2021/2021 Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowships in the History of Art in the USA

ACLS invites applications for Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowships in the History of Art, made possible by the generous support of the Getty Foundation. These fellowships are intended to provide early career scholars from around the world with time to undertake research and/or writing for projects that will make substantial and original contributions to the understanding of art and its history. The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant. ACLS does not fund creative work (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translation, or pedagogical projects.

ACLS will award 10 fellowships, each with a stipend of $60,000, plus $5,000 for research and travel during the award period. The fellowships are portable: a fellow may elect to take up the award at any appropriate site for the work proposed, including abroad.

Awards also include a special one-week residence at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles following the fellowship period. The residence offers Getty/ACLS fellows a structured, personalized orientation to the Getty’s rich holdings and provides a forum for them to network and present their research to each other and to Getty curators and staff.

Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowships may not be held concurrently with other fellowships and grants. Tenure of the award must encompass the entirety of the 2021-22 academic year, during which fellows must devote themselves to full-time research and writing. The residence for 2021-22 Getty/ACLS Fellows will be held in July 2022 (the exact date is to be determined).

Please read carefully through the eligibility, application requirements, and evaluation criteria detailed here as well as accompanying FAQ.

Eligibility

• Applicants must have a PhD that was conferred between September 1, 2015 and December 31, 2019.
• Applicants who earned their PhDs in and/or are currently employed in any humanistic field may apply, so long as they demonstrate that their research draws substantially on the materials, methods, and/or findings of art history, and contributes to the field. Scholars may propose new approaches to art historical scholarship and/or explore connections between art history and other humanistic disciplines.
• This program welcomes proposals from applicants without restriction as to citizenship, country of residency, location of work proposed, or employment.
• An application must be completed in English by the applicant.

Application Requirements
Applications must be submitted online and must include:

• Completed application form
• Proposal (no more than ten pages, double spaced, in Times New Roman 11-point font). The proposal must include the following subsections, and you may allocate available page space among these three sections as you see fit:
  • Project Description, including a summary of the project’s current stage of development, grounding in the relevant scholarly literature, theoretical framework(s), and significance for the field.
  • Project Workplan, including a description of what will be accomplished during the fellowship term; what methodological approach(es) and materials will be used; the scholar’s preparation to undertake the work described therein; and a rationale for the proposed research site(s).
  • Expected Products (book, journal article, digital project, etc.)
• Up to three additional pages of images or other supporting non-text materials (optional). Each image should include a citation, photo or image credit (where applicable), and a one-to-two sentence explanation of why the image was selected for inclusion.
• Writing sample of no more than 15 pages, double spaced, in Times New Roman 11-point font; the sample may be a complete work or a representative excerpt from a book or journal article. Writing samples must be in English, though citations may be in other languages (with translations provided).
• Project bibliography (no more than two pages)
• Publications list (no more than two pages)
• Two reference letters

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

1. The potential of the project to advance the field of art history and make an original and significant contribution to knowledge of art and its history.
2. The quality of the proposal with regard to its methodology, scope, theoretical framework, and grounding in the relevant scholarly literature.
3. The feasibility of the project and the likelihood that the applicant will execute the work within the proposed time frame.
4. The applicant’s scholarly record and potential for scholarly achievement.

Reviewers are asked to be mindful of ACLS’s commitment to inclusive excellence, and of how equity and diversity are integral components of merit.

The online fellowship and grant administration (OFA) system is now open for applications.