Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art 2027

ACLS invites applications for Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art, which support graduate students pursuing research on the history of art and visual culture of the United States, including all aspects of Native American art, and who are at any stage of PhD dissertation research or writing. ACLS believes that humanistic scholarship is strengthened by the inclusion of a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. We encourage applications from PhD candidates from all degree-granting?institutions in the United States.

Table of Content

• Summary
• Benefits
• Requirements
• Application Documents
• Application Deadline
• How To Apply

Summary

• Application DeadlineOctober 28, 2026
• Study LevelPhD
• SponsorThe American Council of Learned Societies
• Eligible CountryUnited States

Benefits

• The total award of $49,500 includes a stipend and additional funds for travel and research.

Requirements

Applicants must:

• be a doctoral student at a university in the United States in art history or a related field, such as Native American and Indigenous studies, ethnic studies, or African American studies. (Students preparing theses for the Master of Fine Arts degree are not eligible.)
• have a dissertation focused on a topic in the history of the visual arts of the United States, including all facets of Native American art. Projects should be focused foremost on the art object and/or image and employ an art-historical or visual studies approach.
• have completed all requirements for the PhD except the dissertation before beginning fellowship tenure.
• have not previously applied for this fellowship more than once.
• be a US citizen, permanent resident, Indigenous person residing in the United States through rights associated with the Jay Treaty of 1794, DACA recipient, asylee, refugee, or individual granted Temporary Protected Status in the United States.

Application Documents

Applications must be submitted online and must include the following components:

• Completed application form.
• Proposal of no more than eight pages, double spaced, with one-inch margins, in Arial or Helvetica 11-point font, inclusive of all images and any footnotes or endnotes. Applicants may use any standard citation style in the proposal narrative, although citations (footnotes or endnotes) are included in the page count for the document. While text in the body of the proposal must be double spaced and in 11-point Arial or Helvetica font, footnotes may be in 10-point font and single spaced.
  • Proposals must include at least three images.
  • The proposal should explain, briefly but specifically, the nature and scope of your project, approaches or methodologies used, and the significance of this work within your specific and general fields.
  • It must also include a brief statement on progress already made and a tentative schedule of work to be accomplished during the grant period.
  • Please balance the description of specific work plans against an overview of your goals and the contribution this dissertation will make to the field(s) it engages. Applicants who establish a clear intellectual context for their work will be favored in the selection process.
  • Please title your proposal in a brief, descriptive way and label sections of your narrative as appropriate to assist readers.
• Annotated Bibliography (no more than four pages, double spaced, with one-inch margins, in Arial or Helvetica 11-point font) of ten key secondary sources for your project. The annotated bibliography is meant to provide an overview of the most important references used to shape your project. For each reference, please provide a brief description (two to four sentences) of the source and its relevance to your project. Primary sources should be listed separately, without annotation, at the beginning or end of the annotated list of secondary sources.
• List of publications, exhibitions, presentations, and scholarly/university service (no more than one page, single spaced, with one-inch margins, in Arial or Helvetica 11-point font) [optional].
• 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). The provided form asks the institutional representative to confirm that the applicant is a doctoral candidate in good standing and that all requirements for the PhD except the dissertation will be completed by the beginning of fellowship tenure. Most importantly, the institutional representative should confirm that (1) the normal academic year tuition and fees for the awardee will be waived or will be provided by the awardee’s university, and that (2) the university will continue to provide the student with appropriate access to its research resources and facilities. The person submitting the statement should not be one of the reference letter writers.

Transcripts are not required.

AI Guidelines

Applicants may use AI tools such as Claude or ChatGPT to write their application. However, it is the responsibility of the named applicant to ensure that all content in their proposal is factual and that they have properly acknowledged and referenced all sources. As the applicant, you are responsible for any errors, omissions, hallucinations, or acts of plagiarism in your application. We encourage you to indicate in your application where and how you used AI assistance for full transparency.

Application Deadline

How To Apply

• Applications are made via the Application Portal.

For more information kindly visit the ACLS webpage.