ACLS Awards 45 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the 2025 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellows, made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation.

The program supports 45 doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences as they pursue innovative approaches to dissertation research, including new methodologies, formats, and collaborations with community partners beyond the academy. ACLS launched the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship Program in 2023 to advance change in humanistic scholarship by recognizing emerging scholars who take risks in the modes, methods, and subjects of their research.

“ACLS is proud to support these fellows, who are poised to conduct groundbreaking dissertation research and broaden the audience for humanistic scholarship,” said Alison Chang, ACLS Program Officer in US Programs. “Their innovative projects not only produce new avenues of knowledge, but also inspire the evolution of doctoral education across the humanities and social sciences.”

This year’s cohort of 45 fellows was selected from a pool of nearly 900 applicants through a rigorous, multi-stage peer review process that drew on the expertise of more than 150 scholars across the country. Each fellow receives an award of up to $52,000, consisting of a $42,000 stipend; up to $8,000 for project-related research, training, professional development, and travel; and a $2,000 stipend to support external mentorship that offers new perspectives on the fellow’s project and expands their advising network.

The 2025 awardees will pursue a range of approaches to the dissertation, incorporating trans- and inter-disciplinary research, mixed methodologies, and non-traditional scholarly formats. Their research includes:

• a project at the juncture of migration studies and affective geographies that examines how undocumented migrants use care package courier services to maintain familial and community relationships across the US-Mexico border
• a project incorporating hands-on intensive training in traditional methods of cellulosic fiber production to illuminate the history of Korean indentureship on Mexican agave fiber plantations in the early twentieth century
• a study employing a mix of historical GIS, climatological analysis, traditional archives, and oral history methods to position tropical cities in South and Southeast Asia as crucibles of localized climate change
• a project that bridges the gap between practice and theory to explore radio’s role as one of the most ubiquitous ways Black American women engaged with sound and organized during moments of political upheaval throughout the twentieth century

• research integrating methods in climate science and historical research to interrogate the ways natural disasters informed, shaped, and constrained the actions of historical figures and political entities in pre-colonial Panjab, India