Kelly Douglas Fund | About
History, Areas of Funding, Administration, Contacts
On this Page
History of the Fund
Director and Acting Director
Areas of Funding
Fund Administration
Contact Us
History of the Fund
The Kelly-Douglas Fund was established in 1975 through generous donations of I. Austin Kelly III (1903-2003, SB'26). Its founder and first director was the historian Richard M. Douglas (1922-2005), who came to MIT in 1962 to head the Humanities Department. Upon his retirement in 1991, Austin Kelly requested that the Kelly Fund be re-named the Kelly-Douglas Fund in honor of its first director.
Ironton Austin Kelly Richard M. Douglas
1996 - 2006
The Fund was subsequently piloted for five years by the historian Arthur Kaledin, and then for ten years (1996-2006) by the music historian, Lowell Lindgren, under whose tenure the basic policies of the Fund as it operates today were put into place. Professor Lindgren was the motivating force behind the undergraduate traveling fellowships; these were first awarded in 2000, following the silver anniversary of the Kelly-Douglas Fund.
Arthur Kaledin Lowell Lindgren
Current Director
The Current Director of the Kelly-Douglas Fund is Professor Shankar Raman of the Literature Section.
Shankar Raman, Director
Areas of Funding
The Fund divides its resources over three main areas:
1—Teaching and Research Support for teaching staff (primarily faculty and lecturers) and graduate students in HASS. The Fund helps teachers bring in guest lecturers, take students to see a performance, and so on. It assists graduate student research and development through partial support for travel to conferences, libraries, or other repositories of information centrally related to the student's research.
2—The I. Austin Kelly III Essay Prizes recognize excellence in humanistic scholarship by MIT undergraduates.
3—Traveling Fellowships are awarded to MIT undergraduates who intend to pursue HASS-related or humanitarian projects during either IAP or the Summer.
Fund Administration
The Fund is housed in the Dean's Office in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Its activities are overseen by a Director appointed by the Dean and a Board consisting of HASS Faculty selected by the Fund's Director. The current Director of the Kelly-Douglas Fund is Professor Shankar Raman of the Literature Section.
Enquiries concerning applying to the Fund should be directed in the first instance to the Director; for queries about the disbursement of funds, please contact the Administrator. The current Board Members are: Professors Arthur Bahr (Literature), Patricia Tang (Music), William Broadhead (History), and Stefan Helmreich (Anthropology).
Contact Us
Please read the relevant portions of the Kelly Douglas web pages (including the FAQs) carefully before contacting the Fund Administrators. All queries regarding application procedures or of a general nature should be addressed to:
Professor Shankar Raman | Director
Attn: Kelly-Douglas Fund
Room 14N-433
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02139
Email: sram@MIT.EDU
Tel: 617-253-8873
Questions about the status of application or the disbursement of funds should be directed to the Administrator:
Kelly-Douglas Fund Administrator
14N-405 Literature Headquarters MIT
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge MA 02139
Email: kellydouglasfund@mit.edu
Tel: 617-253-3581
Should the Director or the Administrator not be available, please email one of the Board Members listed below:
Professor Arthur Bahr, Literature
Professor Stefan Helmreich, Anthropology
Professor Patricia Tang, Music
Professor William Broadhead, History