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UC Berkeley and the Arts & Humanities Division offer a number of resources to support faculty research, including grants and fellowships administered by the Dean’s office. In addition, staff from the Arts and Humanities Dean’s Office and from the Berkeley Research Development (BRDO) and Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy (FRCP) offices are on hand to help find and secure fellowships and grants from foundation, government, and other sources, both nationally and internationally.
Campus and systemwide funding opportunities include:
Advancing Faculty Diversity in the Arts & Humanities (AFDAH)
The Division of Arts and Humanities has launched a new program called Advancing Faculty Diversity (AFD) to strengthen and support departmental efforts in recruiting and retaining scholars working in underrepresented fields of study. We are thrilled to be able to fund a cohort of at least ten fellows over the course of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years as part of the mentorship and career development programs. Application deadline: late August
Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry (CICI)
CICI offers a number of grants to faculty and graduate students, including an exchange program in partnership with the Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich.
As the flagship courses of the Division, Compass Courses offer new undergraduate students the opportunity to learn from a team of faculty members in a dynamic format that explores a shared theme or topic using the various methods and materials of their respective disciplines. Compass course awards support instructors who teach a Compass Course with generous research funds, course enrichment funds, and GSI support. Deadline for next round October 2024.
Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities
The Townsend Center offers a range of grants to support collaborative work in the humanities, manuscript preparation, and conferences and lectures.
Funding Assistance for Book Publication
UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor for Research provides up to $3,000 to support the work of faculty whose merit, tenure, and promotion depends on the publication of books. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis through December 31, 2024. For additional information, contact vcr@berkeley.edu
This unique opportunity is designed to support assistant professors early in their career but after startup funding may be depleted. All assistant professors who have been at UC Berkeley for two years but who have not yet been formally recommended for tenure are eligible. The Vice Provost for Faculty’s office contacts eligible faculty directly each year.
Humanities Research Fellowship (HRF)
Offered by the Division of Arts & Humanities and funded by the McEnerney Endowment, the HRF supports faculty at critical junctures in their careers by enabling awardees to take sabbaticals with full pay before they have accrued sufficient sabbatical credits to do so otherwise. Applications are due annually in October.
UC Humanities Research Institute Grants
Based at UC Irvine, UC’s systemwide humanities research institute offers a number of grants for faculty and graduate students. Most applications are due January 31.
Repeating Annual Calls:
The FRCP and BRDO track non-campus funding opportunities, including annual calls and limited submissions. Current repeating grants are listed below. Please contact Aimee Chang for more information.
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) supports the creation and circulation of knowledge that advances understanding of humanity and human endeavors in the past, present, and future, with a view toward improving human experience. The ACLS supports individual scholars and scholarly teams around the world in their pursuit of research that advances knowledge in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Each year the ACLS issues a call for ACLS Fellowships, due in September, for 6- to 12-month research fellowships. Other upcoming fellowship and grant deadlines can be found here.
Provides fellowships for mid-career individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts and who exhibit great promise for future endeavors. Annual open call: application portal opens mid-August and deadline to submit applications is mid-September.
The Luce Foundation offers grants through eight programs: American art; Asia; women in STEM; democracy, ethics, and public trust; indigenous knowledge; a scholar program offering one-year professional placements in Asia; public policy; and religion and theology.
Mellon New Directions Fellowships
Provides funding for faculty awarded their Ph.D. within the last six to twelve years to undertake formal training in an area outside of their expertise. Please note that this is a limited submission opportunity and will need to be coordinated through the BRDO.
National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships
The NEA literature fellowships offer $25,000 grants in prose and poetry on an alternating annual basis to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement.
National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowships
Awards up to $25,000 to published translators for the translation of specific works of prose, poetry, or drama from other languages into English.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Perspective on Artificial Intelligence
This new agency-wide research initiative supports research projects that seek to understand and address the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI. NEH is particularly interested in projects that explore the impacts of AI-related technologies on truth, trust, and democracy; safety and security; and privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. Please note that the Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence opportunity is limited to one submission per institution and any UC Berkeley application will need to be coordinated through the BRDO. Due December 2025.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend program
Provides up to $6,000 to support full-time work on humanities projects over two months. Deadline September 2024.
Campus Resources
The Berkeley Research Development Office (BRDO) is available to help with all steps of the application process, from conceptualization to editing. Please contact Emma Attard in BRDO for assistance.
The Vice Chancellor for Research’s office (VCRO) also subscribes to PIVOT, a searchable database of funding opportunities offered by US and foreign agencies, foundations, corporations, and individual funders. Users need to create an account to access the database. The database will send you opportunities based on your profile so users are encouraged to add details about their research. A slidedeck and video from a recent training on using PIVOT are both available, along with an online user guide