Recent PhD recipients in the humanities and social sciences will be able to pursue new posts at a variety of nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies across the United States. That’s always good news for those struggling in a perennially tight job market, but it’s particularly welcome this year as academic positions in the humanities continue to dry up.
The new opportunities come from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)’s continuation of its Leading Edge Fellowship program. This marks the third round of these fellowship awards.
The program launched in July 2020 with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, connecting new PhDs first in art history and visual culture and then in ethics, theology and religion with nonprofits focused on addressing social challenges created or exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation joined as a supporting partner in Fall 2020, allowing ACLS to open the competition to new PhDs across all fields in the humanities and related social sciences and to place them in a broader variety of social justice-oriented projects.
The initial cohort consisted of five fellows, who specialized in art history or public art and took positions that focused on how local communities responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. The second round involved twelve fellows with doctoral backgrounds in ethics, theology and religion; they also were engaged with organizations looking at the public’s response to the pandemic. Both cohorts were supported by funds from the Henry Luce Foundation.
The Leading Edge Fellowship program provides one-year fellowships to recent humanities PhDs in the humanities and humanistic social sciences, allowing them to serve as part of community-focused policy and research projects concerning a wide span of topics, including voter suppression efforts, injustices in the criminal justice system, racial and economic inequality, access to childcare, food security, and others.
For this latest round of the fellowship competition, up to 41 fellowships will be available to recent PhDs. Each Leading Edge Fellow will receive a $60,000 stipend, in addition to health insurance and professional development funding. Fellows also can expect to participate in professional development and networking activities intended to help them use the experiences of the 12-month placements in their future careers.
To be eligible for the fellowships, applicants must have a PhD that was or will be formally conferred between September 1, 2016, and October 1, 2021. Those PhDs may be in any field in the humanities or humanistic social sciences, as defined by ACLS. Each applicant may apply for up to two of the available Fellowships.
Applicants go through a multi-stage selection process. First, they’re reviewed by a committee of humanities PhDs working in a variety of professional contexts outside of the academy. Finalists identified by the committee are forwarded to the host organization for a second round of evaluation. Final offers are made by ACLS.
Among the list of partnering organizations are those focused on policy issues in minority communities, juvenile justice, voting, prisoner education, early childhood education, and social justice. It’s noteworthy that none of the positions is located at a university or college. Here are a few examples:
- National Conference on Citizenship (Washington, DC), where the Leading Edge Fellow will support the Black Girls Vote Research Network.
- Thurgood Marshall College Fund (Washington, DC), where the fellow will work on research, reports, articles, and scholarship on social justice issues for a new Center for Social Justice involving scholars at various Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
- Hunger Free America (New York City), where the fellow will examine the long-term impacts of SNAP (once known as food stamps) on past and current recipients.
- The Better Life Lab at New America (Washington, DC), where the fellow will join a multi-year project aimed at improving the U.S.’s child care and early education systems.
- Colorado Children’s Campaign (Denver), where the fellow will focus on assessing and improving the behavioral health of Colorado children and families following the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The Louisiana Bucket Brigade (New Orleans), where the fellow will join an environmental health and justice organization that helps communities cope with the health and dislocation effects of nearby petrochemical plants and fossil fuel infrastructure.
Across all the positions, which at this time are anticipated to be conducted remotely, the fellows are expected to draw on the skills developed in the course of earning a doctorate in the humanities and social sciences. Abilities like critical analysis, cultural competence, thorough scholarship, and strong written and oral communication are emphasized.
The fellowships create valuable options for PhD recipients who are interested in applied scholarship. For many, the program provides excellent experience as they pursue careers outside the academy, while for others, the experience allows them to integrate lessons learned into subsequent academic jobs or jobs taken outside of the academy.
In response to an email inquiry, Joy Connolly, President of ACLS, told me, “ACLS created Leading Edge to be mutually beneficial both to nonprofits addressing urgent issues like racial inequality, economic insecurity, voter suppression, and access to quality healthcare and to early career PhDs facing the most difficult academic job market seen in a generation,”
“Humanistic scholarship has always played an essential role in bringing about social change: many suffragists and civil rights leaders started out as students of history, philosophy, and other fields in the humanities and social sciences that ACLS represents. Leading Edge provides a path for PhDs to put their training to work outside the campus gates. ACLS is very grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for allowing us to provide opportunities to support these high-achieving people while also making positive contributions to communities in need.”
ACLS is accepting applications for the Leading Edge Fellowship program now and through Thursday, May 6, 2021. You can learn more about the program at www.acls.org/LeadingEdge.
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Formed in 1919, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of dozens of scholarly organizations, colleges and universities and affiliated organizations. It seeks to be “the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences.” ACLS has a $140 million endowment and a $35 million annual operating budget, which in spends “to support scholarship in the humanities and social sciences and to advocate for the centrality of the humanities in the modern world.”
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