March 18, 2025

2025–2027 Young Scholars in American Religion Mentors

Gerardo Martí

Gerardo Martí is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology at Davidson College with expertise in race and ethnicity, immigration, religion, political power, and social change. A prolific and award-winning author, he has served as president of both the Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR). His current research is funded by a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc. and focuses on churches actively confronting racial injustice. His ninth book is under contract with Oxford University Press.

Tisa Wenger

Tisa Wenger is Professor of American Religious History at Yale Divinity School, with secondary appointments in American Studies, History, and Religious Studies at Yale. Wenger’s books include We Have a Religion: The 1920s Pueblo Indian Dance Controversy and American Religious Freedom (2009), Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal (2017), and the co-edited Religion and U.S. Empire: Critical New Histories (2022). Her next book, How Settler Colonialism Made American Religion, was supported in part by a Guggenheim Fellowship and is forthcoming in 2026 with the University of North Carolina Press.

Young Scholars Applications Open April 1st

The Young Scholars in American Religion program is designed to assist early career scholars in the improvement of their teaching and research and in the development of professional communities.

Beginning in the fall of 2025, members of this Young Scholars cohort will participate in a series of seminars devoted to the enhancement of teaching and research. Each session is designed to develop ideas and methods of teaching in a supportive workshop environment, stimulate scholarly research and writing, and create a community of scholars that will continue into the future.

Scholars are eligible to apply if they are working in a subfield of religion in North America, have earned a terminal degree, hold a full-time academic position (tenure track or renewable long-term), and have launched their careers within the last seven years.

Applications will open on April 1, 2025, and will close on May 12, 2025. More information about the Young Scholars program and application process can be found on the Center's website.

Learn More About Young Scholars in American Religion