Eligibility

Summer Institutes for College and University Professors are offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide college and university faculty members and independent scholars with an opportunity to enrich and revitalize their understanding of significant humanities ideas, texts, and topics. These study opportunities are especially designed for this program and are not intended to duplicate courses normally offered by graduate programs. On completion of this institute, participants will receive a certificate indicating their participation.

These projects are designed primarily for teachers of American undergraduate students. Qualified independent scholars and those employed by museums, libraries, historical societies, and other organizations may be eligible to compete provided they can effectively advance the teaching and research goals of the seminar or institute. Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least three years immediately preceding the application deadline. Foreign nationals teaching abroad at non-U.S. chartered institutions are not eligible to apply. 

Please note: Two institute spaces are reserved for current full-time graduate students in the humanities (applicants should be advanced doctoral students at the dissertation writing stage).

Applicants must complete the NEH application cover sheet and provide all the information requested below to be considered eligible. An applicant need not have an advanced degree in order to qualify. Adjunct and part-time lecturers are eligible to apply. Individuals may not apply to study with a director of an NEH Summer Institute who is a current colleague or a family member. Individuals must not apply to seminars directed by scholars with whom they have studied. Institute selection committees are advised that only under the most compelling and exceptional circumstances may an individual participate in an institute with a director or a lead faculty member who has guided that individual’s research or in whose previous institute or seminar he or she has participated. 

Please note: An individual may apply to up to two projects in any one year (NEH Summer Seminars, Institutes or Landmarks Workshops for Community College Faculty), but may participate in only one.

SELECTION CRITERIA

A selection committee will read and evaluate all properly completed applications in order to select the most promising applicants and to identify a number of alternates. (The Institute selection committees will consist of the three directors.) While recent participants are eligible to apply, first consideration will be given to applicants who have not participated in an NEH-supported Seminar, Institute or Landmarks Workshop in the last three years (2015, 2016, 2017). 

The most important consideration in the selection of participants is the likelihood that an applicant will benefit professionally. This is determined by committee members from the conjunction of several factors, each of which should be addressed in the application essay. These factors include:

• quality and commitment as a teacher, scholar, and interpreter of the humanities;
• intellectual interests, both generally and as they relate to the work of the seminar or institute;
• special perspectives, skills, or experiences that would contribute to the seminar or institute;
• commitment to participate fully in the formal and informal collegial life of the seminar or institute;
• the likelihood that the experience will enhance the applicant's teaching and scholarship.

When choices must be made among equally qualified candidates, several additional factors will be considered. Preference will be given to applicants who have not previously participated in an NEH Summer Seminar, Institute, or Landmarks Workshop, or who will significantly contribute to the diversity of the seminar or institute.

STIPEND, TENURE, AND AWARD CONDITIONS

Individuals selected to participate in the two-week project will receive a stipend of $2,100. Stipends are intended to help cover travel expenses to and from the project location, books and other research expenses, and living expenses for the 2 weeks spent in residence. Stipends are taxable.  Applicants should note that supplements will not be given in cases where the stipend is insufficient to cover all expenses. 

Institute participants are required to attend all meetings and to engage fully as professionals in the work of the project. During the project's tenure, they may not undertake teaching assignments or any other professional activities unrelated to their participation in the project. Participants who, for any reason, do not complete the full tenure of the project must refund a pro-rata portion of the stipend.

At the end of the project's residential period, participants will be asked to submit online evaluations in which they review their work during the summer and assess its value to their personal and professional development. These evaluations will become part of the project's grant file and may become part of an application to repeat the institute.