The American Council of Learned Societies has opened its 2026/2027 fellowship and grant competitions, marking a landmark year as ACLS celebrates 100 years of supporting individual scholars. The announcement, made on July 13, 2026, covers multiple programs across the full arc of a humanities scholar’s career, from doctoral candidates through to established faculty, with several key programs already accepting applications.
About the ACLS Fellowship and Grant
Founded in 1919 and administering its first fellowships in 1926, ACLS is the leading private institution supporting humanistic scholarship in the United States. The 2026/2027 competition cycle spans flagship fellowships for mid-career and senior scholars, dissertation innovation fellowships for early-stage doctoral researchers, dedicated fellowships for HBCU faculty, and joint fellowships with the New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center.
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Funding Size
- ACLS Fellowships: stipends of up to $60,000 for six to twelve months of full-time research
- ACLS/NYPL Cullman Center Fellowships: stipend of $90,000 for a nine-month residential fellowship
- Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships: $42,000 base stipend plus up to $8,000 for research and development costs and $2,000 for external mentorship
- ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships: up to $50,000 plus a $2,500 institutional grant for humanities programming
- Project Development Grants: $5,000 for finalist applicants at teaching-intensive institutions who are not selected for a fellowship
Who Can Apply
- ACLS Fellowships: PhD holders in the humanities or interpretive social sciences who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, DACA recipients, asylees, refugees, or foreign nationals resident in the U.S. for three or more years
- Tenure-track applicants must have had a lapse of at least two years since their last supported research leave
- Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships: doctoral students who have not yet advanced to candidacy before January 1, 2026, and who intend to complete their dissertation after May 31, 2029
- ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships: faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities across all career stages
- Independent scholars without institutional affiliations are eligible for ACLS Fellowships
Geographic Eligibility
- United States only for most programs
- ACLS Fellowships are portable and may be conducted at any appropriate research site globally during the fellowship term
Sector or Thematic Focus
- All disciplines of the humanities and interpretive social sciences
- Research grounded in any time period, world region, or humanistic methodology
- Public engagement humanities projects, in addition to traditional monographs and articles
- Innovative dissertation formats expanding the traditional boundaries of doctoral research
Application Process
All applications are submitted through ofa.acls.org. Applications for ACLS Fellowships, Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art, Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships, and ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships are currently open. Applications for additional programs will open in the coming months. ACLS will provide feedback on draft HBCU Faculty Fellowship applications submitted by August 31, 2026.
Required Materials
- Research proposal of no more than five double-spaced pages in Arial or Helvetica 11-point font
- Work plan of no more than one page
- Personal statement of no more than one page
- Writing sample formatted to ACLS specifications
- Reference letters where required by the specific program
Key Dates
- ACLS Fellowships deadline: September 17, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET
- ACLS/NYPL Cullman Center joint application deadline: September 25, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET
- Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship deadline: October 28, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET
- ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship deadline: November 11, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET
- Notifications: between March and April 2027 depending on the program
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Selection Notes
- Applications that do not conform to stated formatting requirements will be excluded from review
- Finalist applicants from teaching-intensive institutions who are not selected for ACLS Fellowships are automatically considered for Project Development Grants with no separate application required
- ACLS is committed to inclusive excellence and welcomes applications from scholars historically underrepresented in academic humanities