American Council of Learned Societies
/OVERVIEW: The American Council of Learned Societies awards grants and fellowships in the humanities, interpretive social sciences and, to a lesser extent, journalism. Programs have increasingly emphasized inclusion and racial justice in recent years.
IP TAKE: The American Council of Learned Societies is a major source of grants and fellowships for scholars in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. This venerable organization has, however, recently broadened its purview. New iterations of older programs encourage interdisciplinary work, inclusion, journalism and public outreach.
This is an accessible and transparent funder. Each program provides detailed information about its application process, and staff members are reachable via phone and email. Sign up for the ACLS newsletter to keep up with new opportunities and program updates.
PROFILE: Based in New York City, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) was founded in 1919, when representatives from ten scholarly organizations came together to form “an organization that would represent American scholarship abroad while also tackling critical issues affecting the humanities at home.” Today, the council is comprised of 80 member societies and maintains the mission of supporting “the creation and circulation of knowledge that advances understanding of humanity and human endeavors in the past, present, and future, with a view toward improving human experience.”
In addition to numerous fellowship and grants programs that span the areas of higher education, humanities research and social justice, ACLS serves as a hub for networking, advocacy and events on scholarship and higher education.
It also produces publications on issues in higher education, academic research, public engagement and more.
Grants for Higher Education, Humanities Research, Racial Justice and Journalism
ACLS’s fellowship and grant programs support “individual scholars and scholarly teams around the world in their pursuit of research that advances knowledge in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.” The overarching goal of these programs is to “to meet the needs of an ever-changing academy and meet new challenges faced by scholars, whether early-career, independent, established educators, those working within the administrative ranks, and those forging paths in public-facing research.” While some programs run for several years, others appear to change more frequently; grantseekers should sign up for the ACLS newsletter to keep up with new opportunities. Current offerings include the following:
The ACLS Fellowship Program “supports outstanding scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.” Fellowships target “untenured scholars who have earned the Ph.D. within eight years of the application deadline.”
These fellowships provide grants of up to $60,000 to more than 50 fellows each year. ACLS typically provides webinars on the application process each spring, with applications due in late September each year.
All applicants are automatically considered for several “additional opportunities” which may change each year but have included awards for English and American literature, Chinese history, music studies, ancient American art and culture and more.
The program provides an FAQ page, as well as profiles of recent recipients.
Digital Justice Grants “provide resources for projects at various stages of development that diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and/or contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues.” These grants prioritize “projects that engage with the interests and histories of people of color and other historically marginalized communities.”
The ACLS offers Seed Grants of amounts ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 to early-stage projects.
Development Grants offer $50,000 to $100,000 to organizations or projects that have moved beyond the startup phase.
The program has posted webinars and the fall and accepted applications with due dates in mid December in past years. See the programs FAQ for additional information.
HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grants support “the work of faculty at HBCUs by providing awards that attend to the specific teaching, research, and service contexts of their institutions.”
The program awards Project Grants of up to $10,000 for research project development and Faculty Fellowships of up to $50,000 to support “time and engagement with a significant research project, with an award term of 15 to 27 months.”
To learn more about the application process, attend a webinar or virtual “office hours,” usually held in October.
This program also works with applicants by providing “feedback on draft applications” to early submissions.
Final applications are typically due in early November. See the program’s FAQ for additional information.
The Leading Edge Fellowship Program, funded by the Mellon Foundation, works to “demonstrate the potential of humanistic knowledge and methods to solve problems, build capacity, and advance social justice and equity.” Grants support “recent PhDs in the humanities and interpretive social sciences as they work with social justice organizations in communities across the United States.”
The two-year fellowship provides $70,000 a year, plus health insurance, professional development opportunities and $5,000 in relocation funds.
Webinars about the application process are held in February and March, and applications are generally due in mid-March.
The program provides information about host organizations and positions, as well as an FAQ about the application and selection process
The ACLS Open Access Book Prize and the Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award programs are conducted with support from the Arcadia charitable fund and were established to “generate enthusiasm and prestige for this new mode of publication among humanistic scholars.” The two awards recognize “two open access monographs” with “dual awards.”
The $20,000 Book Prizes goes to the authors of the winning books, and $30,000 Publishing Awards support the publishers of these books, with the intention of supporting “forthcoming books that would not otherwise be published open access.”
This program was launched and accepted applications in 2023 for books published between the years of 2017 and 2022. It is unclear if the council intends to run this program annually.
Check the program’s competition and FAQ pages for updates and additional information.
Run in collaboration with the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Fellowships for Research on the Liberal Arts is a new program that “provides funding and data training for up to five scholarly projects that draw upon the newly available College and Beyond II (CBII) database.” The first of its kind, the database contains information about more than one million liberal arts students and “outcomes ten years after college completion.”
Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art are funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and administered by ACLS. These fellowships support “support graduate students in any stage of Ph.D. dissertation research or writing for scholarship on a topic in the history of the visual arts of the United States, including all facets of Native American art.”
Past fellows include “some of the nation’s most distinguished college and university faculty, museum curators, and leaders in the cultural sector.”
These one-year awards are given in the amount of $38,000 with a $4,000 allowance for travel and research.
A webinar about the application process is posted on the program’s competition page, and additional information is available in the FAQ.
Another collaboration with the Henry Luce Foundation, the Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies has recently been “re-imagined […] to meet the needs of China studies in the 21st century.” Changes to the program include support for a broader range of methodologies, disciplines and approaches, as well as increased support for collaborative work and projects that “inform public understanding of cultures, histories, and societies in China and their influence and impact on communities, countries, and cultures around the world.”
This program awards Flexible Fellowships in amounts of $15,000 to “recent Ph.D.s (without tenure and within eight years of the Ph.D.) with heavy teaching and service responsibilities to carry out research and writing towards a significant scholarly product.”
Long-Term Fellowships in amounts ranging from $20,000 to $45,000 to enable recent doctoral graduates “to take leave from university responsibilities for four to nine months to carry out research and writing towards a significant scholarly product.”
Due dates have typically fallen in November, and additional information is available at the program’s FAQ.
The Luce/ACLS Program in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs works to deepen “public understanding of religion by advancing innovative scholarship on religion in international contexts and by equipping individual scholars and institutions of higher education with the capacities to connect their work to journalism and the media and to engage audiences beyond the academy.”
This program’s current grants to “U.S.-based accredited institutions of higher education with strengths in the study of religion, journalism, and media to pursue programs that catalyze interdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations.”
It is unclear if this program will continue in this direction past 2023, but applications have typically been accepted with a due dates falling in February.
See the grant competition page for additional details and updated opportunities.
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships “support emerging scholars as they pursue bold and innovative research in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.” The goal of this new program is to “expand the range of research methodologies, formats, and areas of inquiry traditionally considered suitable for the dissertation, with a particular focus on supporting scholars who can build a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable academy.”
This program awards one-year fellowships of $40,000, an additional $8,000 “for project-related research, training, development, and travel costs” and $2,000 for “external mentorship.”
Prospective fellows should check the competition and FAQ pages for updates to this program.
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies, established in 2014, “promotes the academic study of Buddhism and the dissemination of knowledge of Buddhism” by supporting “dissertations, research and writing” as well as the establishment of new professorships and symposia. This program is global in scope, and the program “encourages scholars affiliated with universities and monastic institutions in Asia to apply.” The program awards five separate types of grants.
Buddhism Public Scholars grants support recent PhDs whose work will “bolster the capacity of host institutions in the area of Buddhist art and thought in any tradition and location where Buddhism is practiced.”
Dissertation Fellowships are awarded to PhD candidates in Buddhist studies or other relevant disciplines with $30,000 stipends for full time research and writing. This program is also global in scope, and due dates have fallen in late November.
Early Career Research Fellowships consist of $70,000 stipends for “pre-tenure scholars” and aim to provide “time free from teaching and other responsibilities to concentrate on research and writing for the project proposed.” Applications have typically been due in late November.
Funding for New Professorships consists of “multi-year grants to colleges and universities wishing to establish or expand teaching in Buddhist Studies.”
Finally, Translation Grants “support translations of important Buddhist texts for the benefit of contemporary audiences (e.g., communities of scholarship and Buddhist practice) who currently do not have access to them in their own languages.”
For additional information about any of the above Ho Family Foundation grant opportunities, see the program’s FAQ page.
ACLS’s Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe is conducted in partnership with the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS) and annually hosts “scholars working in any field or discipline in the humanities or interpretive social sciences pursuing postdoctoral or advanced research in East Central and Southeastern Europe, including Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.”
The program is a two-week residency that involves “time and space to dedicate to their own research and writing in a collaborative and interdisciplinary setting” as well as a convening of “leading scholars from Eastern Europe and North America.”
There are no citizenship restrictions for applicants, although the program requires that applicants have either a Ph.D., evidence of completion in the near future or “the equivalent of the Ph.D. in publications and professional experience.”
See the program’s competition and FAQ pages for additional information.
Important Grant Details:
ACLS’s grants and fellowships are awarded in amounts set by individual programs. Grants and fellowships to individual scholars generally do not exceed $100,000, but grants to institutions may be larger.
This funder tends to work collaboratively with foundation’s to support scholars and scholarly projects in the areas of humanities, interpretive social sciences and journalism.
Recent funding has emphasized social and racial justice and the promotion of diversity and inclusion in academia.
While most programs run open application programs, eligibility requirements, guidelines and due dates vary significantly by program. Materials should be submitted through the application portal.
For information about past grants and fellows, see the recent awardees page.
Sign up for ACLS’s newsletter to keep up with new and recurring opportunities.
Phone numbers and email addresses for staff members are provided on the website, making this an accessible funder.
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