Loading

Religions and Public Life graduate fellows program bridges schools and students

The Religions and Public Life interdisciplinary graduate student working group brings together ten students representing seven departments, four graduate and professional schools, and two universities (Duke and UNC). Focused on the theme of Minorities and Diasporas, participants meet monthly to workshop individual research projects, discuss new scholarship, and craft short commentary pieces connecting their expertise to current affairs. During the year, members will also conduct field research and present their work at conferences with research support provided by the Kenan Institute for Ethics and the Center for Jewish Studies.
Participants’ research topics include:

  • How religiosity affects whether members of ethnoreligious diasporas will support foreign policy interventions on behalf of their ancestral home states
  • Exploring how social workers understand and navigate the relationship of their religious belief and practice with their professional activities of providing care
  • Examining the contemporary black church as a diasporic institution through the specific case of the AME church in Latin America.
Lead Fellow Lea Greenberg notes, “It is natural to spend a great deal of time sealed in our ‘disciplinary bubbles,’ but sharing work across disciplinary boundaries provides a shift in perspective that can impel us to think critically about our work in novel ways.”
Learn more here.