CENTER ON RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY

The Center on Religion and Democracy, a non-partisan research program housed within the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, focuses on understanding the relationship between religion and democratic culture in the contemporary world.

Understanding the role of religion is vital in this time of profound cultural change, in which religion is increasingly central to the economic, political, and cultural life of societies. With its timely and empirically grounded scholarship, the Center’s work stimulates public learning, informs public policy considerations, and deepens our understanding of the ways in which religious institutions and communities best contribute to public life.

Begun in 2000 through the generous funding of Pew Charitable Trusts, Terry and Gene Lockhart, Andrew D. Hart, Jr., and The Celerity Foundation (the LaBrosse-Levinson family), the Center seeks to find fresh ways of thinking about the role of religion in the modern world. Towards this goal the Center hosts the LaBrosse-Levinson Lectures, produces a series of film projects, conducts the South Africa research project, and co-sponsors relevant publications. The Center has also funded graduate student and faculty fellows and sponsored educational initiatives within the University of Virginia.

FELLOWS PROGRAM

	Institute fellows and staff gathered for the Institute's working conference on secularization. (photo: J. Varsoke)

A central component of the work of the Institute is the intellectual and financial support of graduate and post-graduate scholars whose interests and research focus on understanding the unique characteristics of our times.

Our fellows program centers around the Friday Seminar, which bring our faculty fellows, staff, and junior and senior scholars together in conversation over recent scholarship that contributes to a contemporary understanding of culture.

In addition, the Institute provides residencies for senior scholars and fellowships, stipends, research support, and conference funds for junior scholars.

See our directory for a full listing of our current Fellows.

Find an Institute postdoctoral fellowship pdf application here.

THE PROGRAM ON GLOBAL CULTURE

Information coming soon.