Knox College has received a major faculty development grant of $400,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which will have significant impacts for both faculty and students, inside and outside the classroom.

The grant will be distributed in individual awards to Knox faculty over the next three years. Faculty members will explore new methods and technologies for classroom teaching, and develop new interdisciplinary courses and collaborative programs for research and creative work outside of class.

"Knox has a highly diverse and talented student body, and this grant will enable faculty to make use of innovative and effective teaching methods and technologies," said Laura Behling, Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. "The grant also builds on interests shown by Knox faculty and students in interdisciplinary collaborations and new directions in intellectual inquiry."

Since 1970, Knox has received ten grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation totaling more than $1.8 million.

"The Mellon Foundation has been very supportive of Knox, and this award further strengthens the commitment," Behling said. "Knox faculty are engaged and innovative thinkers, about their teaching and their own scholarship, and this support will allow them to continue to advance their effectiveness in student learning.

"The grant also indicates the confidence the Foundation has in Knox, and the commitment to students our faculty continually show through engaged scholarship and teaching."

The grant, awarded under Mellon's Faculty Career Enhancement program, expands on an earlier grant of $400,000 that Knox received in 2009, which supported nearly 200 research and teaching projects undertaken by 76 faculty members. To award the individual grants, Knox developed its own peer-review process, in which proposals were evaluated by a panel of faculty and administrators.