ACLS invites applications for Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships, which provide a year of support for doctoral students preparing to embark on innovative dissertation research projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. This program is made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships support graduate students who show promise of leading their fields in important new directions. The fellowships are designed to intervene at the formative stage of dissertation development, before research and writing are advanced. The program seeks to expand the range of research methodologies, formats, and areas of inquiry traditionally considered suitable for the dissertation, with a particular focus on supporting scholars who can build a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable academy. ACLS is committed to inclusive excellence, which it defines as the pursuit of academic excellence that is enriched by a plurality of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
ACLS believes that humanistic scholarship can only thrive when it welcomes and affirmatively includes voices, narratives, and subjects that have historically been underrepresented or under-studied in the academy. Applications that demonstrate thoughtful engagement with communities and topics that have been historically underrepresented or under-studied in the academy are encouraged. ACLS values projects that expand the range of scholarly perspectives and methodologies, and that are responsive to a wide array of human experiences and histories. ACLS encourages applications from all eligible fields of humanistic inquiry and aims to support innovative research grounded in any historical time period (ancient to contemporary), community, or region of the world. ACLS also believes that institutional diversity enhances the scholarly enterprise, and it encourages applications from doctoral students in eligible departments from all accredited institutions of higher education in the United States.
The program supports projects that push the traditional approaches and forms of dissertation research in new directions. The strongest applications will show evidence of thoughtful plans for engaging the sources, resources, scholars, and communities – on campus and/or off – necessary to advance their projects. Fellows might design a fellowship year that includes:
- directed interdisciplinary research and methodological training that pushes beyond the scope of their field’s norms with faculty within and/or outside their home institutions;
- exploration of new modes of scholarly communication and dissertation design;
- intensive digital methods training and research;
- equitable collaboration with community partners;
- a short-term practicum with a non-academic organization (such as a cultural, policy, or social justice organization) to develop experience with applied methods, site-based research involving community-engaged or collaborative approaches.
The list above is by no means exhaustive. Innovation might take a variety of forms, and with this program, ACLS seeks to support a range of innovation in doctoral research — trans- or interdisciplinary, digital, collaborative, critical, methodological, etc. — as well as innovative forms and modes of publication.
ACLS has long supported interdisciplinary work and collaboration with partners outside of the academy through its various fellowship programs, and the program would welcome proposals from graduate students, in consultation with advisors and/or departmental directors of graduate study, that engage with scholars from other institutions, disciplines, or from sectors outside of the academy.
In addition to supporting dissertation research that pursues bold and sometimes unorthodox directions, the Mellon/ACLS program also supports the expansion of a fellow’s advisory network through external mentorship. The external mentor, who might come from another division of the university, another academic institution, or from beyond the academy, should be selected for the mentor’s capacity to offer critical perspective and expertise on the fellow’s project. The external mentor must stand outside of current advising relationships within your program or department.
ACLS welcomes applications from all eligible doctoral students, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, age, or any other aspect of identity.