Opportunities for Curricular Development and Enhancement

The Center solicits applications for Freshman Seminars and other new undergraduate courses for the following academic year. Faculty members who offer new courses under the Center’s auspices will receive up to $7,500 Summer Salary, and the home department will be reimbursed .1665 FTE in the first year. Any number of critical approaches to the study of religion may be used in the course, and the topic can be defined as a specific tradition or more broadly in terms of the interaction between religion and other aspects of culture. Courses can use any of the formats for undergraduate education: Freshman Seminars, 200-level lecture courses open without prerequisites, or more specialized courses. Freshman Seminar proposals will be given priority and should be designed to appeal broadly to students who have had no prior introduction to the academic study of religion or to the specific topic of the seminar. Please note that one award (FTE fraction and summer salary) will be granted per course; faculty proposing to co-teach a course will share the award. 

The Center aims to foster the study of religion, broadly defined, across disciplines and to facilitate intellectual exchange among students and faculty in the humanities and social sciences. The sponsorship of new courses is part of our commitment to scholarly research and teaching that examines religion theoretically, comparatively, and empirically in its diverse historical and contemporary manifestations. The website lists previously supported Freshman Seminars and advanced undergraduate courses.

Eligibility for teaching CCSR-sponsored courses is extended to all regular tenured and tenure-track faculty in humanities and social science departments. Faculty whose proposals were not chosen in previous years may reapply.

Applicants should submit a paragraph-long description of the proposed course, a tentative syllabus, a copy of their curriculum vitae including courses taught, and a note from their department chair in support of the course. The syllabus should be a two- to five-page document that provides a description of the aims of the course, the main topics to be covered, and specific readings with approximate number of pages indicated for each week of the course. The proposal should include a justification for the summer salary stipend, indicating any new sources to be consulted (archives, collections, etc.), uses of new instructional technologies or materials, and/or needs for travel. Proposals must be clear as to when the course will be offered. Materials should be submitted by e-mail to [email protected] by November 1, 2023.

Opportunities for Faculty-directed Events

The Center offers support to help defray the costs of inter-disciplinary conferences, symposia, workshops, or guest-speaker events that include a focus on some aspect of religion. Applications from tenured or tenure-track members of the faculty in all humanities and social science departments are encouraged. The purpose of this support is to help a faculty member initiate or augment a scholarly research project or teaching endeavor that bears on the study of religion. The conference, symposia, or lecture series could be held during this or next academic year. Formats might include a 1-2 day conference, a series of speakers over a semester or year, several symposia, or some combination of these. Requests will be considered on a competitive basis by the Center’s Executive Committee, with $5,000 as a likely maximum funding amount.

Selection criteria include: a clear statement of the event’s objectives, its specific topics, how the event relates to the faculty member’s major research agenda and teaching, whether the event would be connected to a seminar or course, and the benefit to the University community, particularly students.

Examples of broad areas in which possible themes might be developed include (but are not limited to): religious perspectives in debates about war and peace, religion and healing, religion and ethics in the professions, Islamic or Christian social movements, new developments in Buddhist studies, South or East Asian religions, religion and architecture, religion and literature, religion and immigration, religion and family, the role of religion in welfare provision, or arguments about secularization and desecularization. Previous events sponsored by the Center have focused on chant in world religious traditions, law and reproductive health politics, the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s, migration and the bible, religion in the African diaspora, Jewish and Muslim charity in the Middle Ages, death and funerary practices in Buddhism, and ethics in mystical traditions.

Applications should include a curriculum vitae, a 2-3 page proposal that addresses the selection criteria listed above, and a tentative budget. Letters of recommendation are also welcome. Submit applications by April 8, 2024 to [email protected]. Because funds are limited, faculty are encouraged to apply to multiple sources of funding.

For further information, contact Center Manager Jennifer Hemingway at jklumpp@princeton.edu.