Applications Are Now Open
Beginning in the fall of 2025, a series of seminars devoted to the enhancement of teaching and research will be offered in Indianapolis. The aims of all sessions of the program are to develop ideas and methods of teaching in a supportive workshop environment, stimulate scholarly research and writing, and create a community of scholars that will continue into the future.
Applying for the Young Scholars Program
Scholars eligible to apply are those working in a subfield of the area of religion in North America, broadly understood, who have a terminal degree in hand, a full-time academic position (tenure track or renewable long-term), and have launched their careers within the last seven years. Scholars are selected with the understanding that they will commit to the program for all seminar dates. Participants are expected to produce two course syllabi, with justification of teaching approach, and a publishable research article over the course of their seminars.
Applicants must submit (a) a curriculum vitae; (b) a 750-word essay indicating why they are interested in participating and describing their current and projected research and teaching interests; and (c) email information for at least two scholars willing to write letters of reference (portfolios with generic reference letters are not accepted).
All application materials, including letters of recommendation, must be received by May 12, 2025. Please note that the Center will not request supporting letters until after the application is submitted so plan accordingly.
Young Scholars Program Details
The dates for this cohort’s sessions are as follows:
Session I: October 9-11, 2025
Session II: April 16-18, 2025
Session III: October 15-17, 2026
Session IV: April 8-10, 2027
Scholars who are selected must commit to the program for all seminar dates and join three virtual meetings. Participants are also expected to produce two course syllabi—with justification of teaching approach—and a publishable research article over the course of their seminars.
Meet the 2025–2027 Cohort Mentors
Gerardo Martí is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology at Davidson College with expertise in race and ethnicity, immigration, religion, political power, and social change. A prolific and award-winning author, he has served as president of both the Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR). His current research is funded by a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc. and focuses on churches actively confronting racial injustice. His ninth book is under contract with Oxford University Press.
Tisa Wenger is Professor of American Religious History at Yale Divinity School, with secondary appointments in American Studies, History, and Religious Studies at Yale. Wenger’s books include We Have a Religion: The 1920s Pueblo Indian Dance Controversy and American Religious Freedom (2009), Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal (2017), and the co-edited Religion and U.S. Empire: Critical New Histories (2022). Her next book, How Settler Colonialism Made American Religion, was supported in part by a Guggenheim Fellowship and is forthcoming in 2026 with the University of North Carolina Press.
About Young Scholars in American Religion
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. In addition to its historic concentration on teaching and research, the Young Scholars Program now includes a seminar devoted to such other professional issues as constructing a tenure portfolio, publication, grant writing, and department politics.
Apply to be a Young Scholar
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