New Leading Edge Fellowship

The American Council of Learned Societies

Due July 31, 2020

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) proudly announces the launch of the Leading Edge Fellowship program, made possible by the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation. This $1.6 million rapid-response fellowship aims to put the power of humanities scholarship and training to work in addressing urgent challenges facing communities hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leading Edge Fellowship program provides year-long posts to recent humanities PhDs as they pursue publicly engaged projects that document and interpret the damage of this pandemic and advance collective understanding of the societal fault lines that helped worsen its impact such as inequality, increasing precarity, divisive media, and racism. The fellowship program will launch in two phases, the first placing up to six art history and visual culture scholars with partner organizations for projects starting in September and October 2020. Participating nonprofits include Arts Alliance Illinois (Chicago, IL), the Center for Craft (Asheville, NC), Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas (Seattle, WA), the Educational Video Center (New York, NY), Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (North Adams, MA), and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage (Washington, DC). ACLS will begin accepting fellowship applications for the first cycle this week, with applications due by 9pm EDT on Friday, July 31, 2020.

How to Apply

Applicants must have a PhD that was/will be conferred by their universities between September 1, 2016 and August 31, 2020
Applicants who earned their PhDs in any field in the humanities or humanistic social sciences may apply, so long as they demonstrate that their scholarly research draws primarily on the materials, methods, and/or findings of art and architectural history or visual culture, and contributes to one or both of these fields. See FAQ for further information.
Applicants must be authorized to work legally in the United States for the entire duration of the fellowship term. Neither ACLS nor the host organization can sponsor fellows for visas.

Applications must be submitted online and must include:

A completed application form
A cover letter tailored to each selected position and addressed to the host organization (1-2 pages). Applicants applying for two positions will submit two distinct cover letters.
A résumé (1-2 pages) and a list of three references. Applicants applying for two positions will submit two résumés and lists of references. No reference letters are required at the time of application.

The selection and placement takes place over three stages: The first round of review is overseen by ACLS and conducted by PhDs holding positions in the cultural, policy, and media sectors. Finalists determined by this process will be interviewed by host organizations, who will send rankings and feedback to ACLS. Finally, ACLS interviews top-ranked candidates to offer the fellowship.

First-round reviewers will evaluate applications based on:

Demonstrated ability to connect academic and non-academic skills and capacities to the qualifications and responsibilities of the applicant’s selected project(s)
Demonstrated interest in and commitment to contributing to solutions to problems in society
Willingness to partner, collaborate, listen, and learn from others
Applicant's academic and extra-academic accomplishments

Leading Edge Fellows will join a robust community of practice in the publicly engaged humanities and will have the opportunity to draw on networks of fellows in related ACLS programs, including the Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows and Scholars and Society Fellows. The diverse experience of the ACLS community is a shared resource that fellows are encouraged to draw on during and after their fellowship terms.

The PDFs of the full project descriptions, which include detailed information on the host organizations, the projects, and requisite applicant qualifications, are available below. All fellowships starting in 2020 will be held remotely.

Applications for these positions are accepted solely through the Leading Edge Fellowship program. Only complete applications, submitted through the ACLS Online Fellowship Application system (ofa.acls.org) by Friday, July 31, 2020 9pm EDT, will be considered. Please do not contact any of the host organizations with questions.

Note: For the purpose of this competition, the humanities and related social sciences include but are not limited to American studies; anthropology; archaeology; art and architectural history; classics; economics; ethnic studies; film; gender studies; geography; history; languages and literatures; legal studies; linguistics; musicology; philosophy; political science; psychology (excluding clinical or counseling psychology); religious studies; rhetoric, communication, and media studies; sociology; and theater, dance, and performance studies. PhDs in interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary humanistic studies are welcome. This program 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 and/or information sciences, law, social work, social welfare, urban planning, public health, filmmaking, performing arts, or any field of pre-professional or applied study. Master’s degrees, even if they are the terminal degree in the field, will not be accepted as substitutes for the PhD. If your degree field is not listed above, and you have questions about your eligibility, please contact fellowships@acls.org. For more information about eligibility, visit the FAQ page.