What this program funds
NEH Fellowships support individual scholars pursuing full-time research and writing in the humanities for six to twelve continuous months. Typical outcomes are books, journal articles, digital humanities projects, scholarly editions, and translations. This is a salary-replacement fellowship: it buys you dedicated time, not project expenses. The work must contribute to humanistic knowledge — projects in the social sciences qualify only when they use humanistic methods and address humanistic questions.
Eligibility in plain English
- You must be a U.S. citizen or a foreign national who has been resident in the U.S. for several years before applying — confirm the exact residency window in the current guidelines.
- No degree is required. Independent scholars and unaffiliated researchers apply on the same footing as faculty.
- The fellowship cannot support work toward a degree, so it isn't for dissertations.
- Rules about holding other major fellowships concurrently, and about how soon you can reapply after a previous NEH individual award, change occasionally — confirm with the current guidelines.
What you'll need to submit
- Narrative (about three single-spaced pages) — the project's significance, your methods and work plan, and the project's current stage of completion.
- Bibliography (about one page) — sources that inform the project.
- Résumé (brief, typically two pages).
- Two letters of reference, submitted directly by your referees.
Tips for this mechanism
- Write for humanists outside your field. Panels mix scholars from across the humanities. If your significance section only makes sense to people in your subfield, it will not score well.
- Three pages is the whole argument. There is no room for boilerplate or long literature reviews — every paragraph should advance significance, feasibility, or your qualifications.
- Be concrete about the project's stage. Reviewers fund projects they believe will be finished. Say what is drafted, what remains, and (for books) where things stand with a press if anywhere.
- Expect steep odds and plan to revise. Funding rates are in the single digits in recent cycles. Many successful applications are resubmissions sharpened by a prior round's feedback.
Related programs
- NEH Summer Stipends (two months instead of six to twelve)
- ACLS Fellowships (similar profile, private funder)
- NEH Fellowships for digital publication and other NEH individual awards — check the current NEH offerings for specialized variants