Initiative Grant Spotlight #1

Original: InitiativeGrant Spotlight #1

"Gender, Genre, and Faith: Religion and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Writer"

The CCCU Initiative Grants to Network Christian Scholars enable Christian scholars to develop mutually supportive networks that will strengthen the work of any one scholar and will allow the collective contribution to be greater than the sum of the individual contributions. Each $15,000 grant is for a three-year period of time and is awarded to teams of three to six Christian scholars headed by a faculty member at a CCCU member institution. The following highlights the results of just one project:

The project "Gender, Genre, andFaith: Religion and the Nineteenth-Century WomanWriter," was directed by Dr. Pamela CorpronParker, Whitworth College (WA). Other grant participants were Dr.Julie Straight, Valparaiso University; Dr. Maria LaMonaca, ColumbiaCollege; Dr. Kathleen Vejvoda, Bridgewater State College; and Dr.Alexis Easley, University of Alaska Southwest.

In the final report of the project, dated April2004, Parker expresses her confidence that the team successfullyfulfilled their goal, which was to "provide a moreaccurate, amplified account of literary history of the nineteenthcentury by illuminating the broader cultural and religious contextsin which individual women writers worked."

"The Initiative Grant not onlyhelped me further my individual research projects, I extended myacademic community among other scholars around thecountry," says Parker. "Our worktogether made all our work better, and we've eachbeen able to publish writing that came out of our summer workshopstogether. Furthermore, the IG helped me feel less isolated as ascholar and provided important support as I made the transitionfrom graduate studies to tenured professor. Despite the demands ofworking at a teaching-intensive institution, I'vebeen able to sustain a scholarly investment that has enriched myteaching and spirit."

The Initiative Grant facilitated the followingactivities for Parker's project:
• Gathered for two summer writingcolloquiums
• Completed individual research tripsto pertinent U.S. and British archives
• Presented research (both in panelsand individually) at more than a dozen national and internationalconferences
• Published seven articles in sixjuried journals and one book collection, one of which was a specialissue on Victorian culture and religion
• Initiated work on three bookmanuscripts and completion of another
• Successful application to sixnational and institutional-based grants

Other recently completed grants were invested intothe following projects:
• "Aquinas'sEthics: Metaphysical Foundations, Moral Theory, and TheologicalContext." Project director: Rebecca DeYoung,Calvin College (MI)
• "Living as Part ofGod's Good Earth." Projectdirector: John R. Wood, The King's UniversityCollege (Alberta)
• "Testing a Model ofthe Role of Forgiveness in the Social Competence of YoungChildren." Project director: Beverly J. Wilson,Seattle Pacific University (WA)
• "Neohumanism And TheEthical Turn In Theological Perspective." Projectdirector: E. Norman Klassen, Trinity Western University (BritishColumbia)
• "A BrokenBeauty." Project director: F. Bruce Herman, GordonCollege (MA)

For more information about Initiative Grants toNetwork Christian Scholars, clickhere.