Recent Grant Recipients

Faculty Grants, 2007-08

In 2007-08, the Center for the Study of World Religions will provide funding for the following projects of Harvard Divinity School (HDS) and Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) faculty:

  1. Shahab Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, "Curriculum, Canon, and Interpretive Authority in the Madrassahs of Pakistan" (a pilot study): research travel and return with a guest lecturer; 
  2. Diana L. Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Member of the Faculty of Divinity, "Teaching Pluralism: Case Studies for the Theological and Religious Studies Classroom": research and conference on case teaching; 
  3. Cheryl A. Giles, Peabody Professor of the Practice in Pastoral Care and Counseling, HDS, "Medical Ethics in Pastoral Care": collaborative research and meeting with German researchers; 
  4. Jacob K. Olupona, Professor of African Religious Traditions at HDS, with a joint appointment as Professor of African and African American Studies in FAS, "Sacred Knowledge, Sacred Power and Performance: Ifa Divination in West Africa and the African Diaspora": a multidisciplinary conference with multiple sponsors; 
  5. Ronald F. Thiemann, Bussey Professor of Theology, HDS, "Religious Leadership in Central European Democracies: Rethinking Collaboration and Resistance": mostly research travel. 

Faculty Grants, 2006-07

In 2006-07, the Center for the Study of World Religions funded the following projects of HDS, FAS, and Harvard Law School (HLS) faculty:

Race and Ethnicity and Early Christian Studies: A Symposium

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Stendahl Professor of Divinity, HDS, convened a conference on race and ethnicity in New Testament and Early Christian studies in collaboration with Laura Nasrallah, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, HDS. The spring 2007 conference and its proceedings generated new data and new methods for the study of race and ethnicity; encouraged reconsideration of the discipline of Early Christian studies and New Testament; and underscored the importance of the categories of race and ethnicity to the study of religion as a whole, both in antiquity and today.

Justice and Mercy in Jewish and Christian Tradition and American Criminal Law

Sarah Coakley, Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity, HDS, and Carol Steiker, Professor of Law, HLS, collaborated on a joint research, teaching, and publication project to investigate the religious roots and points of interaction of religion with contemporary legal issues of mercy, justice, punishment, and atonement. The project, co-funded by HLS, included one public lecture and a one day conference, held in spring 2007. The connection to the study of religion was focused on the concept of "mercy," its religious connotations, and its increasing importance in contemporary legal debate.  

From Roman to Early Christian Thessalonikē: A Conference on Religion and Archaeology

Laura Nasrallah, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, HDS, convened an interdisciplinary conference focused on questions of social, political, and religious life in Roman and early Christian Thessalonikē, foregrounding material culture. With additional support from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the University of Texas, Austin, the May 2007 conference brought together Greek archaeologists, international specialists on the topic of Thessalonikē in antiquity, and scholars in the classics, the religions of antiquity, and New Testament Studies.

Highlights From Recent Years

Faculty projects funded by Center for the Study of World Religions grants in previous years include:

Maori and Biotechnology: The Logic of Belief and the Theory of Practice

Michael D. Jackson, Distinguished Visiting Professor in World Religions, HDS, researched the ways that New Zealand Maori experience biotechnological interventions in their everyday lives, including the interplay between actual practices and core beliefs concerning the sanctity of life-forms whose essences should not be mixed. (2005-06)

The Harvard Divinity School Study on Teaching About Religion in the Schools (H-STARS)

Diane Moore, director of the Program in Religion and Secondary Education and Senior Lecturer on Religion and Education at HDS, collected data about the incorporation of the study of religion in secondary school curricula. With the assistance of Ali S. Asani, Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Culture, FAS, she also facilitated a training initiative for local educators to introduce them to the academic study of religion through the lens of Islam, with particular attention to the diversity of political, cultural, social, and religious expressions that are represented in the tradition. (2004-05 and 2005-06)

Towards An Intellectual History of Religion in Southern Asia: Kashmir at the End of the First Millennium, 800-1100

Parimal G. Patil, Assistant Professor of the Study of Religion and of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, FAS, created this lecture series as the first part of a project that seeks to understand the ways in which intellectuals belonging to different sectarian groups, primarily Hindu and Buddhist, interacted with each other in premodern South Asia. (2005-06)

Journal of World Christianity: A Planning Conference

Patrick Provost-Smith, Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity, HDS, convened a conference to lay the intellectual foundations for the Journal of World Christianity (JWC) in cooperation with the other editor of the journal, Dale T. Irvin of the New York Theological Seminary. The journal hopes to shape the emerging field of World Christian studies, bridging the disciplines of anthropology, religious studies, theology, social and political theory, and the history of Christianity. (2005-06)