How to Apply

NEH-funded Institutes are professional development programs that convene K-12 educators or higher education faculty from across the nation to deepen their understanding of significant topics in the humanities and enrich their capacity for effective scholarship and teaching.

NEH-funded Landmarks of American History and Culture programs support a series of one-week residential, virtual, and combined format professional development workshops across the nation to enhance how K-12 educators, higher education faculty, and humanities professionals incorporate place-based approaches to humanities teaching and scholarship.

You are eligible to apply if you are a:

• United States citizen, including those teaching abroad at U.S. chartered institutions and schools operated by the federal government;
• resident of U.S. jurisdictions; or
• foreign national who has been residing in the United States or its jurisdictions for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline.

You are not eligible to apply if you:

• are a foreign national teaching abroad
• are related to the project director(s)
• are affiliated with the applicant institution (employees, currently enrolled students, etc.)
• have been taught or advised in an academic capacity by the project director(s)
• are delinquent in the repayment of federal debt (taxes, student loans, child support payments, and delinquent payroll taxes for household or other employees)
• have been debarred or suspended by any federal department or agency
• have attended a previous NEH professional development project (Seminars, Landmarks, or Institutes) led by the project director(s)

NEH does not require participants to have earned an advanced degree.

In any given year, an individual may attend only one Institute or Landmarks workshop.

To be considered for selection, applicants must submit a complete application as indicated on the individual project’s website. Any questions about applications should be directed to the individual project team.

Important dates:

March 5 - Applications due by 11:59 PM/PST 
April 5 - Applicants notified by email
April 19 - Applicant acceptance deadline

*Please note: Applications must be completed in one sitting. It is not possible to save your work and come back to the application.

Eligibility and Applying: To be considered, you must submit a complete application as indicated on the individual project’s website. Prospective participants must follow the stated application and acceptance deadlines. In general, application extensions will not be granted. Any questions about applying should be directed to the individual project team. Participant eligibility criteria (PDF) are determined by NEH. Application review and offer decisions are determined by individual project teams in accordance with NEH eligibility requirements.

Participant Acceptance: In any given year, an individual may attend only one Institute or Landmarks workshop. Participants may not accept an additional offer or withdraw in order to accept a different offer once they have accepted an offer to attend an NEH Institutes or Landmarks program. Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age.

Principles of Civility: Project teams and program participants must adhere to the Principles of Civility for NEH Professional Development Programs detailed here: https://www.neh.gov/grants/principles-civility

Participant Stipends and Attendance: Stipends provide compensation to participants for their time commitment and help to defray participation costs, such as travel, program activities, lodging, and meals (for residential programs), and technical support (for virtual programs). For residential programs, participants cover their own costs for travel to/from a program, lodging, and meals. Stipends are taxable as income.

Project teams must not reduce participant stipends for project-related activities, lodging, or meal costs without prior approval. Project teams must not place contingencies (completing a lesson plan, completing a program evaluation, etc.) on the receipt of participant stipends.

Applicants who accept an offer to participate are expected to remain during the entire period of the program and to participate in its work on a full-time basis. If a participant is obliged through special circumstances to arrive after the beginning or depart before the end of the Institutes or Landmarks program, it shall be the recipient institution's responsibility to see that only a pro rata share of the stipend is received or that the appropriate pro rata share of the stipend is returned if the participant has already received the full stipend.

Participant Evaluations: The NEH requires project directors to collect anonymous participant evaluations at the conclusion of their programs. Unedited participant evaluation responses will be included in the project’s final report to the NEH and any future Institutes or Landmarks applications.

Continuing Education, In-Service, and Graduate Credits for K-12 Programs: Project teams may opt to offer continuing education, in-service, or graduate credit. These opportunities sometimes require additional work by participants beyond the program, such as writing a research paper, and participants are responsible for associated costs or fees unless otherwise noted. See individual project websites for additional information.

NEH Seminars, Institutes, and Landmarks programs are intended to extend and deepen knowledge and understanding of the humanities by focusing on significant topics, texts, and issues; contribute to the intellectual vitality and professional development of participants; and foster a community of inquiry that provides models of excellence in scholarship and teaching.

NEH expects that project directors will take responsibility for encouraging an ethos of openness and respect, upholding the basic norms of civil discourse.

Seminar, Institute, and Landmarks presentations and discussions should be:

1. firmly grounded in rigorous scholarship, and thoughtful analysis;
2. conducted without partisan advocacy;
3. respectful of divergent views;
4. free of ad hominem commentary; and
5. devoid of ethnic, religious, gender, disability, or racial bias.

NEH welcomes comments, concerns, or suggestions on these principles at [email protected].

Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age. For further information, write to the Equal Opportunity Officer, National Endowment for the Humanities, 400 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024. TDD: 202 606 8282 (this is a special telephone device for the Deaf).