Application to Host a Leading Edge Fellow - Letter of Inquiry

Primary Contact

Welcome! Thank you for your interest in hosting an ACLS Leading Edge Fellow. This portal is for organizations seeking to host a fellow selected in the Spring 2025 competition for work starting in September 2025. Please review our information for potential host organizations before completing the form below or the short written responses. Submissions will be accepted through this portal until midnight (EDT) on September 26, 2024.

The ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship program offers recent humanities PhDs two-year fellowship positions with organizations dedicated to advancing justice and equity in their communities. The program demonstrates the capacity of those with advanced training in the humanities to contribute to timely and meaningful social justice work. The Leading Edge Fellowship is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and is made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation.

Submissions are due by midnight ET, Thursday, September 26th, 2024.

*Please note that answers to the Fellowship Position questions should be a maximum of 150 words, and the Work and Workplace Questions should be a maximum of 500 words. The portal may accept a longer block of text, so make sure to check the length of your answer before you input it. You must complete the form in one session, your answers will not be saved. We recommend drafting your responses before completing the form. If you encounter problems with the form, please write to leadingedge@acls.org.

Organization

First Name

Last Name

Role/Position Title

Email Address

Phone

Website

Location of workplace
(city, state, or territory)

Additional Staff Contact Name

Additional Staff Contact Role

Additional Staff Contact
Email Address

Fellowship Position

Leading Edge Fellowship positions are designed to draw on the capacities of recent humanities PhDs, including their diverse cultural competencies and advanced skills in communication, facilitation, ethical story gathering and storytelling, ability to synthesize and reformulate large amounts of information, and systems-based approaches to problem solving. Fellows work in writing and communications, project management, information management, strategic planning, research, interviewing, digital media production, and more. The following section should present your vision for how a fellow might apply these skills to mission-advancing work with your organization.

How could a fellow contribute to your organization's work?

What department/division within your organization would most benefit from a fellows’ contributions?

Who (name and title) would supervise a fellow?

Brief description of projects and primary responsibilities for the fellow:

Desired work outcomes (What does success look like?):

Career fields and/or kinds of positions for which this role would prepare a fellow:

Work and Workplace Questions
(500 words per answer, please provide as much detail as possible within the 500 word limit)

Question 1

The Leading Edge program seeks host organizations whose mission and core work are dedicated to advancing social justice. Please include your organization’s mission statement, if applicable, and explain how your core work advances social justice.

Question 2

ACLS is committed to diversity and inclusion in our programs and to partnering with organizations whose workplaces maintain and enforce policies committed to safety, dignity, ethical conduct, and freedom from discrimination. Please briefly describe your organization's policies and practices of inclusion and anti-discrimination.

Question 3

Leading Edge Fellows are required to maintain health insurance for the period of the fellowship. How do your staff access health benefits (access to employer-based group health insurance, reimbursement for health costs, self-purchased public insurance, etc.)? Please give as much detail as you can within the space provided.

Question 4

How will your organization be able to contribute to a fellow’s career development? What resources and opportunities would be most useful for a recent humanities PhD building a career in your particular sector?

Question 5

Generally, we expect that ACLS Leading Edge Fellows will work in the same modality as their colleagues and teammates. Does your team operate primarily remotely, together in a physical office, or in a hybrid system? Please describe.

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