ACLS Leading Edge Fellowships Grant

The ACLS Leading Edge Fellowships provide recent humanities PhDs with the opportunity to work with nonprofit organizations focused on social justice. Over 24 months, fellows receive a stipend of $70,000 in the first year and $72,000 in the second, along with relocation funds and health insurance. The program emphasizes diversity and inclusion, encouraging applications from all eligible scholars to enhance their professional skills in meaningful roles.

Leading Edge Fellowships place recent humanities PhDs with nonprofit organizations committed to promoting social justice in their communities.
Fellows take on substantive roles that draw on the skills and capacities honed in the course of earning the humanities PhD, including advanced communication, research, project management, and creative problem solving.
Recent PhDs from across all fields of the humanities and interpretive social sciences are encouraged to apply for this fellowship. ACLS believes that inclusion, equity, and diversity enhance the scholarly enterprise. It is a priority of the Leading Edge Fellowship program that the application and selection process be broadly inclusive and welcoming of different backgrounds, cultures, and any aspects that make one unique, including disciplinary background and university affiliation, as well as socioeconomic, racial, gender, and other aspects of identity.
ACLS will hold webinars for applicants to the ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship, offering real-time feedback on questions about eligibility, the online application, and the fellowship review and selection process.
Fellowship Details
Stipend: For remote positions, $70,000 in year one, and $72,000 in year two; for in-person positions, $72,000 in year one, and $74,000 in year two. All fellows will have access to health insurance and professional development funding.
Relocation: Up to $5,000 in relocation funds for fellows who relocate for in-person positions.
Tenure: 24 months beginning in September 2026.
Applications will be accepted only through the ACLS Online Fellowship Application system. Please do not contact any of the organizations directly.

Eligibility

Applicants’ PhDs must be in a field of the humanities or interpretive social sciences. Please refer to our FAQ on eligible fields before applying.PhDs in education are eligible only if the degree’s focus is the anthropology, history, or sociology of education.Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States for the entire duration of the fellowship term. This includes Indigenous individuals residing in the United States through rights associated with the Jay Treaty of 1794, and those who hold DACA status, Temporary Protected Status, or political asylee or refugee status. Unfortunately, neither ACLS nor the host organization can sponsor fellows for visas or provide advice on visa applications.Master’s degrees, even if they are the terminal degree in the field, will not be accepted as substitutes for the PhD. You may apply to the program more than once, provided that you still meet the eligibility requirements.

Ineligibility

The Leading Edge Fellowship program is specifically targeted to recent recipients of a PhD in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Individuals with terminal degrees other than a PhD are not eligible.EdDs are not eligible for the purposes of this program.This program also does not accept applications from students receiving a PhD in the fields of business, public policy or public administration, education or arts education, clinical or counseling psychology, creative writing, journalism, library sciences, law, social work, social welfare, urban planning, public health, filmmaking, performing arts, or any field of pre-professional or applied study. ACLS awardees are not permitted to hold two ACLS fellowships concurrently.