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Greeley International Internship

The Greeley International Internship honors the Rev. Dana McLean Greeley, AB '31, STB '33, who believed that people of all backgrounds and faiths are deeply connected to one another and should work together for positive social change. The internship is intended to support interreligious understanding.

Beginning in November, applications for one summer internship will be accepted from HDS students who wish to intern with an organization outside of the United States that is dedicated to the promotion of interreligious understanding, peace, and social justice. The deadline for internship applications is February 15.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for the Greeley internship, a student must:

  • have completed his or her first year at HDS by June; and
  • be continuing studies at HDS in the next academic year in either the MDiv or MTS program.

Preference will be given to students who have exhibited financial need (indicated by receipt of institutional aid at HDS).

Selection and Award

The selection committee will award a limited number of $3,000 to $4,000 stipends for all costs associated with the summer internship, including airfare, meals, and living expenses. Any costs beyond that amount are the student's responsibility.

Applications will be judged on the basis of:

  • the student's interest in interreligious understanding, peace, and social justice;
  • the strength of the internship proposal;
  • the student's financial need (judged as whether they are receiving institutional aid at HDS); and
  • the student's academic performance.

The CSWR will perform the initial review of applications. A short list will be assessed by the selection committee, which will be composed of the director and associate director of the Center for the Study of World Religions; one HDS student; one member of the HDS faculty; and other appropriate supporting staff. Finalists will be expected to sign an Acknowledgment of Risk and General Release Form (Adobe Reader required).

After selection and before funding, the selected candidate will need to document the host organization's approval of his or her project and learning objectives, as well as the staff member who will supervise the student's work. At the end of the grant period, the grant recipient will be required to submit a written report to the CSWR describing his or her experience and achievements over the summer. During the following academic year, the grant recipient should plan to attend the Greeley Lecture at the CSWR and meet members of the Greeley family and former officers of the Greeley Foundation.

Application Requirements and Deadlines

All applicants must submit:

  • A completed CSWR/HDS Greeley International Internship application form (Adobe Reader required);
  • A letter or email message from the applicant's academic adviser or other Harvard faculty member in support of his/her proposed plans for the summer (to be sent directly to the CSWR by the faculty member); 
  • A copy of the applicant's most recent Harvard grade report (a printout is acceptable);
  • A letter from the host organization documenting approval/support of the applicant as an intern;
  • A curriculum vitae or résumé;
  • A one- to three-page statement of purpose written by the applicant, describing the proposed internship (the proposed plan of work [objectives, activities, location, dates, rough budget]; how it relates to interreligious understanding, peace, and justice; how your experience has prepared you for this internship; how the internship relates to your vocational/professional goals; and how the project will contribute to your learning as a part of your academic program at HDS).

Students may design their own internships in cooperation with any host organization, as long as the internship contributes to interreligious understanding. The CSWR has begun to compile a list of organizations appropriate to the goals of the Greeley International Internship and which have indicated willingness to accept an intern. These organizations are:

Other host organizations may be added, so please check this page again. Students interested in any of the above organizations should contact Alicia Clemente for information on how to reach the appropriate person at the organization. They should then communicate with that contact person directly to work out plans for the proposed internship.

If a student wishes to intern with an organization not on the above list, he or she should also provide:

  • Background information about the host organization adequate to evaluate its appropriateness;
  • An explanation of how the organization's work and the proposed internship relate to the goals of the Greeley internship.

The Pluralism Project's International Resources for Religious Pluralism provides information about several international interfaith organizations, as well as some helpful background. The Human Rights Resources page of Harvard's Committee on Human Rights has listings of organizations working in human rights internationally and links to several websites that may be of interest. The Religions for Peace affiliates page lists many interfaith organizations outside the United States.

The deadline for internship applications is February 15. Email applications with PDF attachments are preferred. Faculty recommendations should be sent to Alicia Clemente.

Applications should be submitted by email (preferred), or by mail or fax to:

Alicia Clemente, Coordinator of Residential Life and Fellowship Programs
Attention: Greeley Internship
Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge 02138
Tel. 617.496.1934; Fax. 617.496.5411

Alicia is also available to answer questions and provide contact information for listed organizations.

Previous Greeley International Interns

Two Greeley International Internships were awarded for the 2011 summer. Sierra Fleenor worked with the East of England Faiths Council in Cambridge, England, an organization that works regionally to increase communication and understanding in faith communities, while Emily Clawson traveled to Hyderabad, India to work with the Henry Martyn Institute, International Center for Research, Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation, in Hyderabad, India.

Two Greeley International Internships were awarded for the 2010 summer. Adam Ortman, an MTS candidate, spent the summer with Sarvodoya, an organization in Sri Lanka with an interfaith perspective that works for peace and in community building. Maytal Saltiel, an MDiv student, worked at the Henry Martyn Institute, International Center for Research, Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation, in Hyderabad, India.

Charles Carstens, MTS '10, received the Greeley International Internship to work with the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Peace at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, during the summer of 2009. He assisted John Butt, senior advisor at the Institute, in teaching a comparative course, "Buddhist and Christian Religion," and supported Mark Tamthai, the Institute's current director, in creating a new international PhD program on religion and peacemaking/peace-building.

Stephanie Almozara, MDiv '09, received the first Greeley International Internship. During the summer of 2008, she worked at the Henry Martyn Institute, International Center for Research, Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation, in Hyderabad, India. She found field placements for postgraduate scholars of conflict resolution, taught English in community-based projects, and participated in organizing workshops on conflict transformation, cooperation, understanding, and peace-building for Hyderabad Hindu and Muslim women.

CSWR Junior Fellowships

The 2011-12 CSWR junior fellows are:

Kate Yanina DeConinck, ThD candidate with a focus on religion and society. DeConinck's academic interests center around religious and cultural memory/memorialization, particularly as related to Ground Zero in New York City. Her junior fellowship project is titled "Aftermaths: Religion, Ritual, and Remembrance in a Multireligious World." Some of the guiding questions for this series include: What role do religious communities play in the aftermath of natural disasters or mass murder? How can rituals help individuals or groups overcome the devastation of such violence? And, what is at stake in how faith communities choose to remember (or forget) atrocities, in terms of both how they view themselves and how they view others? The programming consists of two components: first, a series of lunchtime discussions with faculty concerning their research on themes of ritual and remembrance; and second, a variety of events coordinated in conjunction with the newly formed Religion and Politics Colloquium. DeConinck looks forward to thinking creatively with students and faculty about the often-understudied intersections between memory studies and religious studies. 

Chan Sok Park, ThD candidate in New Testament and early Christian studies. Park's research interests include the social and political ramifications of religious language, texts, and movements; individual and communal self-definition in antiquity; and Johannine Christianity. As a junior fellow at the CSWR, he is hosting a series of reading group meetings of doctoral students on the topic of the place of reading practice in the study of religion. The group has two particular interests: First, how do we understand our own reading practice of religious texts in its academic, study-of-religion form, institutionalized in a modern university setting? What is its relation to religious reading of and for contemporary religious communities? Is this distinction even appropriate, and why? Second, what are the contemporary methodological tools for the study of religious texts in interreligious and interdisciplinary contexts? What are their strengths and limits, and the implications for the group members' own textual study? Park looks forward to the Center's many opportunities to engage in interreligious conversations as well. 

Axel Takács, ThD candidate with a focus on comparative theology between his home tradition of Roman Catholicism and Islam. More specifically, his focus is on Islamic mystical philosophy ('irfan and hikma) between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, as well as the concurrent mystical Persian poetry that flourished alongside this tradition. Within the Roman Catholic tradition, his area of interest is the scholastic theology and mystical texts of roughly the same time period. As a junior fellow at the CSWR, Takács plans to bring comparative theology into dialogue with the broader CSWR and Harvard communities through a series of lectures given by various comparative theologians. The aim of these lectures is to explain to the study-of-religion community just how theology can be done interreligiously within the academic framework. He looks forward to engaging the community through his project and the many other events hosted by the CSWR. 

Funlayo E. Wood, PhD candidate in African Studies with a concentration in religion. Wood's research centers on African indigenous religions, with a particular focus on the Yorùbá Ifá-Òrìsà tradition, which originates in Southwest Nigeria, and its variations and influences in the Americas. As a junior fellow at the CSWR, she is completing a project titled "African, Diasporic, and Indigenous Religions in Conversation," through which she seeks to increase the visibility of and engagement with indigenous religions at the Center and the University. To implement, she is organizing a series of discussions, film screenings, and a day-long symposium titled "Sacred Healing and Wholeness in Africa and the Americas," all of which will explore indigenous religious worldviews and practices with particular attention to how they positively articulate with today's world. Wood hopes to forge connections that will last far beyond her tenure as a fellow.

Undergraduate Summer Research Grant

Each spring the CSWR awards an undergraduate grant for summer senior-thesis-related research. Eligible to apply are undergraduate religion concentrators in their junior year, whose proposed senior thesis has as its key focus an interreligious, cross-cultural, or comparative theme. The research may be ethnographic or archival, and a portion of the award may be used for the purchase of books. During senior year, the grant recipient will offer a presentation on her or his research at the Center.

Applications are due by March 1 each spring, in the form of a Word document sent as an email attachment. Applications should include:

  • a prospectus of about three double-spaced pages outlining the project and its overall goals;
  • the name of a professor willing to write a letter of recommendation in support of the application;
  • an additional page detailing the financial aspect of the project, the expected expenses that warrant being awarded this grant.

The maximum grant is $2,500. The announcement of the award recipient will be made at the end of March.

The 2011 recipient, Analiese Palmer ('12), did research on comparative monasticism during the summer in Ireland and India.

For further information, contact Jane Anna Chapman at the CSWR.