Religious Freedom Project Graduate Summer Research Fellowship

Application Deadline: January 27, 2017

The Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs—together with its partner, Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion—is offering summer Ph.D. dissertation fellowships for students exploring the sources, development, and consequences of religious freedom.

We seek proposals for dissertations that will explore the relationship between religious liberty and other fundamental freedoms; its importance for democracy; and/or its role in social and economic development, international diplomacy, and countering violent religious extremism. Successful proposals will connect the study of religious freedom to other academic disciplines in order to generate new knowledge about the role of religious liberty (or its absence) in:

(a) the development of political freedom, human rights, and democracy,

(b) the promotion of economic freedom, economic development, and economic growth, and/or

(c) the elimination, prevention, moderation, or mitigation of religiously driven extremism and violence.

The Nature of the Awards

Dissertation research/completion fellowships will be awarded for the summer 2017 (May 1-August 31). Awards will amount to up to $5,000. Awarded funds may be used for travel, research, and living expenses. Fellowship winners will be required to submit a paper detailing research findings, which the RFP may publish online and in project publications. Additionally, winners may be asked to share their work at an RFP-sponsored event after the award period. Eligibility, Terms, and Conditions

This fellowship is offered to Ph.D. candidates from any college or university. The fellowship is not limited to any single academic discipline or department. Accordingly, candidates from departments across the humanities and social sciences may apply.

A fellowship designee will forfeit the award if the prospectus has not been approved by April 17, 2017. Research fellowship winners may do a small amount of teaching or outside work to supplement summer fellowship funding, but such supplementary work must be specified in the cover letter, must not conflict with the Ph.D. research plan, and must be approved by the student’s home institution. Preference will be given to students who do not have other summer grants or fellowships.

An interdisciplinary committee will review all applications during February 2017. Successful candidates will be notified via email by Nicholas Fedyk on or before April 1, 2017.

Application guidelines are available here.

Source: Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs