External Funding
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States. NEH grants typically go to cultural institutions, such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television, and radio stations, and to individual scholars.
The NEH Office of Digital Humanities offers the following resources to assist scholars when choosing a grant program:
See more on the Resources for Applicants to the NEH Office of Digital Humanities page.
The National Humanities Center (NHC) is a private, nonprofit organization devoted to advancing significant humanistic study and reflection and to making those insights available both inside and outside the academic world. The Center is supported by the generosity of individual donors, grants from private and public foundations, corporate philanthropy, and institutional sponsors—universities and academic organizations whose partnership specifically supports the Center’s fellowship program and public outreach efforts.
The NHC offers the following scholarly programs:
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- Year- or Semester-long Residential Fellowship
- Month-long Summer Residency (Exclusive to scholars from Sponsoring Institutions of the NHC such as TAMU's College of Arts & Sciences)
Learn more on the NHC Residential Fellowship – Frequently Asked Questions page.
Founded in 1973 as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Humanities Texas is a nonprofit, educational organization that offers programs which contribute to Texas’s thriving economy, culture, and civic life. Humanities Texas grants enable communities throughout the state to develop programs of local interest promoting history, culture, and education.
Humanities Texas offers the following grants:
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- Mini Grant: Funds up to $2,000 of the costs associated with public humanities programs. These grants are available on a rolling basis throughout the year and are particularly appropriate for funding a speaker and/or the rental of a traveling exhibition.
- Major Grant – Community Project: Funds up to $20,000 of the costs for comprehensive public programs such as lectures, seminars, and conferences; book and film discussions; interpretive exhibitions and materials; town forums and civic discussions; and teacher workshops.
- Major Grant – Media Project: Funds up to $20,000 of the costs for film, radio, television, or interactive programming related to the humanities. Applicants may request funds for any phase of the project, including scripting, development, production, post-production, and in some cases, distribution and free public screenings.
Learn more on the Humanities Texas Grants page.
Founded in 1883, the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) provides opportunities for its members to share their scholarly findings and teaching experiences with colleagues and to discuss trends in the academy.
The MLA offers the following grants:
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- MLA Pathways Step Grant: Funds up to $10,000 over a 12-month period to support individual faculty members or small, local teams developing ways to improve the recruitment, retention, or career readiness of undergraduate students.
- Professional Development Grants for Part-Time Faculty Members: $1,000 grants to assist part-time faculty members pay for expenses associated with their professional development (e.g., technology purchases, continuing education, research expenses, conference participation (in-person and virtual), or other costs related to career development, including childcare expenses).
Learn more on the MLA Grants and Awards page.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. The National Archives seeks to drive openness, cultivate public participation, and strengthen the nation’s democracy through equitable public access to high-value government records.
The National Archives offers the following grants:
- Archival Projects: For projects that ensure online public discovery and use of historical records collections.
- Public Engagement with Historical Records: For projects that encourage public engagement with historical records.
- Publishing Historical Records in Collaborative Digital Editions: For projects to publish documentary editions of historical records. This program has two application cycles.
- Major Collaborative Archival Initiatives: For collaborative projects that will significantly improve public discovery and use of major historical records collections.
- Archives Collaboratives: For projects to plan and develop a working collaborative designed to enhance the capacity of small and diverse organizations with historical records collections.
- State Board Programming Grants: For projects that strengthen the nation’s archival network through activities undertaken by state historical records advisory boards.
- NHPRC-Mellon Planning Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies: For projects to publish collaborative digital editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies.
Learn more on The National Archives' Grant Opportunities page.
From its earliest days in 1919, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has convened committees to discuss, debate, and encourage the development and advancement of countless fields. The work of these committees helped establish and strengthen African American studies, intellectual history, musicology, the history of religions, Native American languages, and China studies.
The ACLS offers the following Digital Justice grants:
- Digital Justice Seed Grant: Funds between $10,000 to $25,000 to projects that engage with the interests and histories of people of color and other historically marginalized communities, explore or experiment with new materials, methodologies, and research agendas, cultivate greater openness to new sources of knowledge, and engage in capacity building efforts.
- Digital Justice Development Grant: Funds between $50,000 to $100,000 to projects that engage with the interests and histories of people of color and other historically marginalized communities, advance beyond the prototyping or proof-of-concept phase and articulate the next financial, technological, and intellectual phases of project development, cultivate greater openness to new sources of knowledge, and engage in capacity building efforts.
Learn more on the ACLS Digital Justice Grants page.
The Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium (DEFCon) is a national consortium of digital ethnic studies practitioners led by Roopika Risam (Salem State University), Sonya Donaldson (New Jersey City University), Jamila Moore Pewu (California State University, Fullerton), Toniesha Taylor (Texas Southern University), and Keja Valens (Salem State University). Through events, professional development, networking opportunities, and a regranting program, they support the work of faculty, librarians, and students who are undertaking research and teaching at the intersections of digital humanities and ethnic studies fields.
DEFCon offers the following grants:
- Teaching Fellowship: Aimed to support the development of new courses at the intersections of ethnic studies fields and digital humanities.
- Capacity Building Fellowship: Aimed at building institutional capacity at the intersection of digital humanities and ethnic studies. Capacity building includes but is not limited to: developing a minor, major, or certificate program; running professional development events for faculty; or bringing speakers to campus for workshops.
- DEFCon Mentors: In academic year 2023-2024, DEFCon will be bringing on mentors to support participants in our DEFCon Teaching and Capacity Building Fellowship programs.
Learn more on the DEFCon Grants page.