ACLS provides support to the humanities in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine through this program, established in the academic year 1998-99 with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The program’s principal activity is the distribution of grants to individuals in these three countries. ACLS works closely with scholars in the region who represent a variety of disciplines: they advise on program design and help distribute and review applications. The review process includes prescreening by scholars in the United States. Final awards are made by the Selection Committee in New York.
The objective of these grants is to sustain individuals doing exemplary work, so as to ensure continued future leadership in the humanities. Awards are made for projects in various fields, including history, archaeology, literature, linguistics, film studies, art history and studies of the performing arts, ethnographic and cultural studies, gender studies, philosophy, and religious studies. The number of awards has grown from 55 in the first year (for project grants only), to 91 in 1999-2000 (from this year forward, grants have been for publications as well as projects), 71 in 2000-01, 81 in 2001-02, 79 in 2002-03, 58 in 2003-04, 56 in 2004-05, 53 in 2005-06, and 52 in 2006-07 (see Awardees and Reports).
To complement direct assistance to individuals, ACLS organizes annual regional meetings for advisers and grant recipients. These meetings are modeled on the format of learned society conventions in the United States. They consist of working seminars for advisers to make recommendations concerning the prospects for regional cooperation in the humanities and of panel sessions that provide the opportunity for critical but collegial discussion of the work being done by grant recipients.
Each year the annual meeting is held in a different city in order that as many alumni can participate as possible. The first annual regional meeting took place at Warsaw University in November 1999 (before there were any grant recipients with completed projects); the second at Lviv Theological Academy and Ivan Franko Lviv National University in October 2000; the third in St. Petersburg at the European University, the State Archives, and the Hermitage Museum in October 2001; the fourth at the Pecherska Lavra and at Kiev-Mohyla National Academy in September 2002; the fifth in Minsk at European Humanities University and Belarusian State University in October-November 2003; the sixth in Moscow at the Russian State University for the Humanities in October 2004; the seventh at the Karazin Kharkiv National University in October 2005; the eighth at the Rostov-on-Don State University in October 2006; and the ninth at the Karazin Kharkiv National University in October 2007.
The deadline for distribution of application forms for the 2008-09 competition to potential applicants has passed.
In order to receive an application form for a short-term grant for the 2009-10 competition, please contact ACLS Humanities Program in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine in May 2009.