Academic Mentorship Grant

The Academic Mentorship program, offered by the Institute for Humane Studies, invites graduate students to collaborate with esteemed faculty on impactful research over one year. Participants can receive funding up to $5,000 for research costs and are encouraged to present findings at an academic conference. The program aims to foster intellectual discovery and support students in their academic pursuits while promoting themes of liberalism, democracy, and human flourishing.

Promoting Intellectual Discovery and Human Flourishing
Rooted in the classical liberal tradition, IHS is a non-profit organization that supports the achievement of a free society by connecting and supporting graduate students, scholars, and intellectuals who are driving human progress in critical conversations shaping the 21st century.
Up to $8,000 will be provided to cover mentee and mentor research costs. Both will be encouraged to attend an academic conference or event together during the mentorship period to present resulting research. IHS will provide support to cover travel and other costs related to conference participation.
If your application is accepted, IHS will evaluate potential partnerships and match you with an ideal mentor. Applicants are welcome to note a desired mentor on their application.
Areas of Focus
IHS will concentrate its activities and investments from across four initiatives encompassing our twelve focus areas.
Liberalism, Pluralism, DemocracyConstitutionally constrained liberal democracies foster peace, freedom, and widespread prosperity. However, the rise of contemporary illiberal ideologies threatens democratic institutions, individual freedoms, and the prospects for peaceful pluralism. The Liberalism, Pluralism, and Democracy initiative aims to spark innovative ideas and solutions that uphold and fortify the norms and institutions that underlie the liberal project and promote widespread human flourishing.Focus Areas: Trust & PolarizationSpeech and Intellectual FreedomFreedoms of speech, expression, and intellectual inquiry drive innovation, the growth of knowledge, and social progress. The Speech and Intellectual Freedom initiative supports research examining new and increasingly complex challenges to these freedoms, including those presented by illiberal political movements, technological change, and contemporary threats to academic freedom.Focus Areas: Online SpeechEquality, Peace, and ProsperityIndividual liberty, equality before the law, free enterprise, and voluntary cooperation, are essential to prosperous, peaceful, and flourishing societies that enable every person to pursue their full potential. The Equality, Peace, and Prosperity initiative supports research investigating the barriers that inhibit people from realizing their full potential, the underlying causes of violent conflict, and solutions to overcoming these challenges that advance human freedom.Focus Areas: Immigration, Trade and Industrial Policy, Health Opportunity, Housing, Barriers to Entrepreneurship, Women and Freedom, Criminal Justice ReformBusiness and the Good SocietyIn addition to driving material well-being, entrepreneurs and businesses can foster trust, cooperation, personal growth, and moral development among business owners, employees, suppliers, and customers. The Business and the Good Society initiative supports research exploring the factors that promote commerce’s role in contributing to widespread human flourishing (within and beyond the economic realm), and factors that inhibit these effects.Focus Areas: Corporate Governance, AI Design for a Free Society, Morality and Market Society

Eligibility

Eligibility CriteriaEnrollment as a PhD student or candidate for the next academic yearCommitment to researching, and working towards research outputs, with a mentor