ACAH Small Grants

The Association for Chinese Art History (ACAH) is offering small grants in two categories: research grants of up to USD$750 and conference travel grants of up to USD$500. The aim of the research grants is to support scholarship in Chinese art and architectural history and the visual cultures of global and diasporic Chinas by providing funding opportunities, especially at critical professional turning points. The conference travel grants are intended to facilitate travel for those who have been accepted to present a paper at an academic conference.

The grants may be applied toward research or conference travel, research materials, image permissions, and copyediting, and are intended to augment other sources of funding.  Applications for conference travel may not support travel to the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference. This grants program is available only to current ACAH members. Funds will be paid by reimbursement and the payment request must be submitted within 30 days after the event and not later than 60 days with a final deadline of June 15, 2026 (whichever comes first). Grant recipients will be asked to credit ACAH and Bei Shan Tang Foundation support in the research output, and to submit a brief report after completion of the research activity.

To apply, please submit the following in one pdf file to achinesearthistory@gmail.com by November 3, 2025:

  • If applying for the research grant: proposal (500 words maximum) that includes: (1) the scope of the project, (2) the uses for the small research grant, (3) the impact of the proposed research output on the applicant (for example, dissertation research and writing, tenure application, etc.), (4) budget, and (5) CV.
  • If applying for the conference travel grant: proposal (500 words maximum) that includes: (1) abstract for accepted paper, (2) the impact of participation in the conference on the applicant (for example, feedback on research, network building, etc.), (3) budget, and (4) CV. Please also include (5) a letter of acceptance or conference program.

Present ACAH board members are not eligible to apply. Only one ACAH funding opportunity will be granted to applicants in the same year. Applicants may not receive funding from the same ACAH funding opportunity in consecutive years. Actual awards will depend on applications and available funding.

Notification will be made by December 12, 2025.

2025-2026 Grant Recipients

Research grants

  • Michael Norton research at the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) for the dissertation, “The Universe Incarnate: Cosmic  Diagrams and Embodied Soteriology in Medieval China”
  • Mo Zhang research at the Art Institute of Chicago for the dissertation, “Pushing Up the Thatched Awning: Painting, Vision, and Mind in Fifteenth-Century China”

Conference travel grants

  • Filippo Grassi, “Nature, Human, Crisis, Tradition: Ecological perspectives in the work of Chuang Che and Huang Chih-yang,” Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies, Pittsburgh, PA
  • Henning von Mirbach, “Fresh Water and Tender Leaves: Tea Drinking in Ming China amid the Limited Availability of Natural Resources,” International Conference on Ming–Qing Studies, Taipei
  • Sizhao Yi, “Melancholic Things: Sensing Time in Early-Qing Paintings,” Sixteenth Century Society, Portland, OR

Previous grant recipients

ACAH Visiting Speaker Grant

The Association for Chinese Art History (ACAH) is offering one Visiting Speaker grant of up to USD$1500. The aim of this grant is to lay the groundwork for student engagement with Chinese art and architectural history and the visual cultures of global and diasporic Chinas by providing opportunities for interaction with scholars outside of the home institution, and to raise the profile of Chinese art and architectural history and the visual cultures of global and diasporic Chinas more generally by providing an opportunity to invite a guest speaker for a public lecture.

This grant program will allow a faculty member to invite one guest speaker (art historian, artist, museum or cultural sector professional) to their campus in Spring 2026 for an in-person public lecture and an informal meeting with students to discuss their career and student research interests. Ideally, the guest speaker’s area of expertise and lecture topic will align with the faculty member’s teaching for the Spring 2026 academic term. The grant is intended to cover the speaker’s honorarium and to offset their travel expenses. The remaining expenses (meals, etc.) are expected to be covered by the grant recipient’s home institution. The faculty applicant must be a current ACAH member; the guest speaker need not be an ACAH member. Funds will be paid directly to the guest speaker and the payment request must be submitted within 30 days after the event and not later than 60 days with a final deadline of June 15, 2026 (whichever comes first). The grant recipient will be asked to credit ACAH and Bei Shan Tang Foundation support in the publicity for the lecture, and if possible, to make the lecture available to a broader audience in a hybrid mode, and will be asked to submit a brief report after completion of the programs.

To apply, please submit the following in one pdf file to achinesehistory@gmail.com by December 5, 2025:

  • Proposal (500 words maximum) that explains (1) 2-3 potential guest speakers and topics (expressions of interest may be sought, but please do not issue speaker invitations at this point), and (2) structure of the public and student programs, and (3) how the proposed programs align with the faculty applicant’s teaching in the Spring 2026 term and will impact student engagement with Chinese art and architectural history and the visual cultures of global and diasporic Chinas at the home institution.
  • Budget for the proposed programs, including possible sources of funding from the home institution.
  • Faculty applicant’s CV.

Present ACAH board members should not be considered as potential guest speakers. Only one ACAH funding opportunity will be granted to applicants in the same academic year. Applicants may not receive funding from the same ACAH funding opportunity in consecutive years.

Notification will be made by December 19, 2025.

2024-2025 Grant Recipient

Ruiying Gao (Wake Forest University), for a public lecture by
Elizabeth Kindall (University of St. Thomas), “Fame and Filiality: Huang Xiangjian Paints the Sublime Southwest,” March 25, 2025

Previous grant recipients

ACAH Sponsored Chinese Art History Panels at the AAS Annual Conference

ACAH seeks submissions for two sponsored panels at the 2027 Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference (Boston, MA, March 18-21, 2027). ACAH is pleased to sponsor two panels for which the majority of the papers (two out of three; three out of four) focus on Chinese art and architectural history and the visual cultures of global and diasporic Chinas, from any historical period. The amount of funding, if any, will be determined at a later date prior to the conference, and awards, if any, will be made by reimbursement, excluding AAS conference registration.

To apply, please submit the following in one pdf file by October 23, 2026 to achinesearthistory@gmail.com: (1) confirmation of panel acceptance, (2) panel and paper abstracts, (3) CVs of each panelist.

Panelists are encouraged to become members of ACAH, but are not required to do so in order to apply for or accept AAS panel sponsorship. Applicants may not have received AAS panel sponsorship from ACAH in consecutive years.

Notification will be made by November 20, 2026.

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Previous ACAH sponsored sessions

Bei Shan Tang Prizes (2023-2026)

Administered 2023-2026 by the Association for Asian Studies and announced at the annual conference Presidential Address & Awards Ceremony.

Established through a grant from Bei Shan Tang Foundation in 2022, the Bei Shan Tang book prizes recognized research in Chinese art history.

Bei Shan Tang Monograph Prize

This award honored an outstanding and innovative sole-authored monograph on Chinese art history of any historical period published in the English language. Monographs published in 2024 are eligible for consideration for the 2026 awards.

Bei Shan Tang Catalogue Prize

This award honored outstanding sole- or co-authored research on Chinese art history of any historical period published in the English language. Catalogues published under the direction of a museum, library, or public or private collection, and exhibition catalogues published in 2024 are eligible for consideration for the 2026 awards.

Prize

$1,000 award for the author(s).

2026 Bei Shan Tang Prize Committee

De-nin Lee (Emerson College), Chair
Adriana Proser (Walters Art Museum)
Stephen Whiteman (Courtauld Institute of Art)

2026 Prize Recipients

Bei Shan Tang Monograph Prize
Shih-shan Susan Huang, The Dynamic Spread of Buddhist Print Culture: Mapping Buddhist Book Roads in China and Its Neighbors (Brill, 2024)
Bei Shan Tang Catalogue Prize
Phillip E. Bloom, Nicholas K. Menzies, and Michelle Bailey, editors, Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China (The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 2024)
Honorable Mention
Yang Xu, editor, YUAN MING YUAN: Art and Culture of an Imperial Garden-Palace (Hong Kong Palace Museum, 2024)

Previous prize recipients