The Women, Religion and Globalization Project is a collaboration between the MacMillan Center, the Yale Divinity School, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale, funded by the Luce Foundation. It will explore the relationship between women religious practitioners and political, economic, and social developments, both locally, around the world, and in the larger context of international affairs.
“This initiative presents a unique approach to understanding the role of religion in international affairs, and I am delighted that the Luce Foundation recognized this,” said Ian Shapiro, Henry R. Luce Director, The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. “I am particularly pleased that faculty from many disciplines and institutions across the campus will be engaged in this undertaking.”
The principal investigators for the program are Cheryl Doss, Lecturer, International Affairs and Economics; Associate Chair, International Affairs Council; Sally Promey, Professor of religion and visual culture in the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School, and Professor of American Studies; and Laura Wexler, Professor of American Studies, and Professor of Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies.
The project on Women, Religion, and Globalization is made possible through funding from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs. Yale was one of a small number of International Relations schools selected in a competition among the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) institutions. The Foundation sought to encourage innovative approaches to training future policymakers in the role that religion plays in foreign affairs and globalization.
To learn more about the goals of this project, read our grant proposal.
The main components of the project are:
–An interdisciplinary faculty colloquium designed to broaden and strengthen university-wide faculty conversations and research agendas about the role of religion and gender in the processes of globalization.
–New courses for the Masters in International Relations program, to introduce graduate and professional students to these new issues and approaches. Students in these courses, and through the Yale community, will be eligible to apply for summer grants to conduct research on relevant topics.
–A fellowship program to link academic, policy, and practical realms of international affairs through the presence, on Yale’s campus, of community leaders, clergy, activists, development workers, scholars, policy analysts and practitioners from geographically, religiously, and culturally diverse locations.
–Workshops hosted by our Fellows to explore the pragmatic policy implications for international relations of the issues raised in the faculty colloquium and graduate seminars.
–Public lectures by prominent speakers on issues related to the work of the grant.