$800,000 in Grants will Fund Community-Led and Publicly Engaged Digital Projects

NEW YORK, July 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 ACLS Digital Justice Grants.

Made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, the ACLS Digital Justice Grant Program supports digital projects across the humanities and social sciences that critically engage with the interests and histories of people of color and other historically marginalized communities through the ethical use of digital tools and methods. The program also prioritizes projects that bolster the local ecosystem of digital humanities at their academic, community, or cultural heritage institutions, thereby creating opportunities for scholars, especially those within historically underfunded fields, to pursue innovative, diverse digital scholarship. In 2026 ACLS proudly celebrates 100 years of grantmaking to individual scholars.

For 2026, eight start-up projects have been awarded ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grants of up to $25,000, and seven established projects have been awarded ACLS Digital Justice Development Grants of up to $100,000. All grantees will have the opportunity to collaborate with the Nonprofit Finance Fund on developing a long-term financial plan for their projects.

“From our most competitive and disciplinarily diverse pool of applications to date, the projects funded this year represent the breadth of what ACLS imagines ‘digital justice’ to entail,” noted Keyanah Nurse, Senior Program Officer of Intentional Design for an Equitable Academy (IDEA) Programs. “Novel methodological frameworks such as histofuturism, community-centered uses of tools such a LiDAR scanning, and critical interventions into questions around data sovereignty contribute to the program’s orientation toward restorative and reparative justice practices.”  

Learn more about the 2026 ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grantees and ACLS Digital Justice Development Grantees.

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.

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SOURCE American Council of Learned Societies