The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) invites applications in the 2018-19 competition year of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies. In cooperation with the Foundation, ACLS offers an integrated set of fellowship and grant competitions supporting work that will expand the understanding and interpretation of Buddhist thought in scholarship and society, strengthen international networks of Buddhist studies, and increase the visibility of innovative currents in those studies.

  • Dissertation Fellowships: one-year stipends to PhD candidates for full-time preparation of dissertations
  • Postdoctoral Fellowships: two-year stipends to recent recipients of the PhD for residence at a university for research, writing, and teaching
  • Research Fellowships: one-year stipends for scholars who hold a PhD degree, with no restrictions on time from the PhD
  • Grants for Critical Editions and Scholarly Translations: one-year stipends for collaborative or individual projects focused on the creation of critical editions, translation of canonical texts, and translation of scholarly works
  • New Professorships: multi-year grants to colleges and universities to establish or expand teaching in Buddhist studies

These are global competitions. There are no restrictions as to the location of work proposed, the citizenship of applicants, or the languages of the final written product. Applications must be submitted in English. Program information and applications are available at http://www.acls.org/programs/buddhist-studies/.

Deadline for submission of fellowship applications: November 14, 2018.
Deadline for institutional applications for New Professorships: January 9, 2019.

For more information, please email BuddhistStudies@acls.org.

Program in Buddhist Studies on Facebook.


The American Council of Learned Societies, a private, nonprofit federation of 75 national scholarly organizations, is the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences. Advancing scholarship by awarding fellowships and strengthening relations among learned societies is central to ACLS’s work. In the 2017-18 competition year, ACLS funded about 350 fellows and scholars through grant programs, supporting humanistic work at over 100 US institutions of higher education and scores more outside the United States. More than $24 million was awarded across all programs.

Established in 2005, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation is a private philanthropic organisation based in Hong Kong.
The Foundation’s dual mission is to foster appreciation of Chinese arts and culture to advance global learning and to cultivate deeper understanding of Buddhism in the context of contemporary life.
The Foundation’s Buddhist studies and Buddhist art programmes include the Buddhist Ministry Initiative at Harvard Divinity School; a centre and an professorship in Buddhist studies at Stanford University; a centre for Buddhist studies at the University of Toronto; a chair and programme in Buddhism and Contemporary Society at the University of British Columbia; a multi-year lecture series at SOAS University of London; the Centre for Buddhist Art and Conservation and MA programme at The Courtauld Institute of Art; the Galleries of Buddhist Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum; a three-year exhibition, Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia, that opened in the Sackler Gallery in Washington in October 2017, as well as other art exhibitions and related projects around the world. www.rhfamilyfoundation.org.