The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

Overview

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowships in Buddhist Studies provide stipends to PhD students for full-time preparation of dissertations, at either the research or writing stage. The ten-month fellowship period may be used for fieldwork, archival research, analysis of findings, or writing after research is complete.

Fellowship Details

Stipend: $40,000
Fellowship Period: 10 consecutive months, starting between August 1, 2027, and September 30, 2027, devoting full time to the dissertation. No other employment is permitted during the fellowship period.
The stipend should be used for expenses associated with the fellowship work, not for tuition or other university fees. ACLS requests that home universities waive fees for fellows while allowing access to university facilities during the fellowship period. If university policy or regulations prevent the university from following this procedure, the university should be willing to negotiate with ACLS an alternative, mutually acceptable formula.
Completed applications must be submitted through the ACLS Online Fellowship Administration system no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time, October 28, 2026.
Result notifications will be sent via email in late Spring 2027.
All eligible applicants will be able to request reviewer feedback in late Spring 2027.

Additional Opportunities

The Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) is an international membership organization of interdisciplinary research centers with over 170 members and affiliates in 23 countries. Through a partnership between ACLS and CHCI, fellows have the opportunity to spend all or part of their fellowship terms in residence at selected CHCI member organizations. This is an optional enhancement to the award for fellows and does not require a separate application.  Further instructions will be provided to awardees.

Applicant Resources

In 2026-27, ACLS expects to offer an informational webinar covering the eligibility requirements, application components, and evaluation criteria for the Dissertation Fellowship. Information on when the webinar will be offered and how to register will be posted here once available.

Eligibility

Applicants must be a PhD student at an institution of higher education (college or university) anywhere in the world pursuing a dissertation focused on Buddhist history, literature, culture, or communities of practice.

Applicants must have completed all graduate-level classes, coursework requirements, and comprehensive exams and be ready to undertake full-time research and writing for a PhD dissertation by April 15, 2027. If you are at an institution that does not allow full-time dissertation research and writing during the PhD program, please contact us to confirm eligibility at [email protected].

- At the time of application, an institutional representative (e.g., department chair, director of graduate studies, dean) must confirm through the OFA system that you are or will be able to start full-time work on your dissertation. The institutional representative will be asked to fill out an online form instead of a reference letter.

The application must be written in English.

There are no restrictions on the location of work proposed or on your citizenship/residency status.

Work proposed must be in the humanities or social sciences and focus predominantly on Buddhist Studies. For the purpose of this competition, the field of Buddhist Studies is defined broadly to include, but is not limited to, disciplines such as history, philology, philosophy, anthropology, and religious studies. Projects may engage any Buddhist traditions and/or contemporary developments.

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.

Evaluation Criteria

ACLS and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global believe that Buddhist Studies benefits from inclusivity of voices, narratives, and subjects from around the world. We encourage applications from all eligible PhD students, and we value projects that demonstrate thoughtful engagement with communities and topics that have been historically underrepresented or under-studied in Buddhist Studies.

Peer reviewers are asked to take into consideration 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:

Significance of the topic and its potential contribution to Buddhist Studies. Does the project engage successfully with Buddhist Studies? How will the project make a meaningful contribution to current knowledge?

Quality of the project and proposal with regard to its methodology, scope, theoretical framework, and grounding in the relevant scholarly literature.

Feasibility of the project and plan of work according to the applicant’s academic background and experience.

Potential of the applicant’s career in and impact on Buddhist Studies, taking into account relative advantages and constraints on resources. Does the applicant’s experience and training reflect a commitment to Buddhist Studies?

Application Requirements

Applications must be submitted online and must include the following uploaded documents, formatted in Arial or Helvetica 11-point font with at least 1-inch margins on all sides.

A completed application form that includes basic biographical information and short-answer questions about your project.

An uploaded proposal (no more than five pages, double-spaced, including any footnotes or endnotes) detailing project context and goals, work already undertaken, and resources needed to complete your dissertation. The proposal should address the following points, using the italicized headings to label each section:
- Main Thesis: The principal argument or claim guiding the proposed research and writing.
- Research Questions: The background of the claim in more detail with a justification of the research focus and approach. What is already known about the topic and what more needs to be known?
- Literature and Sources: The proposed topic placed in the context of existing literature and potential new sources. How will the project extend, modify, or challenge existing scholarship?
- Methods: A detailed description of the methodology. How does this approach address the project’s research questions and main thesis?
- Significance: An explanation of the importance of the proposed work to central issues in Buddhist Studies, to other disciplines, and to humanities scholarship in general.

An uploaded work plan (no more than one page, single-spaced) describing the project timeline, including work in progress/already completed, tasks and activities during the fellowship period, and anticipated work to finish the dissertation. All applicants must use the work plan template provided by ACLS.

- Specify the individuals (mentors or interlocutors relevant to project), institutions, and/or sites to be visited, including archives, libraries, geographical sources, as well as proposed institutional affiliations relevant to your project.

An uploaded bibliography (no more than two pages, single-spaced with hanging indents) demonstrating relevant primary and secondary sources to be utilized in the proposed project.

An uploaded personal statement (no more than two pages, double-spaced) describing your journey as a scholar and how personal experience, scholarly influences, and broader research interests inform your proposed project.

An institutional statement submitted through the OFA system. An institutional representative (e.g., department chair, director of graduate studies, dean) must confirm that you have or will have completed all graduate-level classes, coursework requirements, and comprehensive exams, and will undertake full-time research or writing for your dissertation by April 15, 2027. Note that this is an online form, not a reference letter.