Become an Emerging Scholar

applications due 25 August 2024

We are now accepting applications for the Class of 2025-2027 ACPA Emerging Scholar-Designees. Recipients will be announced as 2025-2027 ACPA Emerging Scholar-Designees (that is, the 2025 ACPA Convention through the 2027 ACPA Convention) and will each receive a $3,000 research grant from ACPA. The Emerging Scholar-Designees who have fulfilled their research and scholarly leadership commitments – as specified in their applications – by the end of their two-year term will be designated as ACPA Emerging Scholars. Requests for a one-year unfunded extension or renegotiation of the specified leadership commitments by Emerging Scholar-Designees will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Award Criteria

• Applicants must be an ACPA member.
• Applicants either must be between 3-5 years after completing their doctorate (degree conferred 2019-2021) OR if the doctorate was earned prior to 2019, applicant must have started their first full-time faculty and/or professional position between 2019-2022.
• Emerging Scholar-Designees must register for ACPA25.
• Emerging Scholar-Designees must participate in a meeting with the Senior Scholars, traditionally held the day prior to and day of Opening Session. This year, those dates are Saturday, 15 February & Sunday, 16 February 2025.
• Emerging Scholar-Designees will receive a $3,000 research grant.

Application Process

1. Letter of interest that includes the following:

How your scholarly interests and trajectory align with those found in ACPA’s A Bold Vision Forward: A Framework for the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization.

What might you hope to learn from or get out of your engagement with the Senior Scholars? What topics might you wish to discuss with the Senior Scholars over the course of the year?

Your current and past involvement with ACPA, including any leadership position you have held.

Your willingness to complete at least two proposed scholarly leadership commitments (see below) during the Emerging Scholars Program two-year period.

• Co-coordinate an ACPA25 Educational Session or Pre-Convention Workshop with a current Senior Scholar or another Emerging Scholar designed to advance the goals of the SIRJD.
• If selected, serve as designated Scholar-in-Residence (minimum one-year term) for an ACPA Commission, Coalition, or other formally constituted group.
• Submit a scholarly piece to Developments. [MOU2]
• Share the opportunities you have had for scholarly support in your doctoral program and your career to date and challenges to your scholarly productivity (e.g., teaching load, mentoring, internal grant opportunities, etc.)
• Other (to be proposed by the candidate) that will advance ACPA’s mission, vision, values, or Strategic Imperative and is consistent with the applicant’s scholarly agenda. Applicants should describe the proposed commitment in sufficient detail to foster understanding of its content and scope during the ACPA Emerging Scholar-Designee review and selection processes.

2. Current CV

3. Research project proposal which includes the following:

• No more than three single-spaced pages, excluding cover page and reference list.
• A description of the proposed research project (including description of methodology and methods), and how the study advances the applicant’s broader research agenda.
• A proposed time frame (ordinarily, no longer than the designee’s two-year term as ACPA Emerging Scholar-Designee).
• A brief project budget not to exceed $3,000. Funds may be used for operating expenses including travel for data collection or dissemination. Funds may not be used to purchase equipment or to offset or supplement the designee’s salary or solely to cover conference travel. ACPA funding may not be used to cover F&A/indirect costs.
• An explanation of how the proposed research project, within the context of the applicant’s overall research agenda, advances ACPA’s mission, vision, and values as well as ACPA’s Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization.
• A commitment to present research findings at a minimum of one ACPA convention during the designee’s two-year term (that is, 2025 Emerging Scholar-Designees must present at either the 2026 or the 2027 convention as part of the sponsored Emerging Scholar research sessions).

Application Submission

• Applications including all supporting documents are due 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, 25 August 2024
• Submit all materials in a single PDF document, in the order listed under “application process.”
• Please use “Emerging Scholars Application—LAST NAME” for your PDF file.
• Applicants will be notified in October 2024.
• For more information, contact Dr. Ellen Broido ([email protected]) or Dr. Lori Patton Davis ([email protected]).