ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowships

ACLS invites applications for the sixth annual competition for the ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowships, thanks to the generous assistance of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This program supports digitally based research projects in all disciplines of the humanities and humanities-related social sciences (1). It is hoped that projects of successful applicants will help advance digital humanistic scholarship by broadening understanding of its nature and exemplifying the robust infrastructure necessary for creating such works.

ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowships are intended to support an academic year dedicated to work on a major scholarly project that takes a digital form. Projects may involve development of:

• new digital tools that further humanistic research (such as digital research archives or innovative databases),
• research that depends on or is greatly enhanced by the use of such tools,
• the representation of research that depends on or is greatly enhanced by the use of such tools,
• or some combination of these features.

ACLS will award up to six ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowships in this competition year, including one project on which two scholars are collaborating. Collaborating scholars should apply separately and indicate that their project is collaborative. Each fellowship carries a stipend of up to $60,000 towards an academic year’s leave and provides for project costs of up to $25,000. ACLS does not support creative works (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translations, or purely pedagogical projects.

This year’s successful applicants may take up the fellowship in 2011-2012 or at any time up to September 1, 2012, but candidates must commit themselves firmly to their preferred timeframe on their completed applications.

ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowships are intended as salary replacement and may be held concurrently with other fellowships and grants and any sabbatical pay up to an amount equal to the candidate's current academic year salary.

Given the nature of the program, proposals need to explicitly state the means and tools (software, applications, interfaces) to be used to accomplish the project’s goals. Furthermore, a project plan and budget are required. A special feature of the ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowships is the requirement of a project plan and budget. These fellowships are also unusual in that they include provision for additional project costs. Such project costs may be used for various purposes directly pertaining to the proposed project (see below); institutional indirect costs will not be covered.

Objectives

The aim of this program is to provide scholars the means to pursue intellectually significant projects that deploy digital technologies intensively and innovatively.

The fellowship therefore includes a stipend to allow an academic year’s leave from teaching, and funds that may be used for purposes such as:

1. Access to tools and personnel for digital production. This could include acquiring hardware and software, engaging consultants, or purchasing access to digital collections. Preference will be given to project plans that make the most efficient use of existing cyberinfrastructure, either on the applicant’s campus, host institution, or beyond.
2. Collaborative work. Applications are encouraged that include, where appropriate, plans for contact with centers for humanities computing or with disciplinary and interdisciplinary research centers (such as campus and national humanities centers).
3. Dissemination and Preservation. Applicants must specify how their projects will be presented and preserved. Applicants should also outline strategies for raising the visibility of their projects at workshops, seminars, conferences, and meetings of their field or discipline.

While demonstration of scholarly excellence will be the primary criterion for selection, such excellence should be manifest in the digital context. Applicants should discuss both the intellectual ambitions of the project and its technological underpinnings. Proposals should specify how digital technologies add value to humanistic study.

Further, proposals will be evaluated relative to the technical requirements for completing a successful research project; evidence of significant preliminary work already completed; the comparative advantage of the proposed project as measured against other, related or similar projects; and (as appropriate) those features of the proposal that would promote teamwork and collaboration in the course of the project. Successful applicants should also indicate how their projects articulate with the local infrastructure at their home institutions or the institution hosting the project.

Applicants must present a coherent plan for development of their project, including a description of tasks to be accomplished within the period of the fellowship, and the budget required for those tasks. The project budget is an essential element of the application and its evaluation will weigh in the overall selection process. The project plan should reflect a thoughtful approach to the project’s sustainability, scalability, dissemination, and preservation, and include a statement addressing intellectual property issues.

All applications must include the endorsement of a senior administrator of the applicant’s institution or the institution hosting the project. This endorsement should include discussion of how the institution’s existing cyberinfrastructure complements and supports the technologies to be developed for the specified project.

Eligibility

1. This program is open to scholars in all fields of the humanities and the humanistic social sciences.
2. Applicants must have a Ph.D. degree conferred prior to the application deadline. (An established scholar who can demonstrate the equivalent of the Ph.D. in publications and professional experience may also qualify.)
3. U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status is required as of the application deadline.

Application Requirements

Applications must be submitted online and must include:

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

Criteria Used in Judging ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowship Applications

Peer reviewers in this program are asked to evaluate all eligible proposals on the following six criteria:

1. Scholarly excellence, in terms of the project’s intellectual ambitions and technological underpinnings.
2. The project’s likely contribution as a digital scholarly work to humanistic study.
3. Satisfaction of technical requirements for completing a successful research project.
4. Degree and significance of preliminary work already completed.
5. Extent to which the proposed project would promote teamwork and collaboration (where appropriate).
6. The project’s articulation with local infrastructure at the applicant’s home institution or at the institution hosting the project.
   

1. Appropriate fields of specialization include but are not limited to: American studies; anthropology; archaeology; art and architectural history; classics; economics; film; geography; history; languages and literatures; legal studies; linguistics; musicology; philosophy; political science; psychology; religious studies; rhetoric, communication, and media studies; sociology; and theater, dance, and performance studies. Proposals in the social science fields listed above are eligible only if they employ predominantly humanistic approaches (e.g., economic history, law and literature, political theory). Proposals in interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary studies are welcome, as are proposals focused on any geographic region or on any cultural or linguistic group. Back to text.