Twenty Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Receive Support for Outstanding Research in the Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences

NEW YORK, Feb. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the awardees of the new ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grant Program. The program provides flexible support that attends to the research, teaching, and service commitments at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This year, the program will support 20 HBCU faculty scholars pursuing exceptional research projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.

"We are thrilled to award these outstanding scholars the inaugural ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowships and Grants," said ACLS President Joy Connolly. "Historically Black Colleges and Universities are a vital part of American higher education, with a long history of rich contributions to public knowledge and our nation's social and political health. ACLS celebrates the commitment and brilliance of these awardees and applauds their institutions for fostering excellence in the humanities and interpretive social sciences." 

Selected from a pool of more than 150 applications, the 2024 ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellows and Grantees represent 16 HBCUs and a wide range of disciplines and scholarly approaches to humanistic research, community engaged work, and pedagogical innovation.

Eight fellows will receive up to $50,000 each supporting long-term engagement with a significant research project. Twelve grantees will receive $10,000 each to support early-stage project development and shorter-term projects. All awardees will also have access to networking and scholarly programming that aligns with their academic goals and institutional contexts. Each award includes an additional grant of $2,500 to the awardee's home institution to support humanities programming or infrastructure.

2024 ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellows

• Ana Lucia Araujo, Professor, History, Howard University
  The Power of Art: The World Black Artists Made in the Americas

• Candace Bailey, Professor, Music, North Carolina Central University
  Edmond Dédé and His World: The Context for Morgiane

• Jacoby Adeshei Carter, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Howard University
  Race Contacts and Interracial Relations: A Critical Edition of Alain Locke's Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Race

• Karen Cook Bell, Professor, History and Government, Bowie State University
  Black Resistance: Family, Gender, and Slave Politics in Denmark Vesey's Conspiracy

• Alisha Marie Cromwell, Assistant Professor, Social Sciences, Albany State University
  The Garden Nexus: Reciprocity, Redistribution, and Exchange in the Nineteenth-Century American Lowcountry

• Trushna Parekh, Associate Professor, History, Geography, Economics, and General Studies, Texas Southern University
  Remembering Mary's...Naturally: Mobilizing Collective Histories against Gentrification and Dispossession

• Danielle St. Julien, Assistant Professor, History, Xavier University of Louisiana
  Progress over Parity: America's Battle to Define Racial Inequality after the Nineteen Sixties

• Darius Jamal Young, Professor, History and African American Studies, Florida A&M University
  Freedom Now!: Detroit and the Black Revolt of 1963

2024 ACLS HBCU Faculty Grantees

• Gonzalo Baptista, Assistant Professor, World Languages and International Studies, Morgan State University
  Analysis of (Mis)representation of Black Bodies in Spanish Museum Iconography

• Yinghong Cheng, Professor, History, Political Science, and Philosophy, Delaware State University
  "The Road to Tokyo"—African American GIs Building the Ledo Road

• Derrick Cohens, Assistant Professor, English, Humanities, and Foreign Languages, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
  It Is the Contradictions that Make Him Interesting: Exploring the Many Minds of Richard T. Gibson

• Bertis English, Professor, History and Political Science, Alabama State University
  Oscar W. Adams Jr., Legal Pacemaker in the Heart of Dixie

• Elizabeth Carmel Hamilton, Assistant Professor, Arts and Communications, Fort Valley State University
  Figuring It Out: Black Womanhood through the Figurative in Alison Saar's Oeuvre

• Jeanelle Kevina Hope, Associate Professor, African American Studies, Prairie View A&M University
  In Love, Celebration, and Solidarity: Janice Mirikitani & Cecil Williams' Afro-Asian Activism and  Practice of Third World Liberation Theology at Glide Memorial Church

• Eliseo Jacob, Senior Lecturer, World Language & Cultures, Howard University
  Afro-Artivismo: Activist Cultural Practices in Urban Spaces

• Frederick Knight, Professor, Africana Studies and History, Morehouse College
  Black Belt Slavery: Land, Law, and Labor in the Deep South

• Lamon Lawhorn, Assistant Professor, Music, Virginia State University
  The Evolution of Contemporary Gospel Drumming

• Nafeesa Muhammad, Assistant Professor, History, Spelman College
  The Nation of Islam and Black Nationalism in Atlanta, 1955-1975

• Kim Vaz-Deville, Professor, Division of Education and Counseling, Xavier University of Louisiana
  New Orleans Mardi Gras Baby Doll Maskers Recapturing Louisiana Afro-Creole Language and Culture

• Erica Lorraine Williams, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, Spelman College
  Blaxit Chronicles: Saying Goodbye to the USA: Black Expatriates and the Transnational Search for Belonging

The program also recognizes applicants who advanced to the final round of review based on the strength of their proposals. Each of these finalists will receive a $500 grant to support their research agendas, as well as access to ACLS research and proposal development workshops.

ACLS developed the HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grant Program collaboratively with HBCU faculty and academic leaders though a series of on-campus workshops and discussions and virtual focus groups. The program is funded by the ACLS endowment, which has benefited over the years from the generous support of institutions and individuals including the ACLS Associate member network, past fellows, and friends of ACLS.

Learn more about the 2024 ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellows and ACLS HBCU Faculty Grantees.

Formed a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 80 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS utilizes its endowment and $37 million annual operating budget to expand the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting our commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship. In all aspects of our work, ACLS is committed to principles and practices in support of racial and social justice.

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