Deadline: 25-Sep-2025
The American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Program offers scholars in the humanities and interpretive social sciences the opportunity to dedicate six to twelve consecutive months to full-time research and writing under an inclusive and prestigious fellowship.
Aims: Supporting outstanding scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.
The ACLS Fellowship awards a maximum of $60,000 for a 12-month fellowship, with shorter tenures prorated at $5,000 per month and a minimum award of $30,000, and supplements between $3,000–$6,000 available for independent scholars, adjunct faculty, and those with teaching-intensive roles.
This fellowship is open to scholars at all post-doctoral career stages—on or off the tenure track—who have earned a PhD in the humanities or interpretive social sciences by the application deadline, with accommodation for established scholars who can demonstrate equivalent credentials.
Applications will open in July 2025 and must be submitted through the ACLS online system by 9:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time on September 25, 2025. Notifications will be sent via email in late March 2026.
The fellowship term must begin between July 1, 2026, and July 1, 2027, and must conclude by December 31, 2027, with at least six consecutive months of tenure. The award is portable and may be held alongside other funding and institutional support, within ACLS guidelines.
ACLS invites proposals for substantial scholarly work—monographs, articles, publicly engaged humanities projects, digital research, critical editions, or similar resources—at any stage of development. Projects that are primarily fictional, pedagogical, or simple translations without scholarly apparatus are not eligible.
Applications must include a proposal (max five pages, double-spaced in Arial or Helvetica 11-pt), an optional two pages of non-text materials, a one-page work plan (double-spaced or timeline/chart), a two-page single-spaced bibliography, a two-page single-spaced publications list, a one-page personal statement (double-spaced), and an up-to-eight-page writing sample with context and relevance. All documents must adhere to specified formatting and margin guidelines, and applicants must have an ORCID ID.
Review criteria center on the originality and impact of the project, methodological innovation, feasibility within the time frame, the applicant’s scholarly record, and how the project advances ACLS’s commitment to inclusive excellence.
Applicants are also automatically considered for ACLS Project Development Grants (for teaching-intensive scholars not selected as fellows) and for named fellowships—such as those in English and American Literature, Chinese History, Ancient American Art and Culture, Arab and Latin American Studies—as well as for ACLS/NYPL sub-fellowships.
For more information, visit ACLS.