National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipends aim to stimulate new research and publication in the humanities by:

• providing small awards to individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both;
• supporting projects at any stage of development, but especially early-stage research and late-stage writing in which small awards are most effective;
• funding a wide range of individuals, including independent scholars, community college faculty, and non-teaching staff at universities.

Faculty members teaching full-time at colleges and universities must be nominated by their institutions to apply for a summer stipend. The nomination process is noted below.

Awards

The NEH Summer Stipend Program awards $6,000 to individual faculty.

Important Dates

• September 9, 2023: Internal deadline to submit a proposal to the Nominating Committee.
• September 15, 2023: Notification of selection from the Nominating Committee.
• September 20, 2023: Deadline for nominees to apply via Grants.gov.
• April 15, 2024: Expected notification date from the NEH.
• May 1, 2024 – Sept. 1, 2025: Project start date.

The next application cycle will launch in May 2024.

Nomination Process

Tenured and tenure-track faculty members at most colleges and universities, including UNC-Chapel Hill, must be nominated by their institutions to apply for a summer stipend. Applicants may fill out a Qualtrics form by Sept. 9 for consideration by the UNC-Chapel Hill’s Nominating Committee.

The Qualtrics application requires several documents to be uploaded as PDFs. The documents are:

• 3-page Narrative
• 1-page Work Plan
• 1-page Bibliography
• 2-page Resume

Optionally and additionally, you may upload a two-page appendix. You will also be asked to provide a project description written for a non-specialist audience that is no longer than 1,000 characters (including spaces), and provide two references.

For more information on these documents and the NEH review criteria, please review the Notice of Funding Opportunity for this award.

Your application will be reviewed by the Nominating Committee, chaired by Senior Associate Dean for Fine Arts and Humanities, and comprised of former recipients of the NEH Summer Stipend, and the IAH Director. Whether or not you are nominated, you will be notified of the decision.

For complete eligibility requirements, please review the Notice of Funding Opportunity for this program.

Funding Guidelines

Funds may support the recipient’s compensation, travel, and other costs related to the proposed scholarly research. Funds and all restrictions are determined by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Previous Recipients

Recent recipients of an NEH Summer Stipend include:

2023
Brandi Brimmer, African, African American and diaspora studies

2021
William Sturkey, history

2017
Katherine Turk, history

Questions

For more information, contact:

Silas Webb
Program Administrator
919-843-2651
slwebb@email.unc.edu

Last updated: 12/19/23