Description

In November 2017, the Luce Foundation’s board approved a Theology Program grant of $250,000 to create a Borderlands Institute at Brite Divinity School. Affiliated with Texas Christian University, Brite Divinity School is one of four seminaries related to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and the denomination’s only seminary related to a university. The Borderlands Institute seeks to provide an environment in which current and future religious leaders come together to acquire a deeper understanding of what it means to reside physically, imaginatively, and spiritually in different “borderlands” contexts. Its work has drawn on insights and scholarship from the established field of borderland studies, seeking to apply these insights to theological education through both new course development and various opportunities for experiential learning. With the aim of generating distinct sorts of leaders — “border crossers” — the institute has been particularly oriented toward preparing religious and civic leaders to analyze the situation of immigrants and other dislocated populations in the United States. With the support of a COVID Emergency Grant, Brite Divinity School and the Borderlands Institute will pursue three goals, each focusing in particular on the situation of vulnerable immigrant communities and drawing on the Institute’s networks and relationships with a range of organizations, cultivated in the course of travel seminars supported by the Luce Foundation’s previous support: First, through a program of small grants, the Institute will provide financial assistance to established nonprofits, humanitarian organizations, and religious communities who support immigrant populations through the provision of shelter, healthcare, clothing, food, and other needs. Second, the Institute will provide seed funding for new and emerging efforts to serve and support vulnerable immigrant communities. Third, the Institute will provide stipends and support for students engaged in the work of documenting the voices and experiences of immigrants affected by the pandemic.