Twenty Faculty Awards Support Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

NEW YORK, April 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the 2026 awardees of the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grant Program, which supports exceptional research by faculty in the humanities and interpretive social sciences at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Eight fellows will receive up to $50,000 each to support long-term engagement with a research project. Twelve grantees will receive up to $10,000 each to support project development and smaller scale research projects.

This year’s 20 awards support faculty at 18 different HBCUs—large and small, private and public.

“This year’s 20 awards support faculty at 18 different HBCUs—large and small, private and public,” said Nike Nivar Ortiz, ACLS Program Officer in US Programs. “The breadth of institutions, scholarly fields, and research methods represented in this year’s awardees shows the depth of the scholarship found across the HBCU system. ACLS is proud to continue our support for faculty at HBCUs, which play a pivotal role in American higher education and history.”

This year’s awarded projects take up local HBCU and community histories, pressing national issues, key literary figures, and complex transnational movements. Funded projects include a history of the African American Union soldiers who founded Lincoln University of Missouri; an examination of women’s political participation in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1930-1965; an exploration of the moral, economic, and legal case for Black reparations; and a study of marginalized perspectives in African diasporic opera. The research spans a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including African American studies, linguistics, philosophy, religious studies, and theater and performance studies.

Learn more about the 2026 ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellows and ACLS HBCU Faculty Grantees and their projects.

Now in its third year, the program was developed in consultation with HBCU faculty and administrators to attend to the unique teaching and service commitments of faculty at HBCUs. The awards include networking and professional development opportunities, as well as an additional grant of $2,500 to the awardee’s home institution to support humanities programming or infrastructure.

The ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grant Program is funded primarily by the ACLS endowment, which has benefited from the generous support of esteemed funders, institutional members, and individual donors since our founding in 1919.

Formed a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 81 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS expands the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting our commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship.