2026-27 MLA Pathways Step Grants (Humanities and Social Sciences | USA and Canada)

Made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Modern Language Association’s initiative, MLA Pathways: Recruitment, Retention, and Career Readiness, equips departments and programs focused on the study of literature, language, writing, culture, area studies, and related disciplines with the tools, networks, knowledge, and resources to help undergraduate students find success throughout their education and after graduation. The core goal of the Pathways program is to enable the creation of new structures of support, at the program, campus, and regional levels, with the aim of opening the study of languages and literatures to as broad and varied a student population as possible—in order to allow for fuller, more equitable participation in humanities study and the postgraduate opportunities it creates. 

As part of the Pathways initiative, the MLA is offering step grants of up to $10,000 for a twelve-month period. These grants are intended to support individual faculty members or small, local teams developing ways to improve the recruitment, retention, or career readiness of undergraduate students.