NEH will hold a webinar for nominators and prospective applicants on Wednesday July 10, 2024 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT. NEH staff will introduce the program, explain some changes for the 2024 competition, describe the application and nomination process, and offer some application-writing suggestions. There will be a chance to ask questions, captions will be available, and the webinar will be recorded so others can watch it later. Click here to register.
Purpose:
The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Stipends program aims to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication. The program works to accomplish this goal by:
- Providing small awards to individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both
- Supporting projects at any stage of development, but especially early-stage research and late-stage writing in which small awards are most effective
- Funding a wide range of individuals, including independent scholars, community college faculty, and non-teaching staff at universities
Summer Stipends support continuous full-time work on research-based projects in the humanities for a period of two consecutive months. NEH funds may support recipients’ compensation, travel, and other costs related to the proposed scholarly research.
NEH awards Summer Stipends to individuals. Organizations are not eligible to apply, although scholars who are tenured or on a tenure track who teach full time must be nominated by their institution of higher education
Program Outputs
The outputs of a successful Summer Stipends award may include, but are not limited to, articles, books, digital resources and publications, archaeological reports, critical editions, translations (with annotations or critical apparatus), and other scholarly resources, or research intended to be disseminated in one or more of those formats.
NEH Areas of Interest
NEH seeks to support projects that respond to the following initiative. NEH will give all applications equal consideration in accordance with the program’s review criteria.
American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future
- American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future is a wide-ranging special initiative at NEH that leverages the humanities to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time: strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate. The initiative encourages humanities projects that elevate the role of civics in schools and public programs, advance knowledge of the country’s history and political institutions, and examine threats to its democratic principles. The initiative also encourages projects that explore the untold stories of historically underrepresented groups and build capacity at cultural and educational institutions to benefit underserved communities. Finally, the initiative welcomes projects that promote research into the historical roots and cultural effects of climate change and support the cultural and educational sectors in building climate resilience. By supporting humanities projects that align with these three themes – strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate – the American Tapestry initiative seeks to tell our country’s history in all its complexity and diversity.
United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture
- Hate must have no safe harbor in America – especially when that hate fuels the kind of violence we’ve seen from Oak Creek to Pittsburgh, from El Paso to Poway, and from Atlanta to Buffalo. When ordinary Americans cannot participate in the basic activities of everyday life – such as shopping at the grocery store or praying at their house of worship – without the fear of being targeted and killed for who they are, our security as well as democracy are at risk. In coordination with the White House “United We Stand” Summit in September 2022, NEH launched a new initiative titled United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture that uses the humanities to combat hate-motivated violence and promote civic engagement, social cohesion, and cross-cultural understanding. As a part of this initiative, NEH encourages humanities projects that further our understanding of the nation’s racial, ethnic, gender, and religious diversity; examine the sources of hate and intolerance in the United States; and explore progress towards greater inclusiveness. NEH especially welcomes projects that explore the Muslim American and/or the Jewish American experience, including the history of Islamophobia and/or antisemitism.
NEH’s Support for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative
- As a part of NEH’s partnership with the Department of the Interior on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, NEH encourages projects that further public understanding and knowledge of the Federal Indian boarding school system. From 1819 through the 1970s the government of the United States operated a system of schools for Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children premised on a policy of coerced cultural assimilation. Native children were forcibly separated from their families and sent to attend federal Indian boarding schools, where they were frequently subject to harsh treatment and abuse. A number of these students died, and others never returned to their families and communities. Many were also deprived of their cultural inheritance. NEH encourages projects that document and explore the history of the federal Indian boarding schools as well as projects that contribute to Native and Indigenous cultural and language revitalization.
Faculty nomination
If you are tenured or on a tenure track and teach full time at an institution of higher education that is not exempt from nomination, your institution must nominate you to apply for a Summer Stipend. Institutions of higher education in the United States and its jurisdictions may each nominate only one faculty members at this deadline. The program limits eligibility to individuals who have not previously held an NEH award in any of its programs for individuals. Self-nominations are not allowed.
Each institution must designate a single nominating official, usually an academic vice president or dean. Nominating officials must announce the selection procedures to all prospective applicants and conduct fair and open competitions to select their institutions’ nominees. NEH is not responsible for the nomination procedures established by any institution of higher education.
Funding Restrictions
Awards made under this notice may not be used for the following purposes:
- research by students enrolled in a degree program. including research for doctoral dissertations or theses
- training or coursework for the applicant
- support for graduate student assistants
- the preparation or revision of textbooks
- curriculum development
- the development of teaching methods or theories
- educational or technical impact assessments
- inventories of collections
- the writing of guide books, how-to books, and self-help books
- promotion of a particular political, religious, or ideological point of view
- advocacy of a particular program of social or political action
- support of specific public policies or legislation
- lobbying
- projects that fall outside of the humanities; the creation or performance of art; creative writing, autobiographies, memoirs, and creative nonfiction; and quantitative and/or policy-driven social science research
Please upload one PDF file (File name: Last name_NEH Summer Stipend_2024.pdf) containing the following items in order:
1. Narrative—Not to Exceed Three Single-Spaced Pages
Applicants should provide an intellectual justification for their projects, conveying the ideas, objectives, methods, and work plan. A simple statement of need or intent is insufficient. The narrative should not assume specialized knowledge and should be free of technical terms and jargon.
In the course of writing a narrative, applicants should address the following areas:
- Significance and contribution: Describe the intellectual significance of your proposed project, including its value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. State the project’s thesis or claim and provide an overview, explaining the basic ideas, problems, or questions examined by the study. Explain how the project will complement, challenge, or expand relevant studies in the field.
- Organization and Methods: Describe your method(s) and clarify the part or stage of the project that will be supported by the Summer Stipend. For a dissertation revision, state that your project is to revise a dissertation. Explain how you plan to move beyond the original dissertation, and how the new project will benefit from the addition. For book projects, explain how the final project will be organized. If possible, provide a brief chapter outline. For article projects, provide an overview of the article, including details about the argument, sources, and word count. For digital projects, describe the technologies that will be used and developed, and explain how the scholarship will be presented to benefit audiences in the humanities. For edition or translation projects, describe the annotations or other scholarly apparatus that you plan to include. If you are proposing to translate into English a work for which other English translations already exist, provide a rationale for the new translation.
- Competencies, skills, and access: Explain your competence in the area of your project. If the area of inquiry is new to you, explain your reasons for working in it and your qualifications to do so. Specify your level of competence in any language or digital technology needed for the study. Describe where the study will be conducted and what research materials will be used. If relevant, specify the arrangements for access to archives, collections, or institutions that contain the necessary resources. If the project involves materials under copyright, indicate your plans for securing the necessary permission to publish.
- Final product and dissemination: Describe the intended audience and the intended results of the project. If relevant, explain how the results will be disseminated and why these means are appropriate to the subject matter and audience. While a publication contract is not required, describe expressions of interest from publisher(s), if applicable. If the final product will appear in a language other than English, explain how access and dissemination will be affected. If you are planning to develop a website or other digital material, explain how the public will access the material. Since NEH expects recipients to provide broad access to all award products, insofar as the conditions of the materials and intellectual property rights allow, explain any plans that would require a paywall or other charge for digital access. If the project has a website, provide the URL. NEH expects that any materials produced in digital form as a result of its awards will be maintained to ensure their long-term availability. To that end, describe how the project’s digital results, if any, will be maintained and supported beyond the period of performance.
2. Bibliography—Not to Exceed One Single-Spaced Page
The bibliography should consist of primary and secondary sources that relate directly to the project. Include works that pertain to both the project’s substance and its theoretical or methodological approaches. Evaluators will use the bibliography to assess your knowledge of the subject area. Any standard format is acceptable.
3. CV—Not to Exceed Two Single-Spaced Pages
If you have received prior support from NEH, you are not eligible to receive the NEH Summer Stipend. When applicable, provide the dollar amount of any awards or fellowships that you received in the three years preceding the application deadline
Formatting Guidelines:
- Font/size: no smaller than 11 pt.
- Document margins: 1.0” (top, bottom, left and right)
- Standard paper size (8 ½” x 11)
Questions concerning the limited submissions process may be submitted to limitedsubs@psu.edu.