American Council of Learned Societies Names 2023 ACLS Leading Edge Fellows

Eighteen Early-Career PhDs to Join Nonprofit Organizations to Advance Social Justice Initiatives

NEW YORK, June 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to name 18 new ACLS Leading Edge Fellows. This community-engaged humanities initiative demonstrates the capacity of humanistic knowledge and methods to help advance justice and equity in society. The program is made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

The ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship Program supports outstanding early-career PhDs in the humanities and interpretive social sciences as they work with social justice organizations in communities across the United States. In 2023, fellows will take up two-year positions with a range of nonprofit organizations including Campaign for Southern Equality, PolicyLink, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Using skills developed in earning their PhDs, fellows will build capacity through research and data analysis, program and learning evaluation, and communications. Many will engage community members in advocacy and participatory action research projects, including efforts to support trans-inclusive policies in youth-serving institutions, increase access to the arts for underserved communities, narrow the digital divide for Indigenous communities in the rural United States, and protect access to reproductive care.

Meet the new Leading Edge Fellows and learn about their work.

"ACLS is excited to introduce this impressive group of Leading Edge Fellows. Through their hands-on efforts in communities across the country, they will demonstrate the power of humanistic knowledge and inquiry to create meaningful change in the world beyond campus," said Desiree Barron-Callaci, ACLS Senior Program Officer for US Programs. "In collaboration with their host organizations, fellows will illuminate and amplify the diverse spaces where knowledge and the vision of a better world can be created, shared, and sustained."

The 2023 fellows represent a wide array of humanistic disciplines, including anthropology, communication, English literature, Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian studies, and US history. They hail from 16 different institutions, including Clark Atlanta University, Georgia State University, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Pittsburgh.

Leading Edge Fellows receive a $66,000 stipend in the first year, $70,000 in the second, plus health insurance. The award also comes with an annual budget of up to $3,500 for professional development activities, as well as networking, mentorship, and career development resources provided by ACLS.

Formed a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 80 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS utilizes its $155+ million endowment and $37 million annual operating budget to expand the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting our commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship. In all aspects of our work, ACLS is committed to principles and practices in support of racial and social justice.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation's largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Mellon believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom to be found there. Through its grants, Mellon seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. The Foundation makes grants in four core program areas: Arts and Culture; Higher Learning; Humanities in Place; and Public Knowledge.

SOURCE American Council of Learned Societies