Tulane School of Liberal Arts and the Office of Corporate & Foundation Relations Fellowship Opportunities at the American Council of Learned Societies.

Tulane School of Liberal Arts and the Office of Corporate & Foundation Relations

Fellowship Opportunities at the American Council of Learned Societies

September 3, 2015

ACLS Information Session, 2015

• Kevin Gotham – Associate Dean of Grants, Research, and Graduate Programs

• Lou Franchina– Senior Development Officer,

Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR)

• Gaurav Desai – Professor of English– ACLS recipient and reviewer

Presentation Topics

1. Introduction to Grant Writing

2. Working with the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR)

3. ACLS

4. Q & A

Why Does Tulane Want You to Write Grants?

• High visibility for the university• Overhead or indirect costs help balance the

university budget and pay for administration• Contributes to prestige and national ranking of

the university• Help to overall research infrastructure, fund

graduate students, and support graduate programs

Why Do You Want to Write Grants and Pursue External Funding?

• Summer salary, course release, reduced teaching load, travel, funds for equipment

• Raises your research visibility

• Opens doors to consulting, collaborative research, new research agendas, etc.

• Increases opportunities for writing, national & international presentations, and shaping public policy

• Grants will help you make tenure

Some Ground Rules

• Please check Tulane’s Investigator Manual before starting a proposal

• Faculty should not be submitting grant proposals directly to private foundations or government agencies

• While there are some exceptions, awards are granted to the institutions and not to individuals per se

• ACLS proposals must be submitted to the SLA Dean’s Office before they go to CFR

SLA Top-Off Policy

• The SLA Dean’s office will supplement a grant to equal the individual’s salary

• The Dean’s office cannot provide the entire salary for an unpaid grant if it does not fall during a sabbatical year

• In terms of grants and durations, SLA’s policy for a “top-off” is limited to approximately 33 percent of academic year salary

• All requests for top-offs must be negotiated with the SLA Dean

What Can Corporate and Foundation Relations Do to Help You?

• Provide information about funding opportunities• Provide assistance with forms and attachments• Work with you to develop budgets• Serve as a liaison to private foundations• Serve as a liaison to university-wide corporate

relationships• Identify internal collaborators • Provide assistance with proposal development, budgets,

submission, and stewardship reporting• Secure leadership signatures as needed

What don’t we do?

– Student funding– Intellectual property contracts– Government/public funding– Grants paid directly to individuals– Grants from other universities– Adjunct or Professor of Practice grants unless

paired with tenure track faculty

– When in doubt, ask me.

What ACLS Wants

• You learned it in kindergarten:

– Follow the directions– Answer the questions– Speak clearly– Be honest

– Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

Internal Process

• Paid out to Tulane in a specific faculty/staff member’s name

• Notify SLA Dean’s Office– Sabbatical involved– Release time– Salary implications (topping off)

• Work with me in CFR• Do not need to route through SPA

ACLS

• Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities• Maintaining and Strengthening Relationships

among Learned Societies• Exploring New Methods and Subjects of

Humanities Research• Representing Humanities Scholarship at

Home and Abroad• Developing Reference Works and Critical

Editions

Overview

• Created in 1919

• $165,207,375 in assets (June 30, 2014)

• Gave $16,000,000+ in 2014-15

• 350 fellowships out of 3,500 applicants

• Most awarded disciplines: – History (all regions)– Literature

Overview (cont’d)

• Amount of fellowship determined by your rank plus, in some cases, research costs

• Generally require a “major scholarly work” product

• They will give you reviewer comments if you request by email

ACLS Does NOT Fund

• Undergraduate study• Curricular, pedagogical, or other studies directed primarily

toward the improvement of education, or for the preparation or revision of textbooks

• Editing and publication of research already in manuscript• Straightforward translation projects• Travel for lecturing, teaching, or participating in meetings,

conferences, or workshops (except for Comparative Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society grants and the Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies)

• Creative work (e.g., novels, films, performance, or music composition)

Applying for a Fellowship

• Not mutually exclusive • US Citizenship required for most• For most, cannot have taken research

leave in past 2 years• Most cannot begin before July 2016• The fellowship stipend level may be

reduced so that the combination of stipend and sabbatical salary does not exceed the amount of your full academic year salary.

Process

• Completed application form• Proposal (no more than five pages, double spaced, in

Times New Roman 11-point font)• Up to two additional pages of images, musical scores, or

other similar supporting non-text materials [optional]• Bibliography (no more than two pages)• Publications list (no more than two pages)• Two reference letters

• Guidelines available: http://acls.org/programs/comps/

Applicable Fellowships

• ACLS Fellowship (Core)— ACLS/NEH International and Area Studies Fellowships (Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union)— ACLS/New York Public Library Fellowships

• Burkhardt• Collaborative Research• Chinese Studies (Luce)• Buddhist Studies (Ho)

ACLS Fellowships (Sept. 23)• Assistant, Associate and Full Professors• $35,000 (25), $45,000 (25), $70,000 (20)• 1,000+ applicants/ 70 fellows• Six to twelve months of continuous, full-time research• Work initiated between July 1, 2016 and Feb. 1, 2017• Eligibility:

— US citizenship or permanent resident status as of the application deadline date.

— a PhD degree conferred at least two years before the application deadline.

— a lapse of at least two years between the last “supported research leave” and Sept. 1, 2016

Burkhardt (Sept. 23)• $75,000 (plus funds for research costs and related scholarly

activities of up to $5,000 and for relocation up to $2,000) 10• “long-term, unusually ambitious projects”• Linked to 13 interdisciplinary centers• Must be in residence 9 months• 2016-17 (or ‘17-’18, or ‘18-’19), but must

commit to year and center on application• Applicants will have begun their first tenured

contracts by the application deadline but no earlier than fall 2011

Collaborative Research (Sept. 23)

• Up to $200,000* per project (8) ($60/$20)• Up to 24 months• Encourage junior scholars working with

senior scholars• Preference for collaborators at different

institutions of higher education

China Studies (Nov. 4)• Luce/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowship in China Studies

– Up to $50,000 – Research in China for publication in English– Should have established Chinese contacts

• Collaborative Reading Workshops– Up to $15,000– Must be held between June 2016 and Sept. 2017

• Comparative Perspectives on Chinese Culture & Society– Up to $25,000, conferences; $10,000 to $15,000,

workshops and seminars; up to $6,000, planning meetings– Must be held between June 2016 and Dec. 2017

Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies

(Nov. 17)

• Postdoc Fellowship—$60,000

• Collaborative Research—$200,000

• Research Fellowships—$70,000

What ACLS Wants

Gaurav DesaiGaurav Desai is Professor of English and has a joint appointment in the Program of African and African Diaspora Studies at Tulane University.

Office: Norman Mayer 213 • 862-8162 • [email protected]

Recipient of a residential fellowship at the National Humanities Center in 2001, Desai has also been awarded a Rockefeller Foundation award for a residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy, a visiting fellowship at the Center for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and the Humanities at Cambridge University, and an ACLS Burkhardt Fellowship for his research. In 2004, Desai was made a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University.

What ACLS Wants

Q: Whom should I ask to write my letters of recommendation?A: Your main priority should be to secure letters from referees who can write strong, specific letters on your behalf, preferably those who can comment on the proposed project. Reviewers sometimes have concerns about letters from colleagues in your department or from dissertation advisors, and often prefer "arm's length" letters from scholars who can attest to the significance of your work in the field and have less personal interest vested in your success. It's good to be able to show that you have placed yourself in the field, not merely in the department or institution where you are employed or did your graduate work. Think carefully about who can write the best letters and weigh that against personal connections. Applicants at early career stages will rely more on dissertation advisors as advocates. In any case, you will want your referees to be tenured scholars.

What ACLS Wants

Q: Who is reading my proposal?A: Proposals will be reviewed in two stages. At the first stage, three established scholars in your discipline (and/or regional area of study) will judge your proposal. These reviewers may or may not specialize in the particular sub-field(s) covered in your proposal. The first stage of review determines which applications will go on to the final stage. At that point, applications are reviewed by a panel of scholars whose collective expertise covers a range of disciplines in the humanities and humanities-related social sciences.

Q: What other proposals will my application be judged against?A: At the first stage, your application will be reviewed in the context of others at your rank in the profession (assistant, associate, or full professor or equivalents) in your discipline. In the second stage, your application will be judged against others at your rank, but in various disciplines.

What ACLS Wants

Q: Since my application will be read by both experts in my area and in a range of humanistic fields, how should I pitch my proposal?A: To address experts in your field, explain why this project offers insight into the issues of your discipline, and make clear what question or problem is being addressed. In addition, though, be sure to explain any terms that might not be familiar to those outside your field or subfield, and discuss the significance of your project within your field. In a section of the application separate from the body of the proposal, you are also asked to address the significance of your proposed project for the humanities.

What ACLS Wants

Q: How much of the proposal should be devoted to explaining methodology, the project's significance, theoretical framework, work plan, etc.?A: The portion of the proposal that should be devoted to its constituent parts varies according to the proposed project. An important part of the application process is gauging the most central elements of your project and presenting those elements to your best advantage within the specified word/page limit.

Clearance

• Any application for external funding to a corporation, foundation, or association must go through Corporate & Foundation Relations and must be submitted to the Dean’s Office (i.e.—work with Kevin)

• Contact me if you want to submit:– [email protected] or 314.7308