Event Date
Please see the opportunity below for recent PhDs in the Humanities and Social Sciences to be selected as ACLS Emerging Voices Fellows for 2021-22. The nomination information is due by Wednesday, March 31st at 5pm.
Program chairs and directors should upload nominations with particular reference to the prioritizations highlighted in the Call below to the box folder at the following link: https://ucdavis.app.box.com/f/2559c880c167455d9f1536120d446842. Please include nominee CV and research statement. The research statement should be a 2-page statement detailing the nominee’s research (1.5 spaced, 700 word maximum). Please be sure the nominee’s current email address and month and year of PhD conferral are included in one of these documents.
When uploading, please title the documents as follows:
‘1 Last name,First name – Program CV’
‘1 Last name,First name – Program Research Statement’, with the number being the ranking by the program if nominating more than one candidate.
Please see the message and Call below for deadlines and selection criteria.
The American Council of Learned Societies invites nominations of new and recent PhDs to the Emerging Voices Fellowships, a program created in 2020 to support early career scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. At a time of economic downturn and uncertainty in academe, this program seeks to identify and assist a vanguard of scholars whose voices, perspectives, and broad visions will strengthen institutions of higher education and humanistic disciplines in the years to come.
Emerging Voices Fellowships will allow new and recent PhDs in the humanities and related social sciences to take one-year positions at participating ACLS Research University Consortium institutions beginning in August/September 2021. The program will provide a $60,000 stipend plus benefits as well as $5,000 in research/professional development funding, childcare, or elder care costs, and access to ACLS professional development resources. Up to 45 fellowships will be available for a fall semester 2021 start date. Given the limited number of fellowships available, ACLS intends to support qualified candidates who lack full-time academic positions for the 2021-22 academic year.
Timeline for 2021 Competition
March 22 – April 19
Window for nominations to be submitted to ACLS
April 30 – May 14
Application window for nominated PhDs
Late July
Award Notification
ACLS invites all institutions in the US that grant the PhD in disciplines in the humanities and related social sciences to nominate up to four candidates each.* Candidates will not be permitted to hold Emerging Voices Fellowships at their PhD-granting institution. Given the continued uncertainty of travel and campus plans, we anticipate that work will be remote for academic year 2021-22.
Nominators should take into account that this program seeks to sustain emerging scholars who are “both-and”: who are both outstanding scholars and effective communicators to diverse audiences inside and/or outside the classroom. We will ask nominated candidates to describe their potential contribution to programmatic needs in their disciplinary or interdisciplinary field or area, specifically how they use the classroom as a vehicle to attract students to humanistic study and research, and how they approach inclusive online teaching. Nominators should know that priority in the review process will be given to nominated applicants who:
- Show promise of making the humanities meaningful to non-specialist audiences
- Come from diverse backgrounds including historically and systemically disadvantaged groups such as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian or Alaskan Native communities, and people with disabilities
- Have experience or show promise of leadership in institutional contexts or within their disciplines or interdisciplinary area of study
*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 social science fields are eligible only if they employ predominantly humanistic approaches (e.g., economic history, law and literature, political philosophy, history of psychology).
Eligibility
Applicants must:
- Have a PhD in the humanities or humanistic social sciences completed between January 1, 2018 and August 15, 2021 (including defense and filing) and conferred by October 1, 2021
- Have authorization to work in the US for the duration of the position; neither ACLS nor the host university is able to sponsor visas in this short time frame
- Be nominated for this fellowship by the university where they received the PhD
Positions with Host Institutions
We are developing our final list of positions with our hosting institutions, who submitted many excellent posts for the 2021-22 academic year. We welcome the nomination of candidates of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. While the positions span a variety of fields, from creative arts to premodern studies to medical humanities, a sizeable majority focus on the following areas:
- Digital humanities
- Environmental humanities
- Gender and sexuality studies
- Race and ethnicity
- Science and technology studies
- Premodern studies
- Creative arts and humanities
- Medical humanities
In the interest of transparency, we should note that the first five bullet points above comprise the majority of positions this year. There is also considerable interest in candidates who can contribute to community-engaged research, curricular Innovation and pedagogy, and public humanities. We recommend that you take these fields and areas into account when compiling your final list of nominees for this year’s competition.
Nominating Process
Institutions may submit nominations of up to four candidates. If your university has candidates from eligible disciplines in two or more colleges/schools (ex. a College of Arts & Humanities and a College of Social & Behavioral Sciences) deans from both colleges need to coordinate to develop and submit ONE LIST of four candidates to be submitted for the entire institution.
We will provide a link to a secure webform for you to use to submit your nominations. Requested information includes names, PhD fields, PhD date (MM/DD/YYYY), and current email addresses. Institutions may submit nominations beginning on March 22. Please submit all nominations no later than 5PM Eastern on Monday, April 19.
Application Process
In the weeks following the nomination deadline, ACLS will invite eligible nominees to apply via our Online Fellowships Application (OFA) portal. Requested materials include a CV, demographic information, dissertation abstract, and a detailed cover letter (maximum 2 pages). Candidates must also request a letter of reference from their faculty adviser, department chair, or other suitable referee to be submitted through the ACLS application portal by the application deadline. All materials must be submitted via ACLS’s OFA portal by Friday, May 14 at 9PM Eastern.
Questions?
Contact us at emergingvoices@acls.org
Formed in 1919, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations. As the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences, ACLS holds a core belief that knowledge is a public good. As such, ACLS strives to promote the circulation of humanistic knowledge throughout society. In addition to stewarding and representing its member organizations, ACLS employs its $140 million endowment and $35 million annual operating budget to support scholarship in the humanities and social sciences and to advocate for the centrality of the humanities in the modern world.