ACLS Project Grants for HBCU Faculty

Grant Details

• Stipend: Up to $10,000 grants to be used for any activities that advance the proposed project, including (but not limited to) course releases, travel to collections or conferences, research and editorial support, and child- or eldercare support that enables project engagement.
• Tenure: 12-15 months, starting June 1, 2027, and concluding no later than August 31, 2028.
• Each project grant comes with an additional grant of $2,500 to the awardee’s home institution to support humanities programming or infrastructure.
• Applicants who advance to the finalist round of review but are ultimately unsuccessful will be invited to a proposal development workshop in summer 2027.
• Completed applications must be submitted through the ACLS online fellowship administration system (ofa.acls.org) no later than 5 PM Eastern Time, November 11, 2026.
• Notifications will be sent via email by end of March 2027.
• All eligible applicants will be able to request reviewer feedback.

Summary

The American Council of Learned Societies invites applications for the 2026-27 ACLS Project Grants for HBCU Faculty. The grants of up to $10,000 support early-stage project design as well as smaller-scale project development that can be completed within the 12- to 15-month award tenure. These grants may be used to complete exploratory research, advance an existing or established project to its next stage of development, and/or serve as a formative next step for future funding opportunities. In addition to the grant stipend, awardees will have access to networking and mentorship opportunities that align with their scholarly goals and institutional circumstances.

This fellowship opportunity is part of the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grants program, which offers both project grants and longer-term fellowships to HBCU faculty. Please review our program page for information about both award types and to determine which opportunity is right for your project.

Grant Award Outcomes

The applicant’s goal should be to pilot and/or substantially develop a research-grounded project during the term of the award. Possible project outcomes include, but are not limited to, contributions to the development of one or more of the following: monographs, scholarly articles, conference papers, book chapters, or book on a topic in the humanities or social sciences and/or teaching and learning in those disciplines; pedagogical tools that make meaningful connections between a scholar’s research and teaching; works that bridge scholarly and creative practice; and community-engaged projects grounded in scholarly research but geared toward a public audience.

The examples above are by no means exhaustive. ACLS seeks to advance diverse forms of research as well as innovative forms and modes of publication. The program welcomes digital, collaborative, and publicly and community-engaged approaches to scholarship. The program also welcomes proposals from HBCU faculty that engage with scholars from other institutions, disciplines, or organizations outside of the academy.

Projects with pedagogical or curricular outcomes must focus on a postsecondary context. Projects focused on teaching and learning in a K-12 setting are not appropriate for this program. Community and/or student engagement with the research project is encouraged, as is the dissemination of the research to audiences across higher education.

Use of Grant Funds

The strongest applications will show evidence of thoughtful plans for engaging the sources, resources, scholars, and communities – on campus or off – necessary to advance their projects.

Grantees might use grant funds for:

• Funds for research (e.g., train research assistants, pay research participants, learn new methods, travel to libraries and archives, pay for reproductions).
• Support to integrate research and pedagogy/teaching and learning, such as action research projects or Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the classroom.
• Travel costs and registration fees for research and conferences; costs associated with organizing a workshop or event related to the project.
• Course releases.
• Writing and editorial assistant to advance work to publication, or other fees related to publication or dissemination of research.
• Collaborations across institutions, both among HBCUs and other universities.
• Interdisciplinary collaborations with colleagues across fields with similar research agendas.
• Support for civic engagement and/or social justice work with surrounding communities.

We understand that no two projects require the same type of support and, as such, this list is by no means comprehensive. Applicants are encouraged to think about the specific needs of their project, as well as the roadblocks to project outcomes. Award funds may be used for anything that is necessary to advance the project.

Application Resources

ACLS offers the following support for HBCU faculty who are interested in these fellowship and grant opportunities. Please sign up to receive notifications as new opportunities for support are announced.

• Watch a recorded webinar detailing this year’s competition guidelines and application tips (recording will be available in late July).
• Attend virtual office hours with program staff (click on a date below to sign up):
  Thursday, July 30th (12:00om-1:00pm Eastern)
  Friday, August 21 (11:00am-12:00pm Eastern)
  Wednesday, September 16 (4:00pm-5:00pm Eastern)
  Tuesday, October 13 (10:00am-11:00am Eastern)
  Monday, November 2 (2:00pm-3:00pm Eastern)
• Receive feedback on a draft application: ACLS will provide feedback on draft applications (complete or incomplete drafts of proposals, workplans, and budgets) submitted by August 31, 2026. Unfortunately, we cannot provide feedback on drafts received after this date. Submit a draft application through our online portal. 
• Email [email protected] with any questions!

ACLS welcomes applications from all eligible HBCU faculty, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, age, or any other aspect of identity.

Applicants must:

• Be employed primarily as instructors at an institution designated as an Historically Black College or University. (Please consult this list to determine whether your institution is eligible.) Applicants do not need to be appointed full time and do not need to be on the tenure track. Part-time and adjunct instructors are welcome to apply. All awardees must remain employed at an accredited HBCU for the duration of the award term.
• Have an MA or PhD in the humanities or related social sciences that was conferred by the application deadline.
• Agree to take part in occasional networking, project development, and mentorship events during the award term.

Projects must:

• Address a topic in the humanities or social sciences and/or teaching and learning in those disciplines in a higher education setting.
• Employ predominantly humanistic approaches and qualitative/interpretive methodologies.
• Include original scholarly research.

ACLS believes that humanistic scholarship benefits from inclusivity of voices, narratives, and subjects that have historically been underrepresented or under-studied in academia. We encourage applications from all eligible faculty, and we value projects that demonstrate thoughtful engagement with communities and topics that have been historically underrepresented or under-studied in the academy. ACLS values projects that expand the range of scholarly perspectives and methodologies, and that are responsive to a wide array of human experiences, cultures, and histories. We also believe that institutional diversity enhances the scholarly enterprise, and we encourage applications from all types of institutions represented among HBCUs, including both two-year and four-year degree-granting institutions.

Peer reviewers are asked to be mindful of ACLS’s commitment to inclusive excellence, understood as the pursuit of academic excellence enriched by a plurality of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, and the broadening of humanistic inquiry to encompass a wide array of topics, methodologies, and communities.

Reviewers in this program are asked to evaluate all eligible proposals on the following criteria:

• The potential of the project to engage successfully with the field or fields of study in which it is proposed and make a meaningful contribution to scholarship, teaching and learning, and/or public understanding.
• The quality of the proposal with regard to its methodology, scope, workplan, and clarity of expression.
• The feasibility of the project, including the proposed timeline and budget.
• The appropriateness of the proposed project for the type of funding sought, as it relates to the program’s mission, project scope and/or stage of development.
• An applicant’s record of institutional, professional, and community service, taking into account relative advantages and resource constraints for the proposed project and over the course of the applicant’s career.

Applications must be submitted online and must include the components listed below. All uploads must have margins of one inch on all sides, formatted in Arial or Helvetica 11-point font. Applicants may use any standard citation style in their proposal narrative, although citations (footnotes or endnotes) are included in the page count. While text in the body of the proposal must be double spaced and in 11-point Arial or Helvetica font, footnotes may be in 10-point font and single spaced. Applications that do not adhere to stated formatting guidelines will be excluded from review.

• • Completed application form (this includes basic biographical information, as well as short-answer questions about your project, teaching and service responsibilities, and career trajectory).

• • Proposal detailing the project’s research base and goals; work already undertaken (if any); and resources needed to complete the project (no more than two pages double spaced including any footnotes or endnotes).

• • Optional: Up to one page of images or figures, if needed.

• • A brief personal statement describing your journey as a scholar and how personal experience, scholarly influences, and broader research interests inform your proposed project (one page, double spaced).

• • A bibliography (one page, single spaced, with separate sections detailing primary sources – if applicable – and secondary literature).

• • A one-page workplan detailing work to be conducted during award tenure. (Please review the suggested guidelines for this application component.)
  • A basic budget. (ACLS provides a sample template for reference.)
  • Contact information for a department chair, dean, or other senior administrator at the applicant’s institution who can confirm institutional support for the applicant’s project as outlined in the proposal, including any proposed course release/s or research leave. ACLS will only reach out to the designated institutional contact if the applicant makes it through eligibility and formatting checks.

Applicants are encouraged to draw on application resources, such as webinars and informational sessions.

AI Guidelines

Applicants may use AI tools such as Claude or ChatGPT to write their application. However, it is the responsibility of the named applicant to ensure that all content in their proposal is factual and that they have properly acknowledged and referenced all sources. As the applicant, you are responsible for any errors, omissions, hallucinations, or acts of plagiarism in your application. We encourage you to indicate in your application where and how you used AI assistance for full transparency.

Find answers to common questions about this competition.

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Please email us at [email protected] with program-related questions.