UCLA Social Sciences
Two doctoral students, Chiara Di Leone and Benjamin Schneider, from UCLA’s Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History have been awarded the 2026 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship.
The winning students are among 50 graduate students selected from a pool of over 1,000 applicants through a rigorous, multi-stage peer review process that drew on the expertise of more than 170 scholars across the country. Each fellow will receive an award of up to $52,000.
Generously supported by the Mellon Foundation and administered by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the program supports doctoral students as they pursue innovative approaches to dissertation research, including new methodologies, formats and collaborations with community partners beyond the academy.
“The 2026 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellows present some of the most exciting and forward-thinking scholarships happening today in the humanities and social sciences,” said Alison Chang, ACLS Senior Program Officer in US Programs. “ACLS is proud to support their scholarship, and we look forward to following their impact in the academy and beyond.”
“We’re very proud of Chiara and Ben, two outstanding students in our excellent history graduate program, and grateful for the support of the distinguished Mellon/ACLS program,” said Kevin Terraciano, Robert N. Burr Endowed History Department Chair and professor. “Both students employ careful historical methods to address important subjects such as climate change and ecology, public health and medicine. Their projects advance the Luskin Department of History’s mission to promote original research on compelling issues of historical and contemporary significance.”
ACLS launched the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship Program in 2023 to expand and recognize a wider range of research methods, modes and subjects in dissertation research.
The 2026 awardees will pursue a range of approaches to the dissertation, incorporating trans- and inter-disciplinary research, mixed methodologies and non-traditional scholarly formats. Descriptions of their projects can be found below.
Chiara Di Leone, second-year, History PhD Student
Dissertation Title: Re-running Utopia: the Latin American World Model (1976) and the Global Politics of the Future
Di Leone’s research explores the emergence of climate modeling in the long 20th century. She focuses on the 1970s boom in “world models” – from the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth to alternative simulations emerging from Latin American cybernetics – to show how modeling tools reshaped debates on ecology, development and political futures across the Atlantic. Learn more: https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/chiara-di-leone/
Ben Schneider, second-year, MD/History PhD Student
Dissertation Title: Building Health, Restricting Care: Hospital Expansion in Los Angeles, 1965-1991
Schneider’s research explores the history of hospitals in Los Angeles County between the 1960s and 1990s through the lens of hospital expansion. The project combines interdisciplinary social science work in the history of medicine, sociology of health, and health policy with biomedical analysis through dual-degree MD/PhD training. In addition to historical research, the project includes collaborative teaching with community activist groups in public settings to advance health justice in Los Angeles. Learn more: https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/ben-schneider/