The next generation of leading teachers and scholars in American religion is at work in our colleges and universities today. With support from Lilly Endowment, the Center assists these early career scholars in the improvement of their teaching and research and in the development of professional communities through the Young Scholars in American Religion program.

The current program will include three "classes," each meeting on five occasions. The first group will gather in Indianapolis October 18-21, 2007; April 3-6 and October 16-19, 2008; and April 2-5 and October 15-18, 2009. The second group will meet April 2-5 and October 15-18, 2009; April 15-18 and October 14-17, 2010; and April 28-May 1, 2011. The final group will meet October 14-17, 2010; April 28-May 1 and October 13-16, 2011; and April 26-29 and October 11-14, 2012.

In addition to its historic concentration on teaching and research, the Young Scholars Program will now include a seminar devoted to such other professional issues as constructing a tenure portfolio, publication, grant writing, and department politics.

Young Scholars 2009-2011

The following individuals were selected to participate in the Young Scholars in American Religion Program 2009-2011:

Dr. Fay Botham, American Indian & Native Studies Program, Department of American Studies, University of Iowa; Dr. Heather D. Curtis, Department of Religion, Tufts University; Dr. Jonathan Ebel, Department of Religion, University of Illinois, Urbana; Dr. Maura Jane Farrelly, Department of American Studies, Brandeis University; Dr. Jennifer Graber, Department of Religious Studies, College of Wooster; Dr. Matthew J. Grow, Department of History, University of Southern Indiana; Dr. Everett Hamner, Department of English & Journalism, Western Illinois University; Dr. Kip Kosek, American Studies Department, George Washington University; Dr. Lynn S. Neal, Department of Religion, Wake Forest University; and Dr. Jonathan Walton, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside.

These ten scholars, with their senior faculty mentors, Dr. Clark Gilpin and Dr. Tracy Fessenden, will meet in Indianapolis April 2-5 and October 15-18, 2009; April 15-18 and October 14-17, 2010; and April 28-May 1, 2011. 

Dr. Gilpin is the Margaret E. Burton Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Christianity and Theology in the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is a historian of Christianity who studies the cultural history of theology in England and America since the seventeenth century. Among his works is an intellectual biography of Roger Williams, the seventeenth-century advocate of religious liberty. A more recent book, A Preface to Theology, examines the history of American theological scholarship in terms of the theologian's responsibilities to a three-fold public in the churches, the academic community, and civil society.   

Dr. Fessenden is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University, specializing in western religious traditions, religion and literature, and American religious and cultural history. Her recent work focuses on religion, race, gender, and sexuality in American cultural history, on the relationship between religion and the secular in American public life, and on questions of religion and violence. She is author, most recently, of Culture and Redemption: Religion, the Secular, and American Literature.

Young Scholars 2007-2009

The following individuals participated in the Young Scholars in American Religion Program 2007-2009:

Dr. Edward J. Blum, Department of History, San Diego State University; Dr. Darren Dochuk, Department of History, Purdue University; Dr. Katherine Carté Engel, Department of History, Texas A&M University; Dr. J. Spencer Fluhman, Department of Church History & Doctrine, Brigham Young University; Dr. Rebecca Goetz, Department of History, Rice University; Dr. Charles F. Irons, Department of History, Elon University; Dr. Kathryn Lofton, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University; Dr. Randall J. Stephens, Department of History, Eastern Nazarene College; Dr. Matthew A. Sutton, Department of History, Washington State University; and Dr. Tisa J. Wenger, Department of Religious Studies, Arizona State University.

These ten scholars, with their senior faculty mentors, Dr. Amanda Porterfield and Dr. Paul Harvey, will met in Indianapolis October 18-21, 2007; April 3-6 and October 16-19, 2008; and April 2-5 and October 15-18, 2009.   

Dr. Porterfield is the Robert A. Spivey Professor of Religion and Director of Graduate Studies at Florida State University. She is a historian of American religion interested in the interplay between religion and culture. She has written books on the New England Puritans, Protestant women missionaries in the 19th century, and the transformation of American religion after 1960. She also has wider interests in the history of Christianity and in the comparative study of world religions. She served as President of the American Society of Church History in 2001. She is co-editor, with John Corrigan, of Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, the quarterly journal of the American Society of Church History.

Dr. Harvey is Professor of History at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He researches and writes in the field of post-Civil War American History. His particular interests include southern history, American religious history, popular culture, war and society, and the history of American music. In 2006, Harvey received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from the University of Colorado. In 2007, Harvey received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of LAS at the University of Colorado. He is a former Young Scholars in American Religion program participant (1994-1996).

Young Scholars 2005-2006

The following scholars participated in the Young Scholars in American Religion Program 2005-2006: Dr. Julius H. Bailey, University of Redlands; Dr. Courtney Bender, Columbia University; Dr. Lila Corwin Berman, Pennsylvania State University; Dr. Joseph Creech, Valparaiso University; Dr. Kathleen Sprows Cummings, University of Notre Dame; Dr. Henry Goldschmidt, Wesleyan University; Dr. Charles A. Israel, Auburn University; Dr. Sylvester Johnson, Indiana University; Dr. John Lardas, Franklin and Marshall College; Dr. Tracy Neal Leavelle, Creighton University; Dr. Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Augustana College, Dr. Evelyn Sterne, University of Rhode Island; and Dr. Christopher G. White, Georgia State University.

Their seminars were led by Dr. Judith Weisenfeld of Vassar College and Dr. John Corrigan of Florida State University. Dr. Weisenfeld is author of African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905-1945, and co-editor of This Far by Faith: Readings in African American Women's Religious Biography. Dr. Corrigan is author of Business of the Heart: Religion and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century, and co-editor of Religion and Emotion: Approaches and Interpretations, as well as Emotion and Religion: A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography.

Young Scholars 2004-2005

The following scholars participated in the 04-05 program: Dr. Jonathan Baer, Wabash College; Dr. James Bennett, Santa Clara University; Dr. Wendy Cadge, Bowdoin College; Dr. Richard Callahan, Jr., University of Missouri-Columbia; Dr. John Giggie, University of Texas at San Antonio; Dr. Rebecca Gould, Middlebury College; Dr. Thomas Kidd, Baylor University; Dr. Amy Koehlinger, Florida State University; Dr. Luis Murillo, Trinity University; Dr. John Schmalzbauer, College of the Holy Cross; Dr. Sarah Taylor, Northwestern University; and Dr. Anne Wills, Davidson College.

Mentors for the 04-05 seminars were Dr. Peter W. Williams and Dr. Catherine A. Brekus. Dr. Williams is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and American Studies and Interim Chair of the Department of Comparative Religion at Miami University, and is the author of America's Religions: from their Origins to the Twenty-First Century, Perspectives on American Religion, and Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States. Dr. Brekus is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity, Divinity School and Department of History, The University of Chicago. She is the author of Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America.

 

Anne Taves and Steve Prothero (L), YSAR mentors 03-04, and Peter Williams and Catherine Brekus (R), YSAR mentors 04-05, visited at the Center's AAR reception in Atlanta, November 2003.

Young Scholars 2003-2004

The following scholars participated in the 2003-04 Young Scholars in American Religion program: Dr. Robert E. Brown, James Madison University; Dr. Julie Byrne, Texas Christian University; Dr. Martha L. Finch, Southwest Missouri State University; Dr. Kathleen Flake, Vanderbilt Divinity School; Dr. Clarence Hardy, Dartmouth College; Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi, Farleigh-Dickinson University; Dr. Kristin Schwain, University of Missouri-Columbia; Dr. Danielle Brune Sigler, University of North Texas; Dr. Rachel Wheeler, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Dr. Douglas L. Winiarski, University of Richmond; and Dr. David Yamane, University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Ann Taves of the Claremont School of Theology and Dr. Stephen Prothero of Boston University mentored the class of 2003-04. Dr. Taves specializes in the history of American Christianity and is author of the acclaimed Fits, Trances, & Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James, as well as The Household of Faith: Roman Catholic Devotions in Mid-Nineteenth Century America. Dr. Prothero has worked extensively in Buddhism and Hinduism in America and is author of The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott, and Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America.

Young Scholars Program History

Beginning in 1991, fifteen young scholars from across the nation, selected from over 100 applicants, convened in Indianapolis for four two-day seminars. Two of the seminars were devoted to teaching the introductory course in American religion, and two were devoted to the enhancement of research and publication. Professor Catherine Albanese of the University of California, Santa Barbara served as the director of the seminars on teaching. Professor William Hutchison of the Harvard Divinity School led the seminars on research and publication.

Ten young scholars selected from over 70 applicants were selected for the 2 year program begun in 1994. Professor Harry Stout of Yale University conducted the seminars on teaching the introductory course, while Dean John Wilson of Princeton University was selected to lead the seminars on research and publication.

The third phase of the Young Scholars in American Religion program was expanded to include sections geared toward historians, sociologists, and seminary professors, in addition to scholars in religious studies departments. Seminars were held in Indianapolis, at Duke University Divinity School, at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and at the Cushwa Center at the University of Notre Dame. Senior scholars Deborah Dash Moore, Vassar College, Grant Wacker, Duke University Divinity School, Wade Clark Roof, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Philip Gleason, University of Notre Dame, led the seminars. A complete list of the history, religious studies, seminary, and sociology participants in the Young Scholars in American Religion program is available on this web site.