The Society of Fellows (SOF) is established as a Presidential Center with endowment support from the William R. Kenan Jr. Trust and the Mellon Foundation. In a six-page letter to Mellon President John Sawyer, Columbia President William McGill articulates a vision for the program: to establish a high-profile postdoctoral fellowship that would foster “the cross-fertilization” of Columbia’s “distinguished humanities faculty” with its “professional school faculties of similar excellence.” McGill emphasizes the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration—across fields such as law, health sciences, and environmental studies—to preserve and strengthen “liberal learning” and to situate critical humanistic inquiry at the center of social and technological change.
Below is a copy of the letter highlighted with the sections relevant to the creation of the Society of Fellows