The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (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.
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 2026–27 Term
Council of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography
- President: Amy Gore (Associate Professor, Department of English, North Dakota State University)
- Vice President: Kate Ozment (Director, Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship, Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University)
- Immediate Past President: Joseph Howley (Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Columbia University)
- Secretary: Benjamin J. Nourse (Associate Professor, Religious Studies Department, University of Denver)
- D&O Committee Chair: Xiaoyu Xia (Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University)
- Programs Committee Chair: position currently unfilled
- Selection Committee Chair: Daniel Radus (Associate Professor, Department of English, The State University of New York at Cortland)
SoFCB D&O 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)
- Christy Sher (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History of Art, The Ohio State University)
SoFCB Programs Committee
- Chair: position currently unfilled
- 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)
- Noam Sienna (Jerome and Lorraine Aresty Visiting Scholar, Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Rutgers University)
SoFCB Nominating Committee
- Chair (ex officio): Joseph Howley (Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Columbia University)
- Committee currently unfilled
SoFCB Essay Prize Committee
- Chair (ex officio): Kate Ozment (Director, Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship, Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University)
- Committee currently unfilled