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Funding for the Humanities


We are here to help

The funding landscape is replete with exciting grants and fellowships to support Humanities research.  Yet, many Humanities scholars, particularly compared to those in the sciences, are inexperienced with grant seeking and say that they find the process daunting.  

With this in mind, FSU Research Development (RD) has brought on a staff member to serve specifically as a Humanities (and Arts) funding specialist.  Dr. Carolyn Bradley is dedicated to promoting and facilitating research grantsmanship among FSU's Humanities and Arts faculty. 

Just reach out!  

Carolyn is happy to guide FSU's Humanities faculty through the process of securing grants and fellowships, both large and small.  Reach out to Carolyn for help any time, at any stage of the process: (850) 644-7730 or cbradley@fsu.edu.  

RD provides a range of services and resources for research faculty in the Humanities, including:

  • Circulation of Humanities-related notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs)
  • Newsletters to keep faculty abreast of goals and expectations of grant agencies
  • Group workshops on topics related to Humanities grantsmanship (e.g., costs and benefits of applying for grants, the goals and operations of diverse grant agencies, designing research projects, building effective collaborations, composing persuasive proposal narratives, etc.)
  • One-on-one consultations with faculty members to discuss research goals and strategize funding-seeking efforts
  • Proposal development support including the creation of checklists of materials needed and timetables to ensure that the proposal will be ready by the submission deadline
  • Proposal crafting resources including copies of successful proposals and boilerplate language
  • Mock Review Sessions featuring FSU faculty field experts as review panelists
  • Reviewing (for adherence to NOFO guidelines) and editing (for content and/or final polish)

We encourage Humanities faculty to initiate an ongoing funding search through Pivot.  You can get started by registering for a Pivot account and requesting weekly updates on grant opportunities specific to your research interests.  For assistance with Pivot, reach out to Carolyn for a personalized meeting.  

 

Prominent Awards Available to Humanities Researchers: TARU Awards, Additional External Awards, and Internal Awards

 

1. Top American Research Universities (TARU) awards

Grant Program and Link to Website

ACLS Fellowships

The American of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship Program is intended to help scholars in the humanities and related social sciences to devote six to twelve continuous months to full-time research and writing.  

Career Level: Early-Career Faculty

(Deadline: TBA, likely September  2024)

Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award Program

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers diverse opportunities for U.S. academics, administrators, and professionals to teach, research, do professional projects, and attend seminars abroad.

(Deadline: likely April 2024)

Getty Scholar Grants

Getty Research Institute (GRI) Getty Scholar Grants offer established scholars residential fellowships at the Getty Research Institute or Getty Villa, where they  can pursue their own projects, make use of Getty collections, join their colleagues in a weekly meeting devoted to an annual research theme or the African American Art History Initiative, and participate in the intellectual life of the Getty.  

(Deadlines: TBA likely Summer 2024)

Guggenheim Fellowships

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Guggenheim Fellowships are for individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.  Recipients can work for six to twelve months with as much creative freedom as possible.  

(Deadline: TBA, likely September 2024.)

MacArthur Fellowship Program

The MacArthur Foundation MacArthur Program is a five-year grant to individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.  

Special Conditions: No set deadline; nominations by invitation only.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowships

NEH Fellowships are granted to individual scholars pursuing projects that embody exceptional research, rigorous analysis, and clear writing.  

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively April 2024)

National Humanities Center (NHC) Residential Fellowships

The NHC funds residential fellowships for advanced study in the humanities.

(Deadline: October 3, 2024)

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellowship

The Woodrow Wilson Center offers 9-month residential fellowships to scholars committed to addressing key challenges confronting the U.S. and the world.  Fellows conduct research and write in their areas of interest, while interacting with policymakers in Washington and Wilson Center staff and other scholars in residence.  

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively October 2024)

2. Additional External Funding Opportunities

Grant Program and Link to Website

ACLS Digital Justice Grants

This program from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) supports projects that diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and/or contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues.

Career Level: Mid- to Late-Career Faculty

(Deadline: TBA, likely December 2024)

American Councils Research Scholar Program; Title VIII Research Scholar Program

This program from the American Councils for International Education supports independent, policy-relevant research abroad in the humanities and social sciences as well as language training.

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively Oct. 2024)

American Councils Combined Research and Language Training (CRLT) Program; Title VIII Combined Research and Language Training (CRLT) Program

This program from the American Councils for International Education supports U.S. scholars seeking to conduct in-country, independent research in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe, while increasing proficiency in regional languages.  

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively Oct. 2024)

American Philosophical Society (APS)'s Digital Humanities Fellowship Program

This program from the APS's Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) offers fellowships lasting up to two months to scholars who are developing digital projects that either (1) make use of the APS's Library & Museum collections, open datasets, or other APS holdings to advance a digital component of an independent research project or (2) seek to apply existing tools and expertise to digital projects developed in collaboration with the Library & Museum's Center for Digital Scholarship. 

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively March 2024)

American Philosophical Society's (APS's) Franklin Research Grants

This program is designed to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses.

(Deadlines: TBA, likely Fall 2024)

CAORC-NEH Research Fellowship Program

This program from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC)-National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) offers humanities scholars the opportunity to spend significant time in one country with an Overseas Research Center (ORC) as a research base.

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively Jan. 2024)

CAORC Multi-Country Research Fellowship

This program from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) offers U.S. scholars  in the humanities, social sciences, and allied natural sciences the opportunity to carry out transregional and comparative research in countries across the network of Overseas Research Centers (ORC) as well as other countries.

(Deadline: TBA, likely Dec. 2024)

Cornell University Society for the Humanities's Society Fellowships

This program offers year-long residential fellowships to scholars and artists whose projects reflect on a determined theme.  Fellows spend their time in research and writing.  They also teach one small seminar and participate in a weekly Fellows Seminar workshopping other fellows' projects and discussing readings based on the yearly theme.

(Deadline: TBA, likely Sept, 2024)

Florida Humanities Council's Community Project Grants

This program offers awards of up to $10,000 to support community programming that aims to broaden the public's awareness of the humanities and what it means to be human.

Special Conditions: Limited Submissions program with earlier internal deadlines--see RD's Limited Submission portal.

(Internal deadlines: Jan. 24, May 29, Sept. 25;  Agency deadlines: April 3, Aug. 7, Dec. 4.)

Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation's Grants Program for Organizations: Humanities 

This program supports projects which address the concerns of the historical studia humanitatis: a humanistic education rooted in the great traditions of the past; the formation of human beings according to cultural, moral, and aesthetic ideals derived from the past; and the ongoing debate over how these ideals may best be conceived and realized.  

(No deadline; applications are accepted at any time.)

The Huntington: Long- and Short-Term Fellowships and Travel Grants for Study Abroad

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens offers long- and short-term residential fellowships to scholars working on projects in fields in which its collections are strong.  Travel grants to support research to be carried out in libraries or archives outside of the United States or Canada are also available.  

(Deadline:  TBA, tentatively Nov. 2024)

Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University's Flexible Grants for Scholars

These programs support projects that hold significant promise for advancing a deeper understanding of the liberal tradition, by offering expense support, event support, or course buyout support.  Projects that align with the agency's core topics include but are not limited to key challenges within a free society, cultural challenges within a liberal society, contentious topics within the liberal tradition, liberalism in times of crisis, and liberalism and its critics.  

(No deadlines; applications are accepted at any time.)

Kluge Fellowship Program

This program allows scholars in the humanities and social sciences to conduct research using the Library of Congress's large and varied collections. Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research is particularly welcome.

Career Level/Special Conditions: Early-Career Faculty and Postdoctoral Scholars

(Deadline: September 15, 2024)

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) Documenting Endangered Languages Senior Research Grants

This program aims to develop and advance knowledge concerning endangered human languages.  It aims also to exploit advances in information technology.  

(Deadlines: Feb. 15, 2024 and Sept. 16, 2024)

NEH's Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants

This program is designed to strengthen the institutional base of the humanities by enabling infrastructure development and capacity building.  Two distinct types of projects are funded.  "Capital Projects" supports the design, purchase, construction, restoration, or renovation of facilities for humanities activities.  "Digital Infrastructure" supports the maintenance, modernization, and sustainability of existing digital scholarly projects and platforms.  

Special Conditions: Limited Submissions program with earlier internal deadline--see RD's Limited Submission portal.

(Internal deadline: TBA, likely May 2024)

NEH's Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities Program

This program supports training programs for scholars, humanities professionals, and graduate students to broaden and extend their knowledge of digital humanities.  

(Deadline: Feb. 15, 2024)

NEH's Media Projects

This program supports the development, production, and distribution of radio programs, podcasts, documentary films, and documentary film series that engage general audiences with humanities ideas in creative and appealing ways.  

(Deadline: tentatively Aug. 14, 2024)

NEH's Summer Stipends Program

This program supports two months of a continuous full-time work on a humanities project.

Special Conditions: Limited Submissions program with earlier internal deadline--see RD's Limited Submission portal.

(Internal deadline: July 12, 2024; Agency deadline: September 18, 2024 )

NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication

This program supports individual scholars who need time to conduct interpretive research projects that require digital expression and digital publication.  Successful projects will likely incorporate images, video, audio, and/or other multimedia materials or flexible reading pathways that could not be included in traditionally published books, as well as an active distribution plan.  Projects must have value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both.

(Deadline: April 17, 2024)

National Geographic Society Grants Program: Level I Funding

This program is for changemakers working on projects in science, conservation, storytelling, education, and technology.  Recipients receive funding up to $20,000 as well as opportunities with the National Geographic Society network for training, networking, coaching, mentorship, and more.  

(Deadline: TBA)

National Geographic Society Grants Program: Level II Funding

This program is for people who have previously received a National Geographic Society grant or are more established in their field.  Recipients receive funding up to $100,000, provide mentorship, contribute their expertise, and speak at engagements.

(Deadline: TBA)

National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC)-Mellon Planning Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies

This program supports projects that promote access to America's historical records to encourage understanding of our democracy, history, and culture.

(Deadline: TBA, likely June 2024)

Harvard Radcliffe Institute's Radcliffe Fellowship Program

This program offers year-long fellowships to scholars from a broad range of fields and perspectives, allowing them access to Harvard's resources.  The program has two application deadlines, with the first for applications in humanities, social sciences, and creative arts.  

(Deadline: TBA, check webpage in Spring 2024)

Stanford Humanities Center External Faculty Fellowships

This program provides residential fellowships to non-Stanford scholars at different career stages who are pursuing research in the traditional and emergent disciplines of the humanities and interpretive social sciences.

(Deadline: TBA, likely October 2024)

Tulane University's Murphy Institute Visiting Research Professor/Faculty Fellow Program

This program, offered by the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at the Murphy Institute, offers fellowships to support faculty whose teaching and research focus on ethics; political and social philosophy; moral psychology, agency, and responsibility; philosophy of law; political theory; or questions of moral choice in areas such as, but not restricted to, business, government, law, economics, and medicine.

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively Dec. 2024)

University of Connecticut (UConn) Humanities Institute Visiting Humanities Fellowships

This program is a residential fellowship with a stipend of $50,000.  Scholars work on a project designed to contribute to scholarly knowledge or to the general public's understanding of the humanities.  

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively Feb. 2024)

Wellesley College's Suzy Newhouse Center for the Humanities Fellowship

This program is a residential fellowship for scholars or artists with a stipend of $50,000.  Residencies are ordinarily for the full academic year, but one-semester residencies may also be considered.  Resident fellows devote themselves primarily to their own research, but they also participate actively in the intellectual life of the institution, attending fellows' lunches and sharing their work in progress with one another and with the larger Wellesley community.  

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively December 2024)

3. Internal Funding Opportunities

Grant Program and Link to Website

Arts & Humanities Program Enhancement Grant (AHPEG)

This program from the FSU Council on Research & Creativity (CRC) Internal Funding Programs provides funding up to $20,000 for arts and humanities research and creative activity.

(Deadline: TBA, likely Feb. 2025)