2024 Luce-AAR Advancing Public Scholarship Grant Winners

With funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Luce-AAR Advancing Public Scholarship Grant program provides grants to support scholars of religion who are working to engage publics in innovative ways, through projects designed for presentation in public spaces and outreach through publicly accessible sites.

Congratulations to the 2024 grant recipients!


Abel K. Aruan, Villanova University

Mukabumi Resource Center for Religion, Ecology, and Coloniality

Kathryn Barush, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University and the Graduate Theological Union

Sacred Journey as an Integrative Healing Ritual

James Bielo, Northwestern University
Collaborator: Heidi Campbell

Secondhand Religion: The Public Exhibition of Divested Religious Material Culture

Patricia Bonilla, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Sacred Playlists: Love, Laughter, and Controversies

Micki Burdick, University of Pennsylvania
Collaborators: Risa Cromer and Lea Taragin-Zeller

Religion & Reproductive Politics Public Pedagogy Project

Monica A. Coleman, University of Delaware

Podcast on Black Religious Pluralism

Lachlan Davis, University of Divinity 

Texts Behind the Text: Understanding the Sources Behind the Bible

Brian Flanagan, New Ways Ministry
Collaborator: Brian Doyle

The Popecast – Public Scholarship on the History and Theology of the Papacy

M. Cooper Minister, Shenandoah University

Believing in Cure: Drawing on Personal Experience and Theories of Secularism to Illuminate the Role of Medicine in Our Collective Imagination

Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

Building Online Action Resources for the Book Series "Building a Moral Economy”

Bradley Onishi, University of San Francisco
Collaborator: Lloyd Barba

Sanctuary: On the Border Between Church and State

Shirley Paulson, independent scholar 
Collaborators: Deborah Niederer Saxon, Samuel Zinner, Tony Burke, Celene Lillie, Hal Taussig, Natalie Perkins, and Lē Isaac Weaver

A Free Public Online Course Introducing Nag Hammadi and Related Texts

Leslie Polk, Union Theological Seminary

Dialogues with Katie: A Stage Play Production Examining Womanist Thought on Memory as Resistance

Tiffany Puett, Institute for Diversity and Civic Life

Religions Texas Podcast Series

Fabio Rambelli, University of California, Santa Barbara
Collaborator: Vesna Wallace

Buddhist Traditional Arts and Technologies Past and Present

Ana María Rodríguez Alfonso, Emmanuel College Of Victoria University in the University of Toronto

Unveiling Trauma: A Video Podcast on Understanding and Healing Trauma

Eddie A. Rosa Fuentes, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

De-Generad*s After Hours: Taboos en Pelotas

Alejandra Salemi, Duke University

Healing Theology: Exploring the Intersection of Public Health and Religion through Public Education Podcasts

Rachel Schneider, Rice University

Race, Religion, and the Struggle for Racial Justice

Jason Sexton, University of California, Los Angeles
Collaborator: Testimony Ministries

Amid Hope and Redemption: Taking Stock of the Religious Roots of Mass Incarceration’s Eugenic Logic

Michael Sheehy, University of Virginia

What is Contemplation?: A Blog Interview Series

Paride Stortini, Ghent University

Remembering Restless Souls: What a Japanese Buddhist Temple Can Tell about Modern Sex Workers Migration in Asia

Lis Valle-Ruiz, McCormick Theological Seminary
Collaborators: Mayuko Yasuda, Immanuel Karunakaran, Seyo Oh

International Theological Per/Versions