The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships. All doctoral students who are completing PhDs at degree-granting institutions in the United States are eligible to apply. The program supports a year of research and writing to help advanced graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences in the last year of Ph.D. dissertation writing. The fellowship will receive up to $30,000 stipend, plus funds for research costs of up to $3,000 and for university fees of up to $5,000.
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 national scholarly organizations, is the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences. Since its founding in 1919, ACLS has provided the humanities and related social sciences with leadership, opportunities for innovation, and national and international representation.
Eligibility:
Applicant must:
- Be Ph.D. candidates in a humanities or social science department in the United States. (1)
- Have completed all requirements for the Ph.D. except the dissertation (i.e., obtained ABD status) by the application deadline.
- Be no more than six years into the degree program at the time of application. This includes time spent earning an MA within that program. (2)
- Not currently hold or have previously held a dissertation completion fellowship.
- Have not previously applied for this fellowship more than once.
- All doctoral students (U.S. or Non-US students) who are completing PhDs at degree-granting institutions in the United States are eligible to apply
- Applicants must be prepared to complete their dissertations within the period of their fellowship tenure and no later than August 31, 2019 (The program encourages timely completion of the PhD.)
How to Apply:
To apply for the Mellon Fellowships, the applicant can submit online application through the ACLS online fellowship administration system at http://ofa.acls.org
Supporting Documents:
Applications must be submitted online and must include:
- Proposal (no more than five pages, double-spaced, in Times New Roman 11-point font)
- One-page timeline for the expected completion of dissertation writing and defense/filing
- Up to three additional pages of images, musical scores, or other similar supporting non-text materials [optional]
- Bibliography (no more than two pages)
- Completed chapter of the dissertation (that is neither the introduction, nor the conclusion, nor the literature review) of not more than 25 double-spaced pages, in Times New Roman 11-point font; or a representative 25-page excerpt from a longer chapter. The chapter must be in English, though citations may be in other languages (with translations provided).
- Two reference letters, one of which must come from the applicant’s dissertation advisor
- A statement from the applicant’s institution (preferably from the applicant’s department chair, director of graduate studies, or dean).
Financial Aid and Award Money:
- ACLS will award 65 fellowships in this competition for a one-year term beginning between June and September 2018 for the 2018-19 academic year.
- The fellowship may be carried out in residence at the fellow’s home institution, abroad, or at another appropriate site for the research. These Fellowships may not be held concurrently with any other fellowship or grant.
- The total award of up to $38,000 includes a stipend plus additional funds for university fees and research support.
- In addition to the monetary support that the fellowship offers, Dissertation Completion Fellows are able to apply to participate in a seminar on preparing for the academic job market.
- The seminar takes place over three days in the fall of the fellowship year.
Application Deadline:
The Completed applications must be submitted no later than 9 pm Eastern Daylight Time, October 25, 2017. Notifications will be sent via email in late March 2018.
Link for More Information:
