What this program funds
ACLS Fellowships support six to twelve months of full-time research and writing in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. The typical funded project is a book, though articles, editions, and digital projects are also supported. Like NEH Fellowships, this is time-buying money: a stipend that replaces salary so you can step away from teaching and service. ACLS panels are famously multidisciplinary, and the program is one of the most recognizable lines on a humanities CV.
Eligibility in plain English
- You need a PhD (or equivalent) in hand by a date specified in the current competition — ABDs are not eligible.
- Eligibility has changed meaningfully in recent years. Recent cycles have focused the program on scholars without tenure — including contingent, visiting, and independent scholars — rather than the full professoriate. Confirm the current rules before investing time in an application.
- U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, or a sustained period of U.S. residence, has historically been required — again, confirm the current language.
- The fellowship cannot be used for degree work or for revising a dissertation into essentially the same document.
What you'll need to submit
- Proposal (a few pages) — the project, its stakes, your method, and a timeline to completion.
- Bibliography of works informing the project.
- Publications list and a brief CV.
- Two letters of reference, submitted by your referees through the application portal.
Tips for this mechanism
- Write for a panel of non-specialists. ACLS readers span the humanities; a proposal legible only to your subfield loses to one a medievalist, a sociologist, and an art historian can all champion.
- Show a credible path to a finished product. State what's researched, what's drafted, and what the fellowship year completes — vague "I will continue work on" language is the most common weakness.
- Read the current eligibility page before anything else. Because the program's target population has shifted recently, last year's advice (or a senior colleague's memory of the program) may simply be wrong.
- Note the named and divisional fellowships. ACLS awards several specially designated fellowships from the same applicant pool — you're automatically considered, but it helps to know the landscape.
Related programs
- NEH Fellowships and NEH Summer Stipends
- Guggenheim Fellowships (mid-career, achievement-driven)
- Residential fellowships at humanities centers and institutes for advanced study, which pair well with an ACLS stipend