Career Enhancement Fellowship allows Colón to focus on research, book on climate justice

Sigma Colón, assistant professor of environmental studies and ethnic studies at Lawrence University, has been named one of 20 Career Enhancement Fellows for the 2024-25 academic year by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.

The Career Enhancement Fellowship, funded by the Mellon Foundation and administered by Citizens & Scholars, seeks to increase the presence of outstanding junior faculty committed to campus diversity and innovative research in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

Colón, on the Lawrence faculty since 2017 and promoted to a tenure-track position in 2021, will receive a one-year supplemental sabbatical stipend of $35,000 to allow her to complete a book of her research focused on the intersections of water, settler colonialism, race-based nationalism, and immigration, with an emphasis on how they impact climate justice.

“I am grateful to Citizens & Scholars for the time this fellowship gives me to dedicate to my research,” Colón said. “I appreciate the mentorship and sense of community it facilitates to support meaningful work and career advancement.”

The Career Enhancement Fellows’ research advances disciplines such as history, Chicana and Chicano studies, religious studies, gender and women’s studies, literature, African diaspora studies, and more. Beyond academic diversity, the 2024 Fellows come from an equally diverse range of institutions from across the country. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, Fellows are expanding perspectives within their disciplines and are committed to research and service that increases engagement and inclusion on campus.

Administered at Citizens & Scholars since 2001, the Career Enhancement Fellowship has supported more than 500 junior faculty members, creating a robust network of scholars committed to eradicating racial disparities in core fields in the arts and humanities.

Colón came to Lawrence via postdoctoral National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) fellowships in geography and history, then worked as a visiting assistant professor of environmental and ethnic studies before earning a tenure-track appointment three years ago. She teaches in both ethnic studies and environmental studies, developing courses that address the geopolitics of inequality and linking racial and environmental justice.

“As an interdisciplinary scholar, my teaching philosophy emphasizes teaching students to apply the knowledge and critical thinking skills they develop in my courses to problems that exist outside the classroom,” Colón said. “I do this by building supportive and inclusive learning environments that address structural inequalities and by empowering students to exercise ownership of their learning.”