CSF-ESN Grant to Advance Christian Scholarship

Since 1999, the Christian Scholars Foundation has awarded the Grant to Advance Christian Scholarship, an annual grant to junior faculty seeking to integrate their Christian faith with their academic endeavor. ESN has partnered with CSF since 2007. This past year’s grant was awarded to Dr. Jennifer Shewmaker, Associate Professor of Psychology at Abilene Christian University, for her work on the impact of sexualized media on children and adolescents. An interview with Dr. Shewmaker about her research and the grant can be found here. The list of past recipients is also online.

I’m pleased to announce the details for 2011 grant applications. The deadline for 1-page preliminary applications will be March 15, 2011 — 5 to 10 finalists will be invited to submit full applications. Review all of the details on the ESN website.

A few key things to note:

• Grants are awarded solely to junior faculty, though the definition of “junior faculty” is intentionally left vague because of differences among institutions and disciplines. In general, the grant is award to applicants who have been on faculty for less than ten years.
• Applicants must be members of ESN. If you are not a member of ESN, why not join right now? It’s free and takes only a few minutes.
• As you’ll see from the list of past recipients, the grant has been awarded to a variety of disciplines and projects.
• The amount of the grant won’t be determined until April, but it has averaged about $8,000 in recent years.

One of the things I appreciate most about the Christian Scholars Foundation is their breadth of vision for Christians in the academy. In the short history of the grant, recipients have come from diverse disciplines — the humanities, the natural sciences, the social sciences, theology — as well as diverse institutions — public universities, private secular liberal arts colleges, Christian colleges and seminaries, even a Catholic college affiliated with a Canadian public university. Recipients’ projects have also covered a wide range of academic activities: research, course development, travel related to research and conferences, writing, publishing, TA funding. In one case, the grant supported informal student discussion groups led by a faculty member.

If you are a junior faculty member, I encourage you to consider applying. Feel free to forward the grant information to junior faculty whom you know and think would benefit.

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