ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grants

The ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grant program support research projects that address topics in the humanities or social sciences and/or teaching and learning in those disciplines. In order for social science applications to be eligible, they must employ predominantly humanistic approaches and qualitative/interpretive methodologies. The ultimate goal(s) of the project can include scholarly articles, book chapters, or a monograph; course plans; textbooks; exhibitions; community or campus events; online resources; etc. Competitive projects will include substantive original research. 

This program does not fund creative work or projects in the performing arts (e.g., novels, films, performance, or musical composition) unless the projects also involve substantial engagement with humanistic scholarship. The program also does not fund social science research that involves predominantly quantitative and/or experimental methods. 

This program funds both academic research that aims to make original contributions to knowledge within humanities fields and projects that engage in scholarly inquiry in hte interest of incorporating research into student learning and the practice of teaching. If the project addresses teaching and learning, it must focus on a postsecondary context. Projects that focus on teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms are not eligible. Similarly, if the project outcomes are curricula, course plans, textbooks, or other teaching-related material, these must be for use in a higher education setting and not in K-12 classrooms. 

Our application process requests that individual scholars apply and be named as the fellow or grantee. However, the program welcomes applications that involve collaboration.  As long as the other eligibility and application requirements are met, applicants may designate portions of the award stipend to support collaborative activity. In such cases, it is important that the applicant clearly outline in the proposal, budget, and timeline what roles collaborators will play in the funded project.

Yes, an applicant may apply to both the fellowship and project grant competition. However, the same project cannot be submitted for both competitions; applicants may not accept more than one award in a given competition year. 

Yes, an applicant for an ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship or Project Grant may also apply to other ACLS fellowship and grant programs (such as our central ACLS Fellowship program, or our Digital Justice Grant program, or our Luce/ACLS China Studies programs, etc.) as are suitable. However, not more than one ACLS or ACLS-joint award may normally be accepted in any one competition year. 

Yes, you may apply if you have an MS in an eligible interpretive social science field.  

A Doctor of Education degree is not on its own an eligible degree for this program. If you hold an EdD, you may still be eligible if you satisfy the following two criteria:

1. most of the courses you teach are in the humanities or related social sciences, and
2. your project employs predominantly humanistic approaches and contributes to the humanities or the humanistic social sciences.

If you feel that you satisfy these criteria, please email [email protected] with your name, institution, department, degree, a list of recent courses you have taught in the humanities and/or social sciences, and a brief description of your project.

If these funds will be used toward course buyouts, please indicate that in the budget and include the cost per course. If these funds will simply be compensating you for your time (e.g., to cover summer salary, to replace courses you might usually teach over the summer, or to supplement a reduced course load if you are not full-time), please indicate that amount in the budget. For the fellowship, awardees must take the equivalent of four course releases over the 15–27-month award term. You have flexibility in how this time is structured: a series of course releases, replacement salary for two summers, a semester’s leave, or some combination of these elements. For the grant, awardees are not required to include any course releases or salary replacement in their budgets; however, grant monies may be used for this purpose as well.

If you have budget questions specific to your project, please drop by one of our upcoming office hours. You can also email [email protected] with any questions.

While the fellowships and grants are awarded to an individual, ACLS can arrange payment through the awardee’s institution upon request. However, institutions may not deduct funds for overhead or indirect costs from the individual’s fellowship or grant. For more information, review Information for Institutional Administrators.

Each award comes with an additional grant of $2,500 to the awardee’s home institution to support humanities programming or infrastructure. However, ACLS fellowship and grant stipends do not cover overhead or indirect costs. A portion of the stipend for this program may cover direct costs of the proposed fellowship activities. One example of this would be the instructor replacement cost to the institution if the applicant proposes being released from teaching responsibilities. Other examples, depending on the activities, may include office expenses, equipment and room rental fees, or staff time. No more than 20 percent of the stipend may be used to defray the costs of the award for the institution. Please email [email protected] if you have questions about whether any specific direct costs would qualify.