ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships: Empowering Research and Scholarship at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) offers the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grant Program, designed to support faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This initiative recognizes the vital role HBCUs play in higher education and their distinguished contributions to the academic humanities and interpretive social sciences. The program aims to address the specific teaching, research, and service contexts of these institutions by providing targeted awards.

Overview of the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships

The ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships provide financial support to faculty members at HBCUs to advance their research projects. The fellowships range from $30,000 to $50,000, tailored to the applicant's proposed budget. These funds are intended to facilitate sustained engagement with research, whether through semester or year-long leave, a series of course releases, or summer salary for research between semesters.

The ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grant Program also offers project grants to HBCU faculty. It is important to review the program page for information about both award types and to determine which opportunity is right for your project. The applicant’s goal should be to substantially advance a research-grounded project during the term of the award.

Goals and Outcomes

The primary goal of the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships is to enable scholars to substantially advance their research projects. Possible project outcomes may include:

Monographs
Scholarly articles
Conference papers
Book chapters
Books on topics 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
Creative works and community-engaged projects grounded in scholarly research but geared toward a public audience

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. ACLS seeks to advance diverse forms of research as well as innovative forms and modes of publication. The program welcomes digital and publicly and community-engaged approaches to scholarship.

Read also: Funding Your Academic Research

The ACLS also offers 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. The applicant’s goal should be to pilot and/or substantially develop a research-grounded project during the term of the award.

Types of Support Offered

The fellowship provides flexible support, including:

Semester- or year-long research leave
Course releases for research time
Summer salary to support full-time research during that period

Applicants are encouraged to think about the specific needs of their project, as well as the roadblocks to project outcomes.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships, applicants must:

Be employed primarily as instructors at an institution designated as an Historically Black College or University.
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.
Commit to research leave of at least four course releases (or their equivalent, such as a semester or two summer research leave), or more, over the course of the award term.
Have an MA or PhD in the humanities or related social sciences that was conferred by the application deadline.

All awardees must remain employed at an accredited HBCU for the duration of the award term. ACLS encourages award recipients to work with their institutions to leverage the funds to support their research leaves to their fullest extent. Agree to take part in occasional networking, project development, and mentorship events during the course of the award term.

Project Requirements

Projects submitted for the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships 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.
Incorporate original scholarly research, regardless of the final product.
Incorporate in their project budgets, at minimum, four course releases (across the entire grant term), or two consecutive summers of research time, or a semester-length research leave. (ACLS provides a budget template for reference.)

Application Process

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. Applicant may use any standard citation style in their proposal narrative, although citations (footnotes or endnotes) are included in the page count. Applicants that do not adhere to stated formatting guidelines will be excluded from review.

The application typically includes the following components:

Completed application form: This includes basic biographical information, as well as short-answer questions describing your project, teaching and service responsibilities, and institutional context.
A brief personal statement: Describe your journey as a scholar and how personal experience, scholarly influences, and broader research interests inform your proposed project (one page, double spaced).
Proposal: Detail project context and goals, work already undertaken, and resources needed to complete project (no more than five pages, double spaced, including any footnotes or endnotes, and any images).
Bibliography: A bibliography of up to two pages (single spaced, with separate sections detailing primary sources - if applicable - and secondary literature).
Workplan: A one-page workplan detailing work to be conducted during award tenure.
Basic budget: A basic budget.

No reference letters or institutional statements of support are required as part of the initial application. If selected for an award, provisional awardees will be asked to submit institutional certification pledging that the applicant will be permitted to carry out the work outlined in the proposal.

ACLS's Commitment to Inclusive Excellence

ACLS is committed to inclusive excellence, which they define as the pursuit of academic excellence enriched by a plurality of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. They welcome and encourage applications from all eligible scholars, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, age, or any aspect of identity. They also encourage applications from scholars across the range of academic institutions and beyond.

For ACLS, inclusive excellence means that humanistic scholarship benefits from a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. ACLS believes academic excellence is best achieved when all individuals have the opportunity to contribute fully to the scholarly community. They are especially interested in supporting scholars who hail from diverse institutions and groups that are underrepresented in the academy. However, all applications are evaluated on their individual scholarly merit, the originality and significance of the proposed project, and the applicant’s record of achievement, without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, or any other protected characteristic. The quality and innovativeness of the proposal with regard to its methodology, scope, theoretical framework, and grounding in the relevant scholarly literature.

Additional Opportunities and Named Fellowships

ACLS Project Development Grants support projects from faculty at teaching-intensive institutions such as HBCUs, regional comprehensives, and community colleges. Applicants from these institutions who are not selected for fellowships, but present particularly promising proposals, may be awarded a grant of $5,000 to help advance their projects. Project Development Grants do not require a separate application.

Several named fellowships are awarded to selected applicants from within the ACLS Fellowship program, without requiring a separate application. These include:

ACLS Carl and Betty Pforzheimer Fellowships in English and American Literature: For scholars pursuing research on Anglophone literature from any period.
ACLS Frederic E. Wakeman, Jr. Fellowships in Chinese History: For scholars pursuing research on Chinese history, in particular modern Chinese history after 1912.
ACLS H. and T. ACLS/Marwan M. and Ute Kraidy Centennial Fellowship in the Study of the Arab World and Latin America: For scholars pursuing research in any field of the humanities and interpretive social sciences on the Arab and or Latin American worlds, with a special interest in supporting comparative or transnational approaches across these spheres. Established by ACLS Board Member Marwan M.
ACLS Morton N. Cohen and Richard N. Swift Fellowship: For scholars pursuing research in the humanities.
ACLS Oscar Handlin Fellowships in American History: For scholars pursuing archival research on American history.
ACLS Pauline Yu Fellowships in Chinese or Comparative Literature: For scholars pursuing research in Chinese and/or comparative literature.
ACLS Susan McClary and Robert Walser Fellowships in Music Studies: For scholars pursuing research in any area of musicology.

Residential Fellowship Opportunities

Through a partnership with the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), ACLS fellows have the opportunity to spend all or part of their fellowship terms in residence at selected CHCI member organizations.

ACLS may also award residential fellowships in conjunction with The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. This opportunity does require a separate application. The Center provides opportunities for fellows to explore the rich, diverse collections in the NYPL’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas among fellows, invited guests, the wider academic and cultural communities, and the interested public. The stipend for ACLS/NYPL fellowships will be $90,000. ACLS/NYPL fellowships are subfellowships within the ACLS Fellowship program; they have the same eligibility requirements, application form, and schedule. Applicants for ACLS/NYPL residential fellowships must also apply to the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the NYPL.

Guidance for Applicants

ACLS offers support for HBCU faculty interested in these fellowship and grant opportunities. ACLS will provide feedback on draft applications (complete or incomplete drafts of proposals, workplans, and budgets).

Concurrent Fellowships

HBCU fellows may hold a concurrent fellowship provided that the fellowship does not fund the exact same activities or conflict with the ACLS award terms. Concurrent fellowships may fund different parts of the same larger project but may not fund the same budget items.

Institutional Support

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.

A portion of the stipend for this program may cover direct institutional costs of the proposed fellowship activities. While the fellowship stipend may already cover the cost of teaching replacement, there may be additional costs to the institution associated with supporting the award and the awardee’s proposed activities. Examples may include office expenses, equipment and room rental fees, or staff time. A percentage of the stipend may be used to defray the costs of the award for the institution. Each award also comes with an additional grant to the awardee’s home institution to support humanities programming or infrastructure at the school.

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