ACLS Community Message for July 2024

Two weeks ago, ACLS officially opened its 2024-25 fellowship and grant competitions and my colleagues and I are looking forward to submissions from scholars across the country and around the world, sharing innovative ideas for research in a wide variety of humanistic fields.

Since joining ACLS in 2021, I have watched our roster of programs change to meet the evolving needs of scholars in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, from the launch of the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship in 2023, to the development of the ACLS Digital Justice Grants, to new flexible and collaborative opportunities in our longstanding Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies. Each of these developments followed significant research, consultation, and listening to key stakeholders, a process that takes significant time but has proven essential to the success of these initiatives.

This work of assessment and exploration continues. After six years of administering the Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowships in the History of Art Program, ACLS partnered with Getty in 2023 to launch a yearlong research project on the evolving needs of the field of art history. Although our inquiry was focused on scholars in art history, the types of topics we discussed—including how doctoral students are trained, supports needed for scholars at every career stage, and the roles interdisciplinary research and public-facing scholarship play now and will in the future—resonate across all of our programs.

The research had three components: synthesizing existing literature on the field; collecting new data about the dimensions of the field in the United States; and interviewing 25 scholars from a range of institutions, including tenured and untenured faculty at research universities and teaching-intensive colleges, graduate students from a range of programs, board leadership at College Art Association, and curators and other professionals at a range of cultural institutions.  Having completed my PhD in art history nearly 15 years ago, I have had the privilege of seeing the field from the perspective of an emerging scholar, and now as a program officer with ACLS working with scholars across the field to promote new and innovative scholarship. I was excited at the prospect of speaking with a diverse group of art historians about the most pressing issues in the field.

All were candid about the challenges facing the field, but we were especially grateful for the generous thinking they brought to our conversations, often suggesting models for solutions and highlighting examples of initiatives, organizations, and programs that are trying to make significant change. We are working closely with a diverse advisory group of art historians and curators to synthesize the results of this work and generate recommendations, but several themes have already emerged:

• Scholars at all levels are eager for opportunities to learn new skills, build professional networks, and find avenues for cross-disciplinary dialogue.
• Emerging scholars need broader professional development in order to succeed in their postdoctoral career paths, whether they are those are within or beyond the academy, or both.
• Some of the most innovative and creative research happening today is pushing beyond traditional modes and spaces of scholarship, drawing thoughtfully on community voices and needs, employing a wide variety of tools and methodologies, and exploring cross-disciplinary collaboration.

As we near the conclusion of this research, we are eager to bring the lessons to our collaborations with current and former fellows and grantees, as well as our learned society and institutional members, and philanthropic partners, not only in art history, but across the entire spectrum of humanities and interpretive social science disciplines. As we develop and update our program offerings, we will continue to consult with scholars to hear their perspectives, concerns, and ideas for the future. Our work cannot be successful unless it represents the current and evolving needs of the scholars we aim to support.

Alison Chang
ACLS Program Officer for US Programs

Alison Chang is a Program Officer on the US Programs team, focusing on fellowship programs including the Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art and the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship. In her role, Alison oversees the administration of these programs from competition launch, peer review, award announcement, to programming and networking events for current fellows.