Description

A key partner on a University of Texas at Austin project supported by an existing Luce Foundation grant, the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life (IDCL) will build upon that project’s attention to religious diversity in Texas in order to foster new public conversations about migrants, immigrants, refugees, asylees, and their families. We know that many immigrants and refugees experience the process of migration and resettlement in ways that are substantially informed by religious organizations, networks, identities, and communities. Beginning with this recognition – and, in particular, in light of an incoming presidential administration poised to take a significantly different approach to immigration policy – IDCL will expand the “Religions Texas” public humanities initiative to connect with, support, and amplify the work of scholars and civic leaders who are exploring the stories of immigrants and refugees in Texas through narrative and other interpretive storytelling methods. The project will examine the cultural and existential issues that galvanize transnational identities, experiences of living in two places at once, and the realities of migration, movement, and crossing borders. And it will explore the multiplicity of ways in which religion helps individuals and communities make sense of their lives in the borderlands and the consequences of these encounters. Proposals for small grants will be invited from scholars, artists, and religious and civic leaders. Funded projects will support community-based narrative initiatives, the development of oral histories, and the creation of multimedia projects (and the majority of the Luce Foundation’s funds will be regranted in this fashion). IDCL will also work to foster partnerships with Texas media and cultural organizations, such as local NPR stations, the  Texas Tribune,  the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, and the Rothko Chapel, in order to promote and exhibit work supported through the grants.