For the 2021 fall semester, BCSR is offering eight fellowships in the amount of $3,750 each for graduate students to explore the relationship between democracy and religion. Led by two BCSR faculty members, students will meet bi-weekly to read key texts in the history of religion, explore research topics, and meet Berkeley and visiting faculty working in the field. Awardees will form a cohort of graduate students from diverse disciplines that share an interest in the study of religion and theology.
The fall 2021 semester’s New Directions group will concentrate on the religious cultures of western Eurasia in the first millennium CE and on significant questions of the relationship between religion and other forms of collective life (especially decision making and politics). Students from relevant humanistic or social science disciplines interested in the study of religion in any period and geographical region are encouraged to apply and will be supported in making connections between this material and their own research interests. There will also be opportunities to participate in a new public outreach program based at the BCSR, that will aim to inform publics in the Bay Area about contemporary scholarly study of religion.
1. All graduate students are eligible, including prior New Directions participants
2. Student participants will receive a stipend of $3750, payable in a lump sum in early fall 2021.
3. The selected cohort (eight students) will convene with faculty members for bi-weekly evening meetings during the fall 2021 semester.
4. New Directions applications must include:
- a CV
- a one-page statement of purpose or dissertation precis
- the name of a BCSR affiliated faculty member, or a graduate student advisor who will serve as a reference (formal letters of recommendation are not required)
5. Applications should be sent to info.bcsr@berkeley.edu by April 12th. Selected candidates will be notified by May 7th.
For more information about the program or questions about the nomination process, please contact info.bcsr@berkeley.edu.