HBCU Faculty Fellowships Grant

The ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships provide financial support ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 for faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to advance their research projects. The fellowships encourage innovative research outcomes, including scholarly articles and community-engaged projects. Awardees also benefit from mentoring and networking opportunities, with additional funding for their institutions to support humanities programming. This initiative promotes diverse scholarship and collaboration across disciplines, enhancing the academic landscape for HBCU faculty.

The American Council of Learned Societies invites applications for the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships. The fellowships provide $30,000 to $50,000 (based on the applicant’s proposed budget) and are intended to support project plans that require more sustained time (e.g., semester/year leave, or a series of course releases), in addition to any other budgeted project costs, to advance the applicant’s research project. In addition to the fellowship stipend, awardees will have access to networking and mentorship opportunities that align with their scholarly goals and institutional circumstances.
This fellowship opportunity is part of the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grant Program, which offers both fellowships and project grants to HBCU faculty.
Fellowship Award Outcomes
The applicant’s goal should be to substantially advance a research-grounded project during the term of the award. Possible project outcomes may include one or more of the following: monographs, scholarly articles, conference papers, book chapters, or book on a topic 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—among many other possibilities. Projects with pedagogical or curricular outcomes must focus on a postsecondary context. Community and/or student engagement with the research project is welcome, as is the dissemination of the research to audiences across higher education and beyond.
The examples above are by no means exhaustive. ACLS seeks to advance diverse forms of research as well as innovative forms and modes of publication.
Use of Fellowship Funds
The strongest applications will show evidence of thoughtful plans for engaging the sources, resources, scholars, and communities – on campus and/or off – necessary to advance their projects.
Fellows might use fellowship funds for:
Semester- or year-long research leave, course releases for research time, or summer salary to support full-time research during that period. Awardees must take the equivalent of four course releases over the 15-27 month award term, though that time may be structured as course releases, salary for two summers, a semester’s or year’s leave, or some combination of these elements.
Funds for research (e.g., train research assistants, pay research participants, learn new methods, travel to libraries and archives, pay for reproductions).
Support to integrate research and pedagogy/teaching and learning, such as action research projects or Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the classroom.
Travel costs and registration fees for research and conferences; costs associated with organizing a conference, workshop, or event related to the project.
Writing and editorial assistance (e.g., working with an editor or writing coach, participating in a writing retreat to move work to publication) or covering costs related to publication or dissemination of research.
Collaborations across institutions, both among HBCUs and among regionally adjacent universities.
Interdisciplinary collaborations with colleagues across fields with similar research agendas.
Support for civic engagement and/or social justice work with surrounding communities.
We understand that no two projects require the same type of support and, as such, this list is by no means comprehensive. Applicants are encouraged to think about the specific needs of their project, as well as the roadblocks to project outcomes. Award funds may be used for anything that is necessary to advance the project and/or to mitigate and overcome individual and institutional roadblocks for HBCU scholars.
Funding
Stipend: $30,000 to $50,000 fellowships to be used for semester or year-long research leaves, summer salary, or course releases, and any other activities that advance the proposed project, including (but not limited to) travel to collections or conferences, research and editorial support, and child- or eldercare costs.
Each fellowship comes with an additional grant of $2,500 to the awardee’s home institution to support humanities programming or infrastructure.
Applicants who advance to the finalist round of review will receive a $500 grant to support their research, in addition to access to project and proposal development workshops.

Eligibility

Applicants must:Be employed primarily as instructors at an institution designated as an Historically Black College or University. Please consult this list to determine whether your institution is eligible.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. All awardees must remain employed at an accredited HBCU for the duration of the award term.
Have an MA or PhD in the humanities or related social sciences that was conferred by the application deadline.
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. ACLS encourages award recipients to work with their institutions to leverage the funds to support their research leaves to its fullest extent.
Agree to take part in occasional networking, project development, and mentorship events during the course of the award term.Projects 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.)This fellowship encourages scholars to use award funds to create conditions for sustained engagement with their research – through semester or year-long leave, a series of course releases, or summer salary for research between semesters. The project workplan and budget should reflect how and when fellowship funding would be deployed and to what end during the award term.

Ineligibility

Projects focused on teaching and learning in a K-12 setting are not appropriate for this program.