Academic Independence.
The Foundation supports scholars. It does not direct their scholarship.
The Alexander Hamilton Foundation makes grants to support research, teaching, and scholarly development in the humanities and social sciences. It does so on the premise that the integrity of scholarship depends on the independence of scholars and the institutions that host them.
Our commitments
The Foundation commits to the following principles in the conduct of its grantmaking.
- Merit-based selection. Awards are made through competitive peer review by tenured faculty drawn from the relevant disciplines and fields, consistent with the norms of scholarly practice.
- Scholarly autonomy. The Foundation does not direct the content of research, prescribe conclusions, or condition awards on the positions scholars take in their work.
- Institutional integrity. Grants are administered through the grantee's home institution under the institution's standard appointment and oversight processes. The Foundation respects the governance, academic freedom, and tenure protections of its partner universities.
- Transparency. The Foundation publishes a record of its grants, identifying recipients, host institutions, programs, disciplines and fields, and award periods.
- Nonpartisanship. The Foundation is not affiliated with any political party, campaign, or advocacy organization, and does not fund advocacy or lobbying activity.
- Intellectual property of grantees. The results of research supported by the Foundation belong to the scholars who produced them and to their institutions, under the institutions' customary policies.
The Foundation’s commitment to academic freedom of grantees draws inspiration from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)’s 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, as follows:
“Teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties… College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence, they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution.”
The Foundation’s commitment to established institutional processes of grantees with respect to selection and appointment draws inspiration from the AAUP’s 1966 Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities, as follows:
“Faculty status and related matters are primarily a faculty responsibility; this area includes appointments, reappointments, decisions not to reappoint, promotions, the granting of tenure, and dismissal. The primary responsibility of the faculty for such matters is based upon the fact that its judgment is central to general educational policy. Furthermore, scholars in a particular field or activity have the chief competence for judging the work of their colleagues; in such competence it is implicit that responsibility exists for both adverse and favorable judgments. Likewise, there is the more general competence of experienced faculty personnel committees having a broader charge. Determinations in these matters should first be by faculty action through established procedures, reviewed by the chief academic officers with the concurrence of the board. The governing board and president should, on questions of faculty status, as in other matters where the faculty has primary responsibility, concur with the faculty judgment except in rare instances and for compelling reasons which should be stated in detail.”
What Foundation support does and does not imply
Foundation support indicates that a proposal has been judged by peer reviewers to meet a high standard of scholarly merit within its discipline or field. It does not imply that the Foundation endorses the scholar's methods, findings, or conclusions.
Grantees are free to publish their work where and as they choose, to speak publicly on matters within their expertise, and to hold views that differ from the views of other grantees, the Foundation's officers and directors, or the Foundation's donors.