Description

Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion (CSR) was established in 1999 to encourage greater intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary scholarship about religion. The Center is committed to research and teaching that examines religion comparatively and empirically in its diverse historical and contemporary manifestations. It aims to facilitate scholarly and public understanding of religion through an integrated program of support for Princeton faculty to pursue research, teaching, and scholarly engagement; awards for Princeton graduate students to pursue dissertation research and undergraduate students to prepare independent work; interdisciplinary graduate seminars and undergraduate courses; public lectures and conferences; and opportunities for affiliated visiting scholars.
 
Based at the CSR, the “Crossroads Project” will take a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional approach to enhancing public understanding of the history, theology, politics, and cultures of African American religions, exploring and highlighting the diversity of traditions in Black religious life. The project will establish collaborations across several academic and non-academic institutions, provide support for early career scholars and other knowledge makers, create opportunities for mentoring and professional development, host public events on topics related to history and contemporary issues, and produce and curate a digital platform for public scholarship.
 
Seeking to cultivate historical understanding of the African American religious past, and to trace continuities and discontinuities with the present, the project will involve the participation of scholars from a range of fields, highlighting the study of Black religion at the crossroads of disciplines, and emphasizing the productive outcomes of engagement across a variety of borders. In this same spirit, the project’s work will simultaneously underscore the religious and racial crossings that contribute to the diversity and complexity of African American history and life. Enfolding a geography beyond the United States, it will aim to recognize the historical and contemporary impact of African American religious engagements in Africa and across the Americas, as well as the influence of immigration from the Caribbean and Africa on religious life in the United States. Attention to the diversity of African American religious life, for example, will include explorations of African American Islam, new religious movements in the U.S. and the Caribbean, Black Judaisms, and the experiences of African Americans in predominantly white denominations, as well as Afro-Native, Afro-Latino, and Afro-Asian religious experiences in the United States.
 
Working at the crossroads of disciplines and geographies, the project will also seek to support the productive crossing of boundaries separating diverse knowledge communities, and to strengthen mentoring across generations by connecting established scholars and thinkers with new and emerging voices, facilitating critical and constructive feedback on work-in-progress, and deepening cross-cutting and interdisciplinary networks. An annual program of competitively awarded small fellowships will anchor this approach, providing funding opportunities for a wide range of scholars, teachers, and other knowledge makers, including working artists and museum professionals, as well as individuals based in religious congregations, civic organizations, community centers, and historical societies. The work of supported fellows will be featured on the project’s dedicated digital platform, which will curate materials interpreting history and current events for scholars, teachers, students, and wider publics. Materials will include teaching modules for topics in Black religious studies; spotlights on primary source materials such as photographs, films, oral histories, architecture, and music; and original contributions such as essays, timelines, videos, interpretive maps, and artistic works.
 
The project will be led by Judith Weisenfeld, Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University, Anthea D. Butler, Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Pennsylvania, and Lerone Martin, Associate Professor in Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. The Luce Foundation’s grant would provide support for project direction and coordination, fund the development of the digital platform, support a postdoctoral researcher to oversee the launch and management of the platform, provide support for research assistance and editing, support interdisciplinary research workshops and research-related travel, fund a visiting scholar and a capstone conference, provide small stipends for the project’s advisory and selection committee, and support the annual fellowship program. More than 40% of the total grant amount will be redistributed in the form of small grants supporting individual fellows and teams of fellows. Princeton University will waive all indirect costs and actively support the project’s administration through the Center for the Study of Religion.
 
Recommendation: That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a four-year grant of $1,000,000 to Princeton University to support “The Crossroads Project: Black Religious Histories, Communities, and Cultures,” a new initiative at the Center for the Study of Religion.