Lewis & Clark College is proud to announce that Suhaila Meera, Assistant Professor of Theatre, has been awarded a 2025 ACLS Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). The longest running program at the organization, ACLS Fellowships support outstanding scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.
Suhaila Meera has been recognized as one of 62 outstanding scholars from a pool of over 2,300 applicants through a multi-stage peer review process. Meera’s research explores how mainstream media’s spotlight on children has ignited debates around notions of innocence, deservingness, and citizenship against the backdrop of an ever-escalating global refugee situation. “The Child at the Border” examines cultural works from South Asia and the Middle East, analyzing how they both reflect and challenge the violent logic through which nation-states render some children displaced, or “out of place”- while these children play their assigned roles strategically.
After four years of restricting ACLS Fellowships to early-career scholars due to the impact of COVID-19, the 2024 competition was reopened to scholars across all career stages. ACLS Fellowships provide up to $60,000 to support scholars for six to 12 months of full-time research and writing. Awardees who are independent scholars, adjunct faculty or have teaching-intensive roles receive an additional stipend between $3,000 and $6,000.
“ACLS is grateful that we are in a position to continue to fund this vital research that advances our understanding of human societies and cultures,” said ACLS Vice President James Shulman. “Representing many different fields of study- including African diaspora studies, art history, English, gender studies, musicology, philosophy, religious studies, and more- this year’s fellows demonstrate the importance of foundational humanistic inquiry in helping us to understand a wide range of questions concerning our collective and varied histories, narratives, creations, and beliefs.”
The ACLS Fellowship Program is funded primarily by the ACLS endowment, which has benefited from the generous support of esteemed funders, institutional members, and individual donors since their founding in 1919.
