A new grant effort underway at the John Templeton Foundation: A planning grant structured to support the rare study of religion within psychology doctoral programs.
The effort includes a workshop for early career scholars, and seed grants to support their research. Also funded is the initial stages of preparing a highly engaging undergraduate textbook in the psychology of religion area.
“Religion is a central aspect of being human, yet has largely been ignored within academic psychology since the behavioral revolution in the early 20th century,” according to the foundation’s website. The grantmaking team add that there are roughly a dozen people in tenure-track or tenured positions in research oriented universities who are willing to take graduate students who want to study religion.
The initiative is led by three prominent scholars in the psychology of religion: Adam Cohen (University of Arizona), Kevin Ladd (Indiana University) and Azim Shariff (University of Oregon). Part of the work will also be in the planning and writing of the $2.5 million field-building effort, to include funding of post-doctoral fellows and emerging faculty grants to make them competitive at top flight jobs.
Susan is an author with a long-time interest in religion and science. She currently edits Covalence, the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology’s online magazine. She has written articles in The Lutheran and the Zygon Center for Religion and Science newsletter. Susan is a board member for the Center for Advanced Study of Religion and Science, the supporting organization for the Zygon Center and the Zygon Journal. She also co-wrote Our Bodies Are Selves with Dr. Philip Hefner and Dr. Ann Pederson.
