Deadline: 15-Sep-20
The Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice (CARSS) is seeking proposals for the Rapid-Response Grants Program to provide funding to scholars, religious and civic leaders, and culture workers (i.e. artists, critics, media makers) developing projects that engage with and bring together the fields of black studies and the study of religion.
The goal of this RFP is to support work that engages with some aspect of black life—spanning the religious, cultural, political, and social—in order to think critically about the history and contemporary significance of “black faith.”
CARSS’s rapid-response grants program invites proposals for projects that take up such questions within and across the fields of black studies and the study of religion. Here “black faith” is understood expansively as spanning both sacred and secular registers. Faith, as such, is conceived of as a language—a capacious set of ideas and practices—that has taken shape within religious contexts and in the form of spiritual practices, but which has also been invoked by activists, artists and thinkers who have identified as agnostic or even anti-religious.
- Proposals may be academic or research-oriented, but they may also attend to more practical concerns or be grounded in local communities. Generally speaking, this RFP aims to support work that
- highlights the experiences and voices of individuals and communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and
- considers the significance of such work within the fields of black studies and the study of religion.
Funding Information
- CARSS ‘s rapid-response grant program will provide funding ($1000-5,000) to individuals (i.e. academics, religious and civic leaders, and culture workers) working on projects that in some clear way wrestle with the question of “black faith.”
- A few larger grants (up to $10,000) may also be awarded to projects that involve collaborations between scholars and practitioners (i.e. artists, religious and civic leaders) and projects that are based within organizational settings.
Potential ideas for projects might include, but are not limited, to the following:
- Oral history projects, and especially ones that examine the faith experiences of black LGBTQ people and communities
- Research projects that examine the impact of COVID-19 on black communities, including black religious communities
- Art (eg. visual, literary, musical, etc) and media-making (i.e. digital, audio-video, social media, etc) projects that explore spirituality and/or religion in the context of the African diaspora
- Research projects that explore some dimension (historical or contemporary) of the African American religious experience
- Writing projects on race, religion and/or spirituality that are addressed to non-academic audiences
- Programmatic initiatives that foster dialogue and engagement with religion in contemporary black life.
Criteria
- Proposals should include clearly a defined scope, set of goals and objectives
- Proposals should clearly address black studies and the academic study of religion
- Proposals should have a basic timeline for work to be completed within 12 months
Application Requirements
- Completed Application form
- CV/Resume for all persons participating in the project
- Three-page Proposal Narrative, with timeline
- One-page budget, with brief narrative
- One Letter of Recommendation.
For more information, visit http://carss.columbia.edu/content/RRGP