Description

Discretionary grant of $20,000 to The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University to support graduate student efforts to promote religious literacy through the Religion, Law & Diplomacy (RLD) Initiative.
The Fletcher School at Tufts responded to the Request for Proposals issued by the HRLI during the first three years of the initiative. The goal of that competition (in which The Fletcher School was not successful) was to encourage graduate schools of public policy and international affairs to incorporate the study of religion into the curriculum. A decade later, Fletcher students were instrumental in beginning a conversation about religion at the School; supported by faculty member Elizabeth Prodromou, the students organized conferences in 2015 and 2016.
The current student leadership is committed to expanding the RLD, with the goal of “stimulating institutional change to make religious literacy a priority of students, faculty, and staff.” Importantly, the project challenges “assumptions that religion should be either kept private and excluded from the study and practice of International Relations…or only studied in relation to counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism.”
A team of five impressive graduate students with diverse backgrounds will organize an annual conference, a speaker series, and other activities, beginning in the fall of 2017, and will engage with Fletcher faculty, staff and board of trustees to “build their investment in religious literacy.” The team will also collaborate with Harvard Divinity School, Boston Theological Institute Network, and the Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs at Boston University.
This would be HRLI’s first student-organized grant, and a modest investment in a prominent school of international affairs and public policy. Our funds would be supplemented by an equal amount to be raised from the university.