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 provided renewal grants for the program in March 2014 ($660,000), March 2015 ($625,000) and March 2016 ($1.5 million), for a total of approximately $4 million for the program over six years.
Conducting research in China requires language ability and cultural competence, advance reconnaissance of field sites and archives, the securing of permissions and introductions, familiarity with a growing body of contemporary Chinese scholarship, and sustained exchange with Chinese counterparts. Yet because of the general decline in funding for scholarship on other world areas, researchers at even well-endowed universities are feeling financial pressure.
The goal of the Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies is to maintain the vitality of the field in North America through grants and fellowships designed primarily for early career scholars. Moreover, ACLS emphasizes that the awards fill a gap by supporting qualitative approaches in studies of history, culture, the arts and other humanities topics.
The program offers three categories of support: pre-dissertation travel grants for a visit to China of up to four months to assess sites for research and make professional contacts; for scholars within eight years of the PhD, fellowships for research in China and writing toward a major scholarly product; and collaborative workshop grants for groups of faculty and graduate students to engage in close, interdisciplinary reading of primary texts (which can include works of art), chosen for illuminating the cultures, histories and societies of China. ACLS solicits applications in the United States and Canada and convenes a committee of distinguished experts to make decisions on awards. Eligibility is open to applicants in the humanities and related social sciences, with selection criteria based on the innovation and intrinsic intellectual merit of the project. To date, six rounds of awards have been made (92 pre-dissertation; 55 postdoctoral; 26 workshop).
The Asia Program recommends a grant of $750,000 to ACLS for the competition’s seventh year. This amount would support 17 pre-dissertation travel grants of up to $5,000; 10 postdoctoral research fellowships of up to $50,000; and four collaborative workshop grants of up to $15,000. Since 2013, the National Endowment for the Humanities has provided supplementary funding for two of the postdoctoral fellowships. NEH and the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation also cover a portion of the selection committee expenses.
In this seventh year, ACLS proposes to engage an independent consultant to conduct a review of six years of the program and write a report to the Foundation. The objective of the review is to better understand the effectiveness of the program’s fellowship and grant competitions in strengthening the field of China studies by attention to the needs of scholars at the early career level, to address the special challenges of research in China, and to inform the program’s future directions.
Pauline Yu is the president of the American Council of Learned Societies.
Recommendation: That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a one-year grant of $750,000 to the American Council of Learned Societies for ongoing support of the Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies.
