UCI anthropology graduate student Sean Mallin is UCI’s sole recipient of a competitive American Council of Learned Societies’ Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship. Made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program awards advanced graduate students in the social sciences and humanities with funding for their final year of dissertation writing. The 2015 cohort includes scholars from USC, Johns Hopkins, Princeton and Columbia as well as other prestigious institutions.

Mallin’s dissertation, which examines disaster recovery in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, specifically addresses plans for the tens of thousands of vacant properties in the city. Over the last eight years he has worked with residents, neighborhood associations, and urban planners in New Orleans to understand the social and economic impact of these properties on the city’s rebuilding efforts. He hopes that his research will have an even broader impact in the future by contributing to discussions about urban revitalization in other cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia and Detroit.

Mallin will receive a $30,000 stipend, with potential for up to $3,000 for research costs and $5,000 for tuition and fees.