Becca Hamilton and Chelsea Kai Roesch receive prestigious national funding to pursue unconventional humanities research.
Ph.D. candidates Becca Hamilton (left) and Chelsea Kai Roesch (right) have been named 2026 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellows.
Two UC Santa Barbara doctoral students have been named 2026 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellows, securing prestigious national funding to support creative and unconventional approaches to humanities research.
Becca Hamilton, a doctoral student in the Department of English, and Chelsea Kai Roesch, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Film and Media Studies, join a cohort of 50 scholars selected nationwide by the American Council of Learned Societies.
Becca Hamilton
Hamilton will use the fellowship to expand her research through laboratory-based experimentation with microbial life connected to 19th-century literary study.
"Though I'm a Ph.D. student in the English department here at UCSB, I come from a bit of an unconventional background — I left school to train as an apprentice in a shipyard before going 'back' to do an undergraduate degree in English as a mature student at 23," Hamilton said. "The ACLS fellowship is a reminder to me that there doesn't have to be a conventional or predefined route into academia. I've always been curious about learning things outside of the typical scope of literary studies, so I'm really excited that the fellowship will encourage and foster this curiosity."
Chelsea Kai Roesch
Roesch will use the fellowship to support dissertation research at casinos in Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City and other gambling hubs worldwide.
"It is a tremendous honor to have been selected for this award, and I'm thrilled to join such an outstanding cohort of scholars," Roesch said. "The generous funding from the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship will allow me to devote my full attention to research. This award is a total game-changer for me in how it will accelerate my dissertation progress and expand the scope of my research."