Collaborative Reading-Workshop Grants: The Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies

Collaborative Reading-Workshop Grants

• Amount: up to $15,000
• Tenure: Workshops must be held between June 1, 2016 and September 2017.
• Eligibility:
  1) The coordinator of the workshop applies on behalf of all participants.
  2) The coordinator must hold a PhD from a university in the United States or Canada. OR be a US or Canadian citizen/permanent resident with a PhD from any university.
  3) Workshops must be held at a location in the United States or Canada.
  4) No formal eligibility requirements for other participants. Graduate students are welcome to participate.
• Deadline: Completed applications must be submitted through the ACLS Online Fellowship Application system (http://ofa.acls.org/) no later than 9 pm Eastern Standard Time, November 4, 2015.
• Notifications will be sent in May 2016.
• Final report required on completion of the workshop.

These grants provide support for collaborative reading of texts in a workshop format that is interdisciplinary and crosses scholarly generations. A wealth of often complex and challenging texts is a distinctive feature of the Chinese cultural record, making close reading by a group of scholars especially fruitful, because they can bring to bear diversity of research, experience, and expertise. Collaboration refers primarily to the sustained, collective examination of texts. But it may also characterize the conceptualization of the workshop by several scholars. If there is more than one organizer, the applicant should make this clear in the application essay. However, the applicant, if awarded will be responsible on behalf of the group for corresponding with ACLS, for signing the grant letter and receiving funds, and for signing the final report. Workshop participants should be drawn from several different institutions.

Formats of workshops may vary, but each should be based on texts that illuminate a period, tradition, culture, location, or event. At the workshop each text may be introduced by one or two participants, with others being asked to read and explicate a portion thereof. Close reading and careful translation are thus the basis for workshop discussion. Sufficient time should be provided for sustained collaborative reading – one day would seem too brief; three days much more productive.

Reading workshops are intended to be less formal than conferences; they should involve interactive reading, interpretation and commentary within a seminar-sized group. (Applications proposing a series of individual presentations, especially to a larger audience, should be directed to the Chiang Ching Kuo/ACLS program in Comparative Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society.) 

Awards for collaborative reading workshops may be used to support travel and lodging costs of participants, acquisition of materials, communications, and local arrangements. Funds may not be used for salary replacement, honoraria, or institutional indirect costs. Funding will not be provided for events that constitute elements of a series or colloquium, or that otherwise form part of the annual cycle of a university program. Luce/ACLS-funded reading-workshops must bring together scholars who would not otherwise have the opportunity to work together.

The primary objects of study should be written texts, but these may be supplemented by images and objects such as archaeological artifacts.

The principal objective is a new understanding of the texts and the subject matter they illuminate. A publication might result, but it is not a requirement of the reading-workshop grant. No additional financial support for publication is anticipated.

Selection Criteria

• The significance of the texts chosen for illuminating aspects of the study of the cultures, histories, and societies of China; and
• Interdisciplinarity in the study of texts; for example, sociologists and literary scholars might be invited to read historical documents, historians to join the reading of philosophical manuscripts, etc.

Including graduate students, and scholars from Chinese institutions, is encouraged.

Awards will be made based on the rationale for the type of event(s) planned and the prospect for new interpretations of the texts selected for reading.

A final report is required, written in a form that may be published on the ACLS website.

For inquiries, please email chinastudies@acls.org

Website: http://www.acls.org/programs/china-studies/#collab