$405,000 Awarded to 24 Emerging Scholars to Advance China Studies through Research, Writing, and Fieldwork

NEW YORK, May 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the 2026 Luce/ACLS Early Career Fellows and Travel Grantees in China Studies. This year's awarded projects span centuries and geographies, bringing dynamic approaches to deep historical questions and understudied corners of contemporary China.

The 24 fellowships and grants are part of the Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies, which is generously supported by a $3 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation through 2028. The awards reflect the program's commitment to cultivating the diverse perspectives that enrich public and scholarly understanding of China, and to supporting scholars across a broad range of institutions and approaches.

• Eleven Luce/ACLS Early Career Fellowships in China Studies support emerging scholars whose research examines topics such as the China-US short drama industry, the role of tungsten in the making of state power, and the rebuilding of the Ashab Mosque in fourteenth-century Quanzhou. This year's awards include six long-term fellowships of up to $45,000, which allow recent PhDs to take leave from university responsibilities for research and writing toward a scholarly text, and five flexible fellowships of $15,000, which enable scholars with heavy teaching and service responsibilities to advance their projects.
• Thirteen Luce/ACLS Travel Grants in China Studies provide $5,000 for graduate students in PhD programs and non-tenure-track scholars at any career stage to visit research sites in China or China studies-related collections and archives anywhere in the world. The 2026 grantees will pursue fieldwork across China in Nanjing, Shenzhen, Jiangxi, Xishuangbanna, and Dunhuang, as well as Japan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, among other sites.

"This year's fellows and grantees are tackling remarkable questions through inventive methods—building archives where none exist, tracking oranges and ore across continents, and using sacred sites to rebuild medieval worlds," said JM Chris Chang, ACLS Program Officer in China Studies. "At a time of intensifying challenges for the humanities, sustaining the pipeline of emerging researchers is essential to building a deep understanding of China that is connected to the questions that matter today."

"Investing in early-career scholars is how a field renews itself," said Yuting Li, Program Director, Asia at the Luce Foundation. "The originality and depth of this year's fellows and grantees tells us something important about the state of China studies today: the field is resilient, and the next generation of scholars is finding new paths forward even as conditions shift around them."

In 2026, Luce/ACLS Travel Grantees in China Studies will participate in a professional development workshop series on public engagement led by Lindsay Krasnoff, Clinical Assistant Professor, New York University. The series builds practical skills in public writing and media from conception to publication, enabling early-career scholars to contribute informed, nuanced expertise to public conversations.

The Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies continues to support capacity building in the field through the Collaborative Grant, which will be awarded later this year, and the China Studies Digital Mapping Project, which is expanding its directory of free and open resources for China studies research.

Formed a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 86 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS expands 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.

The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to deepen knowledge and understanding in pursuit of a more democratic and just world. Established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., the Luce Foundation advances its mission by nurturing knowledge communities and institutions, fostering dialogue across divides, enriching public discourse, amplifying diverse voices, and investing in leadership development.

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SOURCE American Council of Learned Societies