What is American Examples?
American Examples is a collaborative working group for early career scholars who study religion in America, broadly conceived, from a variety of disciplines. The program is generously funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. American Examples engages the study of religion in America across three areas: research, teaching, and public scholarship. Drawing on expertise from across the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, American Examples produces scholars whose work exceeds the academic and geographic boundaries of “American religion” or “American religious history.”
American Examples seeks applications for participants in its 2023 program. AE consists of three two-day workshops, each with its own focus: research, public scholarship, and teaching. The workshops are hosted at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and led by mentors drawn from the faculty of the Department of Religious. Travel, lodging, and meals in Tuscaloosa for participants are paid for by American Examples.
The Workshops
Research
March 2023
A collaborative discussion of chapter length works in progress that will lead to the publication of an edited anthology of participants’ chapters with the University of Alabama Press.
Teaching
April 2023
A collaborative and engaging series of discussions and activities that will equip participants with new methods and pedagogy for teaching courses on religion. Participants will produce a syllabus through the workshop that will be added to our AE syllabus collection.
Public Humanities
Fall 2023
Hosted in the REL Digital Lab, this hands-on workshop is a sort of “incubator” of new ideas for digital projects that will reach various publics. With examples ranging from podcasting to digital archives to digital exhibits, participants will learn strategies for developing public humanities projects and digital platforms and tools for producing them.
For more information on the workshops see http://americanexamples.ua.edu/about.
(exact workshop dates will be set after the participants are selected)
Participant Qualifications
American Examples seeks applications for participants from any untenured scholar who studies so-called “religion in America,” very broadly conceived. Applicants must have at least reached ABD status in their Ph.D. program. Ph.D candidates, non-TT instructors, adjuncts, scholars in libraries and alt-ac careers, and independent scholars are especially encouraged to apply. Applicants from communities underrepresented in the academic study of religion are also especially encouraged to apply. Thus, applicants can range from ABD Ph.D. students to tenure-track Assistant Professors. Likewise, scholars from a variety of disciplines including (but not limited to) religious studies, history, sociology, anthropology, English, and literature are encouraged to apply. Priority will be given to applicants who have not published a monograph and to those off the tenure track.
Participant Requirements and Publication Plans
Participants in the program are required to have a chapter length research project prepared to pre-circulate to the other workshop participants in early 2022 (usually around February 1). These chapters are then revised by participants after the workshop to be submitted for publication in American Examples: New Conversations about Religion, Volume Five, part of the American Examples anthology series published by the University of Alabama Press. Participants should also be prepared to do preparatory reading or writing before and after the workshops.
Application Materials
Applicants applying to participate should send the following to AE Director Mike Altman via email at michael.altman@ua.edu. Applications are due November 7, 2022.
- 2-page CV
- Abstract of research project (no more than 1 page)
- A cover letter that expresses your interest in American Examples and answers the following questions:
Why do you want to be a part of American Examples? What do you bring to the program? What do you hope to get out of it?
How would your research project interest scholars beyond “American religion’?
What larger theoretical questions does your research project, or you research more generally, ask and seek to answer?
- Applicants who are ABD should have their advisor email the AE director a brief note verifying their ABD status.