The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is currently accepting applications for Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships 2024/2025, which provide a year of support for doctoral students embarking on innovative dissertation research projects. This program, funded by the Mellon Foundation, supports graduate students who promise to lead their fields in new directions.
The fellowships are designed to intervene at the formative stage of dissertation development, encouraging a broadening of research methodologies, formats, and areas of inquiry traditionally considered suitable for dissertations. The focus is on scholars who can contribute to a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable academy.
Fellowship Overview
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) believes humanistic scholarship thrives when it includes historically underrepresented voices, narratives, and subjects. Applications that foreground the cultivation of new knowledge sources, innovation in scholarly discourse, and responsiveness to the interests of marginalized communities are particularly welcome.
This includes (but is not limited to) Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people, and people of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. The fellowship supports innovative research in any historical period, community, or region of the world.
Benefits for Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship 2024/2025
The total award includes:
- A $42,000 base stipend for the fellowship year
- Up to $3,000 for research and travel
- Up to $5,000 offered towards the professional development of fellows and to support their skills acquisition or additional research
- An additional $2,000 stipend for an external mentor
- ACLS will award up to 45 fellowships for a one-year term (July and September 2025), covering the 2025-26 academic year.
Eligibility
Applicants must:
- Be a PhD student in a humanities or social science department in the U.S.
- Commit to a full year (9-12 months) of specialized research and training, free from coursework and teaching responsibilities
- Have finished two years minimum of the required coursework (PhD program) by the start of the fellowship term
- Not have attained the status of PhD candidacy prior to January 1, 2024
- Have not applied for this fellowship more than once
Note: The fellowship does not accept applications from students in professional or applied PhDs, terminal degrees that are not PhDs, or PhDs outside humanities and interpretive social science departments, including disciplines such as business, clinical psychology, performing arts, education, engineering, law, and more.
Application Guidelines
It is online registration, follow the steps below:
- Completed application form which can be accessed via the ACLS Online Application portal at https://ofa.acls.org/
- Proposal (up to seven pages, double-spaced, including footnotes or endnotes)
- Optional: Up to two additional pages of supporting non-text materials
- One-page timeline outlining fellowship year activity and post-fellowship trajectory
- Bibliography (up to two pages, single-spaced)
- Short personal statement (up to two pages, double-spaced)
- Brief work sample (up to fifteen pages, including context description)
- One letter of recommendation from the applicant’s dissertation advisor or eligible faculty member
- A statement from the applicant’s institution attesting to the institution’s support and accommodation for non-traditional approaches to scholarship
For more information and to apply, visit the [official website https://ofa.acls.org/
Evaluation Criteria
Reviewers will evaluate proposals based on:
- The project’s potential to advance its field and contribute significantly to knowledge
- The project’s potential to challenge scholarly norms through innovative formats, methodologies, subject matter, or theoretical frameworks
- The feasibility of the proposed project and the likelihood of its successful execution
- Engagement with historically underrepresented communities and responsiveness to their interests and histories
Application Deadline: Applications must be submitted by 9:00 PM EDT, October 30, 2024.
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