Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowships for Recently Tenured Scholars

Fellowship Details

• Amount: $75,000
• Tenure: one academic year, plus institutional support for an additional period
• Completed applications must be submitted through the ACLS Online Fellowship Application system (ofa.acls.org) no later than 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, September 30, 2009.
• Notifications will be sent in February 2010.

ACLS invites applications for the eleventh annual competition for the Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowships for Recently Tenured Scholars, owing to the generous assistance of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The fellowships are named for Frederick Burkhardt, President Emeritus of ACLS, whose decades of work on The Correspondence of Charles Darwin constitute a signal example of dedication to a demanding and ambitious scholarly enterprise. These fellowships support long-term, unusually ambitious projects in the humanities and related social sciences (1). The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant. ACLS does not fund creative work (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translation, or pedagogical projects.

Burkhardt Fellowships are intended to support an academic year (normally nine months) of residence at any one of the national residential research centers participating in the program. Such an environment, beyond providing free time, encourages exchanges across disciplinary lines that can be especially helpful to deepening and expanding the significance of projects in the humanities and related social sciences. This year's successful applicants may take up the fellowship in 2010-2011 or in either of the succeeding two academic years, but candidates must commit themselves firmly to their preferred year and residential center on their completed applications. Candidates must also commit themselves to relocating as needed in order to be in residence for the tenure of the fellowship.

ACLS will award up to nine Burkhardt Fellowships, depending on the availability of funds, in this competition year. Each fellowship carries a stipend of $75,000.

Scholars are free to apply both for Burkhardt fellowships and for standard forms of support offered directly by all of the participating centers, as well as those offered by ACLS. Non-ACLS fellowships, grants, or sabbatical salary may be held concurrently with a Burkhardt fellowship, up to but not exceeding a normal academic year salary or the $75,000 award, whichever is higher. If the $75,000 stipend exceeds the Fellow's normal academic-year salary and the Fellow has no other sources of support, the excess will be available for research and travel expenses. Successful applicants who accept a Burkhardt fellowship will be withdrawn from any other ACLS competitions.

Eligibility

The Burkhardt Fellowship Program is open to recently tenured humanists—scholars who will have begun their first tenured contracts by the application deadline but began their first tenured contracts no earlier than the fall 2005 semester or quarter. An applicant must be employed in a tenured position at a degree-granting academic institution in the United States, remaining so for the duration of the fellowship. US citizenship or permanent residency is not required, and previous supported research leaves do not affect eligibility for the Burkhardt Fellowship.

Application Requirements

Applications must be submitted online and must include:

• Completed application form
• Proposal (no more than 10 pages, double spaced, in Times New Roman 11-point font)
• Bibliography (no more than three pages)
• Publications list (no more than two pages)
• Three reference letters
• Institutional statement

For Objectives, Schedule and Participating Residential Research Centers, please visit the following site for more info: http://cls.org/programs/burkhardt