The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 86 scholarly organizations, formed in 1919, and it runs a family of fellowship and grant programs for research in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Across those programs, ACLS awards over USD 25 million a year to more than 300 scholars. If you are a PhD candidate, a postdoc, a faculty member or an independent researcher working on history, literature, philosophy, religion, art history or a qualitative social science question, this is one of the funders you should know about. You can see the full scholarship details on our listing as well.
A word of warning before you get excited. ACLS is not one scholarship with one form and one deadline. It is an umbrella over several separate competitions, each with its own rules. Most of the work of applying is figuring out which competition fits you, and whether you are eligible for it at all.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Provider | American Council of Learned Societies |
| Funding | Listed as fully funded; over USD 25 million awarded annually across all programs |
| Levels | PhD, postdoc, faculty, researcher |
| Deadline | Varies by program, confirm on the official site |
| Country | United States (administered from New York, NY) |
| Official site | acls.org/programs |
One council, many separate competitions
ACLS describes its programs as meeting the needs of early career, independent and established educators, administrative staff and public facing researchers. The current list includes:
- ACLS Fellowship Program
- ACLS Digital Justice Grants
- ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grants
- ACLS Leading Edge Fellowships
- Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art
- Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies
- Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships
- Open Access Book Prizes
- The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies
Read those names closely and you can already rule some out. An HBCU faculty program is aimed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the US. A dissertation fellowship in American art only makes sense if your thesis is about American art. The Buddhist Studies and China Studies programs are field specific. For a Pakistani researcher, the general ACLS Fellowship Program and the field specific streams that match your actual research are the ones to investigate first. Then check each one's rules, because the source is clear that eligibility and deadlines vary by program.
Is a Pakistani applicant eligible?
ACLS says it supports individual scholars and scholarly teams around the world, and that it supports scholars globally depending on the specific program. That wording matters. It does not mean every competition is open to every nationality. Some programs may require US affiliation, US residence or a specific institution type. Before you write a single page, open the eligibility rules and FAQs for the competition you want and check whether applicants of your nationality, and from your institution, can apply.
The general requirements across programs are short:
- You must be working in the humanities or interpretive social sciences.
- Social science proposals must use predominantly humanistic approaches and qualitative or interpretive methodologies.
- You must apply through the Online Fellowship and Grant Administration portal.
- You must meet the specific criteria of the individual competition.
The qualitative methods test that trips up social scientists
The eligible fields are broad: American studies, anthropology, archaeology, art history and architectural history, classics, economics, ethnic studies, film and media studies, gender studies, geography, history, languages and literatures, legal studies, linguistics, musicology, philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, rhetoric and communication, science and technology studies, sociology, and theater, dance, and performance studies.
Seeing economics, psychology and political science on that list, a lot of applicants assume their project qualifies. It may not. ACLS accepts social science proposals only if they rely mainly on humanistic approaches and qualitative or interpretive methods. A regression based study of remittances and household income in Punjab is economics, but it is not the kind of economics ACLS funds. An archival or ethnographic study of how families talk about migration and obligation might be. If your method is primarily statistical or experimental, this is probably the wrong funder, and you should spend your energy elsewhere.
If you sit somewhere in between, make the interpretive side of your work obvious in the proposal. Name your methods plainly. Do not leave reviewers guessing whether you are doing humanities work.
What the money and support look like
The headline figure is over USD 25 million per year, spread across more than 300 scholars and all programs. That is a total, not a per person amount. The source does not give a standard award size, stipend or list of covered costs that applies across programs, so you need to read the award terms of the specific competition to know what you would actually receive and what it can be spent on.
Beyond money, ACLS lists these kinds of support:
- Funding for research and community engaged projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences
- Professional development workshops and convenings for current and past awardees
- Office hours sessions and webinars during application periods, with technical help for applicants
Although the listing labels this as fully funded, treat that as a general description. For a researcher based in Pakistan, the questions that matter are whether the award covers travel, whether it assumes you already hold a salaried post, and whether it pays out to an individual or through an institution. Check those in the program terms.
The two documents, and why the second one is the risk
The documents list is short:
- The online fellowship application
- Letters of reference, submitted by your referees through the reference letter portal
The application itself is under your control. The reference letters are not. Your referees upload directly to the ACLS portal, and if one of them is travelling, busy with exams or unfamiliar with the system, your file can sit incomplete at the deadline. Ask your referees early, send them a short summary of your project, and check in with them well before the closing date. The general documents checklist for international scholarships is useful for keeping your CV, transcripts and degree records in order, even though ACLS itself lists only these two items.
How the application process runs
- Pick the competition that matches your career stage and field, then read its eligibility rules and FAQs.
- Log in to the Online Fellowship and Grant Administration portal while that competition is open.
- Submit the online application before the stated deadline.
- Make sure every referee has submitted a letter through the online reference portal.
- Wait for peer review. Committees of scholars appointed by ACLS evaluate the proposals.
The portal is also where reporting happens if you win, so keep your login details safe.
Timing: there is no single ACLS deadline
The opening date and the deadline both vary by program, so confirm the exact dates for your competition on the official portal. Do not rely on a date you saw on a forum or on last year's call. Since ACLS runs office hours and webinars during application periods, the sensible move is to check the program pages a few months before you plan to apply, find out when the cycle opens, and register for a webinar once it does.
Who should apply, and who should skip it
This suits a humanities PhD candidate close to the dissertation stage, a postdoc building a first book, or a faculty member who needs time and money for a research project, provided the specific program accepts applicants in their situation. It is a poor fit for taught master's students, for anyone looking for tuition funding for a degree, and for quantitative social scientists.
Mistakes that cost applicants with a funder like this:
- Treating ACLS as one scholarship and applying to a program they are not eligible for.
- Assuming that listing economics or psychology as eligible means any project in those fields qualifies.
- Leaving reference letters to the last week.
- Skipping the webinars, which are free and exist to answer exactly the technical questions applicants get stuck on.
- Writing a proposal for specialists in their own subfield. Peer review committees are made up of scholars, but not necessarily people in your narrow area, so explain why your question matters.
If you are comparing this with other US funding, our guide to all United States scholarships lists other options.
Frequently asked questions
Which fields does ACLS fund?
The humanities and interpretive social sciences, including history, philosophy, languages and literatures, art history, and interpretive work in sociology, anthropology and political science. The full field list is above.
Can a master's student apply?
The eligible levels listed are PhD, postdoc, faculty and researcher. Master's level is not among them, so check the specific program before assuming you can apply.
Who decides the winners?
Peer review committees of scholars appointed by ACLS select fellows and grantees in all programs.
Where do I submit my application?
Through the Online Fellowship and Grant Administration portal linked from the official ACLS website. Reference letters go through a separate online reference portal.
How much will I receive?
ACLS gives out over USD 25 million a year across more than 300 scholars, but award amounts depend on the program. Read the award terms of the competition you are applying to.
Before you start, check the current competitions on the official ACLS programs page and review the full scholarship page on Titans Abroad.