Description

In June 2012, the Luce Foundation’s Directors approved a two-year grant of $1.2 million to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) to launch a Program in China Studies, envisioned as a multi-year initiative. It represented the third grant awarded through the Foundation’s 75th Anniversary Initiative. The Foundation has since provided an additional $4,285,000 for the program, which has supported eight annual rounds of awards in three categories of competition: pre-dissertation travel grants to China to conduct reconnaissance for research (128 to date); fellowships for early career scholars (pre-tenure, within eight years of the PhD) for research in and on China and writing toward a major scholarly product (76); and grants for groups of faculty and graduate students to engage in interdisciplinary, close reading of primary texts (34). For the program’s ninth year, ACLS proposes to devote the requested funds toward continuation of the early career fellowships and, with the help of an advisory group, assessment of the program in the context of the current state of China studies in North America and its future prospects. Our grant would support eight early career fellowships, with matching support for another two coming from NEH. The fellowship committee will be charged with selecting a diverse cohort in terms of demographics, university affiliation and educational background as well as research topics, disciplines, methodological approaches and periods investigated. Special attention will be given to encouraging applications from scholars in contingent positions and those at teaching-intensive institutions. This is in line with recommendations from an external evaluation of the program in 2018 as well as with ACLS’s current examination of the openness of all its fellowship competitions to scholars from underrepresented groups or whose voices have otherwise been marginalized. The advisory group of six scholars will collect statistical and other information, analyze the condition of the field and of the Luce/ACLS program’s contributions to it, and design two retreats with Luce/ACLS fellows and others. As a part of their assignment, the advisors will be asked to prepare recommendations for new directions in China studies, including how the program might be redesigned to respond to or drive change in the field and in higher education more broadly. The retreats will provide opportunities to review the advisory group’s findings alongside discussion of the fellows’ research projects and the challenges faced by scholars entering the field. Representatives of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and members of its Public Intellectuals Program will be invited to join for input on public-facing scholarship and engagement with communities outside the academy, particularly salient given the downward turn in U.S.-China relations and the climate of xenophobia and nationalism in both countries. The retreats are envisioned to be in-person gatherings but ACLS is prepared for virtual meetings if circumstances warrant. In addition to the fellowships of $50,000 each, the grant will support honoraria for the fellowship selection committee and the advisory group, stipends for graduate student assistance in data gathering, expenses associated with the retreats, and direct administrative costs. An unspent balance from our grant for the 2019 competition will be applied to the retreats and additional funding for the fellowships will be provided by the NEH. Recommendation:                          That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a one-year grant of $575,000 to the American Council of Learned Societies for early career fellowships and assessment of the Program in China Studies. www.acls.org https://www.acls.org/Competitions-and-Deadlines/Luce-ACLS-Program-in-China-Studies