ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grants 2026–2027: Up to $50,000 in Research Support (Plus a $2,500 Programming Grant) or Up to $10,000 in Project Grants for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grants 2026–2027: Up to $50,000 in Research Support (Plus a $2,500 Programming Grant) or Up to $10,000 in Project Grants for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities carry some of the heaviest teaching and service loads in American higher education, often with little of the protected time or research budget that scholars at large research universities take for granted. The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) built its HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grants program to close that gap directly. It puts money and, just as importantly, time into the hands of HBCU instructors so they can move a stalled book forward, design a new archival project, or rethink how a subject is taught. For the 2026–2027 cycle, applications are open with a deadline of November 11, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

This guide explains what the program funds, who qualifies, how the two award tracks differ, what a competitive application looks like, and how to plan your timeline so you are not assembling recommendation letters the night before the portal closes.

Key Details at a Glance

Amounts and term lengths are drawn from ACLS program documentation for this cycle. Because ACLS occasionally adjusts figures between competition years, confirm the exact stipend range and award term on the official program page before you submit.

What the Program Offers

The program is deliberately structured as two complementary tracks so that faculty at very different stages of a project can each find an appropriate level of support.

The HBCU Faculty Fellowships are the larger of the two. They provide individual research support in the range of roughly $30,000 to $50,000, intended to buy the one thing most HBCU faculty cannot easily find: sustained, protected time. Rather than simply reimbursing project costs, the fellowship is designed to underwrite a semester or year of reduced teaching, or a series of course releases, so a scholar can concentrate on writing or research. On top of the individual award, the fellowship sends an additional $2,500 grant to the awardee’s home institution to support humanities programming — a small but meaningful investment in the broader intellectual life of the campus, not just the individual.

The Project Grants for HBCU Faculty are smaller and more flexible, offering up to $10,000. They are aimed at early-stage project design and at smaller-scale development work that can realistically be completed within a shorter award tenure. If you have a promising idea that needs seed support — travel to an archive, a pilot study, a research assistant for a semester, or the groundwork that will eventually justify a larger grant — the project grant track is likely the better fit.

Applicants who advance to the finalist round but are not ultimately selected still receive a $500 grant toward their research, an unusual and generous touch that recognizes the effort of reaching the final stage.

Beyond the dollars, both tracks carry the imprimatur of ACLS, one of the most respected names in humanities and social science funding in the United States. An ACLS award on a CV signals peer-reviewed recognition of scholarly promise, which can matter for tenure files, future grant applications, and institutional visibility.

Who Should Apply

The program is open to faculty who are employed primarily as instructors at an institution designated as a Historically Black College or University. Importantly, you do not need to be on the tenure track. Part-time and adjunct instructors are explicitly welcome to apply — a recognition that a great deal of teaching at HBCUs is done by contingent faculty who are usually shut out of research funding entirely.

Applicants must hold an MA or PhD in the humanities or related social sciences that was conferred by the application deadline. Projects must address a topic in the humanities or social sciences, or the teaching and learning of those disciplines in a higher education setting. That last clause is worth underlining: pedagogical and scholarship-of-teaching projects are eligible, not only traditional monograph research. If you want to redesign how you teach African American history, build a digital archive for classroom use, or study how students engage with a difficult text, those are in scope.

One condition follows the award: recipients must remain employed at an accredited HBCU for the duration of the award term. The program is investing in HBCUs as institutions, not only in individual scholars, so the commitment to stay is part of the bargain.

This program is a strong fit if you are:

• An HBCU faculty member with a research or writing project that has been squeezed out by teaching and service.
• An adjunct or part-time instructor who has never had access to a research budget.
• A scholar of teaching and learning who wants to formalize and study a classroom innovation.
• Someone with a book manuscript that needs a concentrated block of time to finish.

It is a weaker fit if your project falls in the sciences, engineering, or professional fields outside the humanities and social sciences, or if you are a graduate student rather than employed faculty.

Choosing the Right Track

Because the two tracks are judged against different expectations, choosing correctly is the first strategic decision.

Pick the fellowship if your central need is time — you have a substantial project, likely a book or a major body of work, and what stands between you and completion is teaching load. The review committee will expect a mature project with a clear plan for how the protected time (course releases or leave) will be used, and evidence that your institution supports the arrangement.

Pick the project grant if your idea is earlier in its life or narrower in scope, and the binding constraint is money rather than months. A pilot, an exploratory research trip, a proof-of-concept, or the development phase of something larger all belong here. The committee will want to see that the grant will produce a concrete deliverable or a well-defined next step within the shorter tenure.

If you are genuinely torn, the honest question to ask is whether your project could be completed with a modest infusion of funds (project grant) or whether it fundamentally requires you to teach less for a period (fellowship).

Application Process and Required Materials

Applications are submitted through the ACLS online fellowship administration system. While you should treat the official program page as authoritative for the exact requirement list, ACLS competitions in the humanities typically ask for a consistent set of materials, and you should expect to prepare:

• A project proposal describing the significance of the work, your approach, and what you will accomplish during the award period. This is the heart of the application and deserves the most attention.
• A concise statement of what the award will make possible — how the time or money changes what you can do.
• A bibliography or list of sources appropriate to the project.
• A curriculum vitae documenting your degrees, appointments, teaching, and any prior scholarship or creative work.
• Reference letters from people who can speak to your scholarly ability and the project’s feasibility. Line these up early; recommenders are the most common bottleneck.

ACLS runs an unusually applicant-friendly process for this program. Draft applications submitted by August 31, 2026 can receive feedback from ACLS before the final deadline — a rare chance to strengthen a proposal with insider guidance. The program also holds a series of virtual office hours across the cycle (dates announced for late July through early November 2026) where prospective applicants can ask questions directly. Use both. Few funders offer this level of pre-submission support, and applications that have been through a feedback loop are almost always sharper than first drafts.

Timeline and Deadlines

Plan backward from the deadline:

• Late July to early November 2026: Virtual office hours are offered periodically. Attend one early to clarify eligibility and track choice.
• August 31, 2026: Optional deadline to submit a draft application for ACLS feedback. Treat this as your real first deadline.
• November 11, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET: Final application deadline. ACLS is strict about deadlines; do not plan to submit in the final hour.
• By end of March 2027: Applicants notified of decisions.

Working backward, that means you want a complete draft in August, recommenders confirmed by early October, and a polished final version uploaded several days before November 11 to absorb any portal or formatting surprises.

Preparation Strategy and Reviewer Expectations

The reviewers for this program are scholars who read many proposals in a short window. They reward clarity and specificity and lose patience with vague ambition. A few principles consistently separate strong applications from the rest:

Lead with significance, then feasibility. Explain why the project matters — to your field, to your students, to the communities your work touches — and then show, concretely, that you can complete what you propose within the award term. A brilliant idea with no realistic plan will lose to a solid idea with a credible one.

Make the “why now, why this award” explicit. Reviewers want to understand exactly what the funding unlocks. “This fellowship will let me take two course releases in spring 2027 to complete the final two chapters” is far stronger than a general statement about needing time.

Write for an intelligent non-specialist. The committee spans disciplines. Define your terms, avoid unexplained jargon, and make the stakes legible to someone outside your subfield.

Show institutional grounding. Because awardees must remain at an HBCU and the fellowship sends money to the home institution, evidence that your project is connected to your teaching, your students, or your campus community strengthens the case.

Use the feedback channel. The August 31 draft option and office hours exist precisely so that applicants can fix weaknesses before they count. Not using them is leaving an advantage on the table.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Choosing the wrong track. Applying for a fellowship when you needed a project grant (or vice versa) forces reviewers to evaluate your proposal against expectations it was never designed to meet.
• Treating the proposal as a literature review. The committee wants your argument and your plan, not a survey of everything written on the topic.
• Vague deliverables. “I will make progress on my book” is not a plan. Name the chapters, the chapters’ arguments, or the specific outputs.
• Late recommenders. Give recommenders the deadline, your proposal, and a gentle reminder schedule weeks in advance.
• Skipping the draft feedback. Submitting cold when ACLS offered to read a draft is a self-inflicted disadvantage.
• Missing the eligibility fine print. Confirm your degree is conferred by the deadline and that your appointment counts as being “employed primarily as an instructor” at the HBCU.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be tenure-track? No. Full-time tenure-track status is not required, and part-time and adjunct instructors are welcome to apply.

Can I apply for both a fellowship and a project grant? The two tracks serve different needs and stages. Read the official program page for the current rule on concurrent applications, and in general choose the single track that best matches your project rather than splitting your effort.

What disciplines qualify? The humanities and related social sciences, including projects on teaching and learning within those disciplines in higher education. Projects rooted in the natural sciences, engineering, or professional fields outside these areas are not eligible.

Is US citizenship required? The core requirement is employment as an instructor at an accredited HBCU and the relevant degree; confirm any residency or citizenship specifics on the official page.

What if my exact stipend or award term differs from the figures here? ACLS updates amounts and terms between cycles. The figures in this guide reflect program documentation, but the official program page is the authoritative source for the current cycle — always verify there before submitting.

When will I hear back? Applicants are notified by the end of March 2027.

Official Links and Next Steps

Start at the official ACLS program page for the HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grants: https://www.acls.org/programs/acls-hbcu-faculty-fellowship-and-grants/. From there you can reach the individual competition pages for the fellowship and the project grant, review the full and current requirements, and access the ACLS online fellowship administration system to begin an application.

Your practical next steps: confirm your eligibility and pick your track this summer; attend an early virtual office-hours session; draft your proposal and submit it for ACLS feedback by August 31, 2026; secure your recommenders by early October; and upload a polished final application well ahead of the November 11, 2026 deadline. For a program that hands HBCU faculty both money and protected time — two of the scarcest resources in the profession — that preparation is well worth it.