American Council of Learned Societies Launches 2026 Graduate Internships on the Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future Competition

Program Will Offer Summer Internships and Professional Development Support for Emerging Scholars of Religion

NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the inaugural Graduate Internships on the Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future program, funded generously by the Templeton Religion Trust. This program is intended to provide practical work opportunities in summer 2026 for talented, entrepreneurial PhD students in the humanities or social sciences whose dissertation topics relate to the study of religion, and to build institutional partnerships that create a pipeline of new leaders knowledgeable about the rapidly changing American religious landscape. ACLS is now accepting fellowship applications, with submissions due by 9:00 PM EDT on Wednesday, January 14, 2026.

In nine-week, full-time summer internships with a host organization, fellows will gain practical experience in how their research skills can be applied outside of academia. They will also join cohort-based programming in the year following the internship, including in-person and virtual workshops and educational events featuring researchers and journalists mapping changing religious and spiritual infrastructures inside and outside of the academy.

The program aims to foster mutually beneficial partnerships between fellows and their host organizations. Host organizations benefit from fellows' scholarly perspectives and broad sets of skills and capacities, including strong writing, project management, cultural competencies, research, and problem-solving skills. Fellows will gain practical experience in how their research skills can be applied outside of academia, engage with the work of host organizations and the communities they serve, and build on that experience with cohort-based professional development support.

This year, ACLS is partnering with 10 nonprofit organizations that will host summer internships: American Friends Service Committee, Coalition for Spiritual Leadership, The Conversation, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, Interfaith America, Jewish Women's Archive, Norton Healthcare Faith and Health Ministries, Operation Shoestring, and the Religion News Service.

Each graduate intern will earn a summer stipend of $14,000 for remote projects and $15,400 for interns who will work onsite. ACLS also provides relocation funding as needed. See additional details on individual internship projects and hosting organizations.

Applicants must be current PhD students in a humanities or social science department in the United States, whose research focus or dissertation topic relate to the study of religion. Applicants' PhDs may be in any field in the humanities or humanistic social sciences. See the FAQ for further information.

Awardees must be available for a nine-week internship in summer 2026, released from normal coursework, assistantships, and all teaching responsibilities. Awardees will also be required to attend a seminar with other participants in late August 2026, and virtual programs in academic year 2027-2028.  PhD students at all stages of study are eligible to apply, though they must be enrolled at the time of application, and not planning to graduate before May 2027.

This program is supported by the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT) as part of a three-year, multi-faceted initiative, including research, public engagement and pipeline development in service of Identifying and Advancing the Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future.

Formed a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 81 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