ACLS 2021 African Humanities Program for African Researchers

We invite applications for postdoctoral fellowships from scholars who are within eight years of receiving the PhD degree, who are citizens of Sub-Saharan African countries, and who are currently working at universities in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda. Women are especially encouraged to apply.

This extraordinary competition will extend for one year the fellowship program that began in 2008-09 and that had been scheduled to conclude in 2020-21.  Funds for the extension became available due to the cancelation of in-person activities during the Covid pandemic.

The African Humanities Fellowship Program 2022/2023 will replicate previous ones in almost every respect.  The eligibility criteria remain the same – awards will go to African scholars, living and working on the continent, pursuing basic research in the humanities, willing to take two semesters leave from all other employment to devote full energy to the project proposed.  Applications will be received through the ACLS Online Fellowship and Grant (OFA) Administration system, as they have been in previous years.  ACLS will distribute monetary stipends.  No further AHP fellowship competitions are planned.

• Table of Content
• About The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
• ACLS African Humanities Program
• Aim and Benefits of ACLS African Humanities Program
• Requirements for ACLS African Humanities Program Qualification
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)

Formed a century ago, 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 hum... continue reading

ACLS African Humanities Program

Aim and Benefits of ACLS African Humanities Program

• Fellowship stipends allow recipients an academic year free from teaching and other duties for revising the dissertation for publication or for the first major research project after the PhD. Fellows are also eligible for additional benefits such as residential stays for writing, manuscript development workshops, and publication support.
• Each fellow may request a residential stay at an African institute for advanced study. Residencies have proved to be extremely popular and productive, granting fellows time and space to concentrate on writing. Because residencies must be taken at an institute outside the home country, they foster international communication. Currently AHP Fellows may take residencies at six institutes from South Africa to Senegal, Ghana to Tanzania.

Requirements for ACLS African Humanities Program Qualification

• Applicants must be nationals and residents of a country in sub-Saharan Africa and must be currently working at universities in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda.
• Women are especially encouraged to apply. .
• Dissertation-Completion Fellowships are not available in South Africa.
• Projects must be in the humanities and must be carried out in sub-Saharan Africa. AHP fellowships may not be used for travel outside the continent.

Selection Criteria

• The intrinsic interest and substantive merit of the work proposed
• The clarity of the intellectual agenda
• The feasibility of the work plan
• The record of achievement of a postdoctoral scholar and the promise of a PhD candidate
• The contribution the work is likely to make to scholarship on the continent and worldwide

The African Humanities Program seeks to strengthen humanities scholarship in Africa

• By promoting diversity in terms of gender and historical disadvantage, along with diversity in disciplines, institutions, and regions. Women are especially encouraged to apply.
• By making research opportunities available to staff at African universities.

Application Deadline

How to Apply

For more details, visit ACLS website.