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Curator of Early Books and Manuscripts, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin)
- Committee currently unfilled
SoFCB Essay Prize Committee
- Chair (ex officio): Amy Gore (Associate Professor, Department of English, North Dakota State University)
- Committee currently unfilled