The mission of the ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies) is to promote inclusion, equity, and diversity in the scholarly enterprise. They aim to enhance the scholarly enterprise by being broadly inclusive and welcoming of different backgrounds, cultures, and identities. This reflects in their fellowship programs which encourage applications from diverse backgrounds, recognizing the value that such diversity brings to scholarship.
The Leading Edge Fellowships program aims to bridge the gap between academia and social justice efforts in communities by placing recent humanities PhDs in nonprofit organizations focused on promoting social justice. The program recognizes the unique skills that humanities PhDs bring, such as advanced communication, research, project management, and creative problem solving, and seeks to utilize these skills in substantive roles within these organizations. The fellowship is inclusive of PhDs from all fields of the humanities and interpretive social sciences and emphasizes the value of inclusion, equity, and diversity. Fellows are provided with a stipend, health insurance, professional development funding, and relocation funds, with the fellowship tenure lasting 24 months. The ACLS facilitates webinars to assist applicants with their applications and to provide additional information about the fellowship.