The Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal (RSDR) Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) aims to bring knowledge of the place of religion and spirituality into scholarly and public conversations about renewing democracy in the United States. These fellowships are offered by the SSRC Program on Religion and the Public Sphere with the support and partnership of the Fetzer Institute.
Applications for this year’s fellowship are due April 14, 2022. Apply online at apply.ssrc.org.
The RSDR fellowships offer research support over a period of up to 12 months to doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy and to postdoctoral researchers within five years of their PhD. We welcome proposals on all aspects and dimensions of religion and spirituality in its relation to democracy from across all fields in the social sciences, humanities, and theology. The program is pleased to be collaborating with the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) to support fellows’ research with access to their extensive survey data on these topics, as well as working with fellows to gain access to other data sources.
This year, the program is especially interested in projects that shed light on 1) the religious and spiritual dimensions of the deep political polarization and dysfunction in the US today and/or 2) the ways religious ideas, actors, and institutions may (or may not) be contributing to more inclusive and civil democratic politics.
More information on eligibility, research themes, and application materials can be found on the program’s website.