Nolan Awarded Prestigious New Directions Fellowship for Cross-Disciplinary Research
Rachel Nolan, Assistant Professor of International History at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, has been awarded a prestigious New Directions Fellowship from the Mellon Foundation. The foundation has approved a substantial grant to Boston University to support Professor Nolan’s cross-disciplinary research over a period of three years.
“This is a marvelous recognition of her work and investment in her future research,” said Scott Taylor, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies.
A historian of modern Latin America, Professor Nolan’s research examines political violence, Central American civil wars, childhood and the family, historical memory, and U.S.-Latin American relations. Through archival work and interviews, she explores the lasting impacts of political violence, particularly on families and children. This fellowship will provide her with the opportunity to gain formal training in both immigration law and K’iche’ language and culture, further enriching her cross-disciplinary research.
The fellowship follows the January 2024 publication of her first book, Until I Find You: Disappeared Children and Coercive Adoptions from Guatemala (Harvard University Press). The book delves into Guatemala’s adoption industry, revealing a system built on inequality, war, and Indigenous dispossession. Nolan is currently working on a second book on deportation histories in Latin America, supported by a Russell Sage Foundation research grant.
The New Directions Fellowship program prioritizes scholars whose work addresses contemporary issues or that seek to expand narratives in the history of the Americas—an emphasis that aligns closely with Nolan’s research.
“After spending over a decade back and forth to Guatemala, I have always wanted to study the K’iche’ language as well as read more deeply in Indigenous history. I never dreamed that I would have this kind of opportunity to do so in depth,” says Professor Nolan. “Given the history I’m studying as well as the events unfolding here and in Central America every day, it also seems wise to have a more rigorous understanding of immigration law.”
In addition to her scholarship, Professor Nolan writes expert witness reports on behalf of asylum-seekers in the U.S. Several years ago, she wrote a story for The New Yorker on the additional barriers to asylum faced by Mayan language speakers.
Professor Nolan was notified of her selection for the fellowship in February 2025. The award will support a year of dedicated study outside her current expertise in Latin American history, two summers of additional research funding, and tuition and course fees related to her training.
According to the Mellon Foundation, “This fellowship does not aim to facilitate short-term outcomes, such as completion of a book. Rather, it is a longer-term investment in the scholar’s intellectual range and productivity.”
Professor Nolan’s academic and professional credentials make her an outstanding recipient of this honor. Before entering academia, she worked as a journalist, contributing to The New Yorker, The New York Times, London Review of Books, New York Review of Books, and El Faro. She is currently a Contributing Editor at Harper’s Magazine. She holds a doctorate in Latin American and Caribbean History from New York University (2018) and a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard University. Her research has previously been supported by other organizations including the Russell Sage Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Fulbright, and the Social Science Research Council.
To learn more about Professor Rachel Nolan’s work and achievements, visit her faculty profile.