Request for Proposals:
Postdoctoral Partnership Initiative, 2015-16
from the American Council of Learned Societies
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The American Council of Learned Societies requests proposals from US institutions of higher education
that hold annual humanities postdoctoral fellowship competitions and wish to offer an additional
postdoctoral fellowship in the 2015-16 competition cycle (for tenure to begin in 2016-17) or raise the
level of support included in their existing postdoctoral fellowship(s).
The Postdoctoral Partnership Initiative, generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is a
new, exploratory program with the objective to learn more about the impact of postdocs on individuals in
the humanities and the value of such postdocs to institutions, and to bring together institutions that host
them to foster cross-institutional conversation about the role of postdocs in the changing humanities
workforce.
ACLS is looking to partner with 10 institutions this year. The partnership would include funds from
ACLS to cover approximately half the cost of one two-year postdoctoral fellowship at each institution.
These positions should be career-launching opportunities that meet a high standard of support, including
competitive financial packages as well as other resources and possibilities for scholarly development (i.e.,
stipends and benefits, teaching load/opportunities, mentoring, and integration into a new scholarly
community).1 Moreover, we would expect that participating institutions agree to share standardized
information concerning their applicant pools, selection processes, and placement of fellows at the
conclusion of the fellowship.
The initiative simultaneously adds to the number of career-building postdocs available nationally and
builds the means for cross-institutional collaboration to explore and possibly address larger issues of the
changing humanities workforce.
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1
As a point of reference, ACLS’s past New Faculty Fellows program, which hosted its final competition in 2012-13, included an
annual stipend of $65,000 and other financial resources, three-course teaching load, and assigned faculty mentor.
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Please fill in the following information to submit a proposal, if you wish to be considered as a partnering
institution in this program. The completed document should be emailed to fellowships@acls.org no later
than August 24, 2015.
Name of institution: Click to enter text.
If applicable, name of the specific college, division, institute, or center that would host the position:
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Contact person: ________________________________________________________________
Title: ______
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Email: ______
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General information
How many postdoctoral fellowships for recent humanities PhDs does your institution, and, if applicable,
your specific institute or center, offer each year?
Are these positions open to scholars regardless of field or topic of research? Or are there specific
disciplinary or thematic components to the positions or cohorts of fellows?
Application and selection
How are these opportunities publicized?
How are applications solicited? (For example, do you issue an open call for applications or are only
nominated candidates solicited?)
How many applications do you receive for these positions each year?
How does your selection process function? (For example, do you have selection meetings? Are
departments asked to select which applicants they find most promising?)
Level of support
How much is the fellowship stipend?
Does a fellowship include additional financial resources, such as relocation costs, research or travel funds,
or benefits?
For how many years is a fellowship?
Does a fellowship include the provision of private office space, shared space, carrel, etc.?
Does it include the provision of equipment, including a computer, or any other resources?
Are fellowships associated with any institutionalized mentoring, such as the assigning of a faculty
mentor, the existence of a support office for postdoctoral fellows at the institution, etc.?
Responsibilities
Do fellowships include teaching responsibilities, and, if so, what is the teaching load?
Are fellows required to give public talks during their tenure, host workshops, or fulfill other scholarly or
administrative duties?
Are there requirements that fellows produce a specified amount of scholarship during their tenure?
Are there any features of your institution’s postdoctoral fellowships that have not yet been mentioned?
Placement
Does your institution track the placement of postdoctoral fellows after their tenure and/or otherwise
maintain contact with past fellows? If so, please describe how this is accomplished.
Are fellows required to submit reports at the end of their tenure?
Objective(s)
Why does your institution offer postdoctoral fellowships for humanities PhDs? What is your institution’s
philosophy and approach to offering these positions, and what does the institution gain from hosting
fellows?
Please contact ACLS’s Director of Fellowship Programs Matthew Goldfeder (mgoldfeder@acls.org;
212.697.1505x124) with any questions you have about this request for proposals or the initiative.
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The American Council of Learned Societies, a private, nonprofit federation of 73 national scholarly
organizations, is the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related
social sciences. Advancing scholarship by awarding fellowships and strengthening relations among
learned societies is central to ACLS’s work. This year, ACLS will award more than $16 million to nearly
350 scholars across a variety of humanistic disciplines. More information is available at www.acls.org.