Opportunities for Princeton Graduate Students:

Graduate Student Awards (Due March 3, 2008)

Teaching Internships (Due December 31, 2008)

CSR Graduate Student Awards

The Center for the Study of Religion invites applications for CSR Graduate Student Research Awards for the 2008-2009 academic year.  Please note that only students who will be regularly enrolled (not DCE) during 2008-2009 are eligible.  Awards require residence and participation in one of the two workshops and are subject to Graduate School approval.  Applications will be accepted in two categories:

Religion and Public Life

Graduate students engaged in research dealing with the relationships between religion and public policy or between religion and contemporary social issues more generally are invited to apply in this category.  Proposals will be considered from both pre-generals and post-generals students, with preference given to proposals from students working on dissertations or dissertation-related papers.  To be eligible, applicants must be enrolled and in residence during the 2008-09 academic year.  Recipients of the awards are required to participate regularly during the year in the Religion and Public Life Workshop, a weekly interdisciplinary seminar on Fridays at noon in which research-in-progress is presented and discussed.  Each semester, each student typically presents on dissertation chapter or papers and serves once as a respondent.  Both religion and public life are defined broadly and include topics concerning the United States, other countries, or comparative-regional issues.  Normally the topics will focus on 20th and 21st century issues, although historical approaches will be considered if they have clear implications for understanding current issues.  Both quantitative and qualitative studies are especially encouraged.  Examples of relevant topics include religion and economic development, religion and gender, religion and immigration, religious practices among political leaders and other elites, religion and philanthropy, faith-based service organizations, religion-sponsored NGOs, religious pluralism, religion and war, and the role of religion in social or political movements.

Religion and Culture

Post-generals students working on historical, ethnographic, and/or normative aspects of religion are invited to apply in this category.  It is expected that, while approaches vary, students’ work examine the relation between religion and its wider context, whether that context be construed in literary, cultural, anthropological, philosophical, artistic, or other terms.  To be eligible, applicants must have passed the General Examination by December 2008 and be enrolled during the 2008-09 academic year.  Preference will be given to students sufficiently advanced with dissertation research to benefit from participating in an interdisciplinary seminar.  Recipients of the Awards are required to participate regularly during the year in the Religion and Culture Workshop, a weekly seminar emphasizing the discussion of one’s work with other scholars outside of one’s sub-field.  Each semester, each student typically presents one dissertation chapter and serves once as a respondent.  Examples of relevant topics include religion and Roman theater in the early Christian era, Syriac texts, Babylonian art, Byzantine art, Buddhism in medieval China, Islamic law, early modern Japanese temple practices, medieval European monastic literature, Renaissance religious paintings, 19th and 20th century African American religious history, funerary ritual, religious teachings about the body, and religious music.

The awards are for $5,500 and are intended to support the student’s participation in one of the two academic-year workshops.  Up to 50% of the award may be received during Summer 2008, with the remainder distributed during the 2008-2009 academic year and/or Summer 2009.  The awards are intended to supplement regular fellowships and/or, with special permission, help to cover direct research expenses, such as travel to professional meetings, transcription or translation costs, research assistance, or purchase of books and other materials (but not computers).  These awards are subject to Graduate School rules covering fellowships, enrollment, and income.

Selection criteria include:  overall scholarly merit of the project, clarity and persuasiveness of the proposal, evidence of the applicant’s academic distinction, and likelihood that the applicant will contribute effectively to and benefit from participation in the interdisciplinary seminar.

Applicants should submit an online application (http://gradschool.princeton.edu/financial/fellowships/summerstipend/commonapplication/).  Although the common application form is entitled “Summer Funding” please see above for our disbursement timing. Also please submit directly to the Center for the Study of Religion at 5 Ivy Lane a cover letter (include a one-sentence title or summary of the research topic and indicate which of the two workshops best fits your project), a summary of the research or research proposal (five double-spaced pages maximum), a copy of one of your graduate papers, a copy of your transcript, a c.v., and two letters of recommendation.  Submit to Anita Kline (csrelig@princeton.edu; 258-5545), CSR, 5 Ivy Lane, by March 3, 2008.

CSR Teaching Internships

For the 2009-10 academic year (including the summers of 2009 and 2010), the Center for the Study of Religion is offering up to ten teaching internships for Princeton graduate students specializing in the study of religion to gain experience teaching in a seminary or divinity school context. Applications from all humanities and social science departments are eligible. This year we have opportunities for students to teach traditional semester-long courses at area seminaries or church-related colleges or intensive one- to four-week courses at seminaries and church-related colleges around the nation. Semester-long and equivalent intensive internships carry a stipend of $7000, and intensive internships include remuneration of lodging and travel expenses. All interns are also granted $800 for expenses of preparing the course.

The purpose of the program is to enrich the preparation of Princeton graduate students by giving them an opportunity to acquire additional teaching experience beyond that which they may have gained as Assistants in Instruction. An additional aim of the program is to enhance the quality of theological education by forging stronger relationships between universities and theological schools.

In the past, interns have taught such courses as "Introduction to Islam," "Women Leaders of the Medieval Church," "History of the Crusades," "Emerging Trends in the Family: A Challenge to the Ministry of Congregations," "Majority/Minority Relations: Gender, Race, Class," and "African American Religious History." 

To apply, please complete the on-line application form at

https://www-dept-edit.princeton.edu/csr/forms/teaching_interns/index.xml