The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR) is offering up to four grants in the amount of $5,000 each for graduate students in their second year of study in 2016-17. New Directions grants are provided by BCSR through the Public Theology Program, a critical three-year research initiative funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. Grantees participate in a cohort of early-career students from diverse disciplines to explore the place of theology in scholarship and public life. Theology is here meant broadly as the constellation of conceptual commitments and modes of inquiry that together enable communities to investigate and understand the world in religious terms.
Participation
The New Directions in Theology cohort includes incoming first-year and continuing second-year graduate students. Together with the cohort directors, students will meet biweekly to read fundamental works, to explore potential research topics, and to meet Berkeley and visiting faculty working in the field. The seminar will encompass a wide variety of religious traditions and approaches, including but not limited to: theology and the institutions of secular life; theological aspects of politics; theology and law; art, literature, and theological inquiry; theology and social formations, and so on.
Applications are welcome from UC Berkeley Ph.D. students from all relevant disciplines in the humanities and social sciences whose work promises to advance the goals of the New Directions in Theology Grants program.
To apply, please submit:
• A 1,500-word description of your research interests and/or dissertation project, making clear the connection between these and the larger research aims described above.
• One letter of recommendation (under separate cover).
Completed applications (including all supporting materials) should be submitted to BCSR directors c/o studentgrants.bcsr@berkeley.edu and received by Thursday, March 3 at 4 pm. Electronic files are preferred. Please send as a single PDF. Applicants can expect to hear from BCSR by the end of the Spring 2016 semester.
Due Dates
Deadline for Applications: Thursday, March 3, 2016 by 4 pm
Award Announced: Week of May 2
Award Period: 2016-17 Academic Year
Award Amount: $5,000 in supplemental funding