Student Research Grants
The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion offers annual research grants to assist graduate students in their research. Although these grants are normally used for dissertation support, other significant research is eligible. The ordinary maximum award is $3,000. Grants are intended to cover research expenses, travel, research assistance, and up to $1,500 in stipend for the researcher's own time. Grant recipients have two years to spend their awards and are expected to submit a brief report on their research. SSSR student research funding is transferred to the principal investigator’s university unless other arrangements are made. Please note that SSSR does not allow for any indirect cost recovery.
Applicants must be SSSR members at the time they submit their proposals and must not have won the award in the previous three years. Applicants should describe the project they wish to undertake in no more than 3 single–spaced pages (not including citations), discussing its significance for the social scientific study of religion and briefly identifying the literature on which they are drawing. The applications should include an abstract of no more than 100 words and an annotated budget that describes the rationale for proposed expenditures, as well as information about any other sources of support. The application should be accompanied by a brief curriculum vitae (no more than 2 pages) listing the most recent research and publications.
Via the submission form above, candidates should submit PDF files of the abstract, three page proposal, annotated budget, and two page CV. All application packages must be received by May 1, 2025.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Blake Victor Kent (Westmont College), Chair, 2025
Orit Avishai (Fordham University), 2026
Popy Begum (St. Louis University), 2026
Nabil Tueme (Springtide Research Institute), 2026
2025 GRANTEES
Eric Aglozo (Arizona State University), "The Role of Devil Beliefs in Negative Event Attributions: A Cross-Cultural Investigation in the US and Ghana"
Supernatural beliefs offer a way to understand life situations, yet the role of Devil beliefs in explaining misfortunes remains underexplored. This research investigates how beliefs about the moral character of victims influence attributions of misfortune to the Devil in Ghana, and whether the perception that the victim deserves the misfortune explains such attributions. The study can provide insights into how individuals use Devil beliefs to interpret others’ misfortunes and their responses to victims, such as compassion or blame.
Mike Ajayi (University of Toronto), "Strategic Religious Trade-Offs: Community-Driven Religious and Ethnic Mobilization Identities in Southwest Nigeria's 2023 Presidential Election"
Scholars often portray religion and ethnicity as fixed forces in electoral politics but, Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election reveals a more dynamic reality. This study introduces Strategic Religious Trade-Offs to explain how voters and elites in Southwest Nigeria actively negotiated their identities. Utilizing in-depth interviews, archival materials, and digital sources, it investigates evolving identity-based mobilization. Situating Nigeria’s trends within a global context including the United States, India, and Brazil, this research highlights how voters recalibrate identities in response to political realities.
Oguzhan Alkan (University of Texas Austin), "Worth of Representation? Examining Deservingness Bias Toward Muslim Candidates"
Muslims constitute a growing share of Western Europe’s population, yet remain significantly underrepresented in political office. Voters’ reluctance to support Muslim candidates is a key explanation of this gap, yet we know little about the mechanisms behind such bias. This project explores how voters rely on intuitive, moralized judgments—particularly deservingness heuristics—when evaluating Muslim candidates. It examines how religion functions as a moral gateway to political power and whether cues of civic contribution and inclusivity can mitigate this bias. Through an original conjoint experiment fielded in the UK, the study advances our understanding of religion’s role in democratic inclusion and moral legitimacy in representation.
Brian Haggard (Cornell University), "Coding the Divine: How Christian Women Authors Portray God's Acton in 21st Century Fiction"
This project will comprehensively analyze 21st century Christian Fiction, contrasting the differences between men and women authors who portray God's actions in award-winning novels. Using innovative large language model methodology, I will systematically analyze descriptions of God’s actions across 20 years of texts, revealing theological perspectives largely overlooked in previous scholarship dominated by men-authored works like Left Behind. By illuminating how this women-led movement engages with faith through writing, this research will expand our understanding of gendered dimensions in American Christianity and recognize the significant but understudied theological contributions of Christian women writers and their impact on readers.
Junita Henry (Harvard University), "Measuring faith-based parenting: Cognitive interview development from a qualitative study in Khayelitsha, South Africa"
This study aims to develop and cognitively validate a survey instrument assessing how religion and spirituality (R/S) shape parenting practices in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Despite the central role of R/S in caregivers’ lives, dominant early childhood frameworks and parenting itnerventions remain secular, overlooking faith-based caregiving. Guided by the Relational Spirituality Framework and the Bioecological Model, the study integrates qualitative findings with cognitive interviewing to identify pilot items for future work. Findings will generate response process validity evidence and inform more inclusive early childhood intervention.. This instrument advances the measurement addresses a critical gap in developmental science.
Oliver Lang (University of Wisconsin Madison)
A large body of research shows that organizational competition over potential congregants and adherents shapes religious practice and political behavior. Yet religious engagement increasingly takes the form of media consumption, not just congregational participation. The SSSR grant would fund construction of the first comprehensive dataset on the market structure and programming of religious television channels across the Middle East and Africa (2000-25). Linking the date of entry for each channel with transcripts of content scraped from channels’ YouTube pages, the proposed analyses will further our understanding of how competition shapes outcomes in an increasingly
important area of religious life.
Rosalva Mejia (Loma Linda University), "Religiosity, Culture, and Healthy Aging Among Latin Americans in California"
Older Latin Americans are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population yet face systemic barriers to healthy aging. This study examines the role of religiosity as a potential protective cultural mechanism among older Latin Americans in their health aging behaviors (e.g., promoting a healthy lifestyle, adaptively coping, and engaging with life). Guided by Betancourt’s Integrative Model of Culture, we hypothesize that socially shared beliefs and practices associated with religiosity will influence healthy aging behaviors directly and/or indirectly through its impact on health-related self-efficacy and religious social support.
Tryce Prince (University of Illinois-Chicago)
In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois declared that Black folks are “gifted with second-sight.” My dissertation develops a conceptual framework for second-sight that takes seriously Du Bois's assertion that Black folks can “see America in a way that white Americans cannot.” Through ethnographic analysis of Black religious life and in-depth interviews with Black people, I observe whether and how Black folks are drawing on their second-sight to develop a critical analysis of race and their lived experience, imagining their lives (and futures) in ways that transcend the social order of race.
2024 GRANTEES
Andrew Chalfoun (University of California, Los Angeles), "Preaching in the Shadows: International Missionaries in the Age of Covert Evangelism"
Focusing the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention as a case study, this project investigates what I term covert evangelism, a set of practices oriented to the clandestine spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ in countries where public evangelism is restricted by the state or faces strong local opposition. Using interviews and previously unanalyzed archival sources, I demonstrate that, in the past half century, covert evangelism has become the dominant mode in which evangelical missionaries conduct their work. I ask why this transformation occurred and how missionaries navigate high risk conditions associated with operating in the shadows.
Danissa Paz Contreras Guzman (University of Texas at Austin), "Vox Populi, Vox Dei: The Rise of the Religious-Conservative Left and the Reconfiguration of Political Space in Latin America"
Why has the Left adopted Religious Conservatism in some Latin American countries, but not in others? To explain this phenomenon, I focus on both actors’ strategic decisions and political system constraints. I argue that the weakening of economic differences between left-wing and right-wing parties led the Left to prematurely adopt cultural progressivism as a main source of differentiation. This cleavage realignment created a disconnect between the Left and some of their voters, and a subsequent vacuum that new politicians could exploit. Furthermore, I argue that while populism facilitates Religious Conservatism, party constraints and bonds with culturally progressive groups hinder it.
Clara Gaddie (University of Notre Dame), "Connecting with Liminal Identities: How do Virtual Spaces Facilitate Religious Identity Development?"
How do online spaces facilitate religious change? Many people join online spaces as they deconstruct their religious identities. Interaction Ritual Theory emphasizes that people develop identities in physical spaces (Collins, 2004). However, online groups like “This Little Corner” (TLC) connect diverse communities over livestreams and websites, creating spaces where people gather for open discussion. This facilitates opportunities to try new religious practices outside of traditional settings and away from stigma and “triggers” that might have accompanied prior religious exit. I am requesting funding for interviews to investigate how TLC generates identity change and how this spills into offline interactions.
Victoria Isaac (University of Illinois, Chicago) "Religion, Black Culture and the Black American Experience: A Chicagoland Perspective"
This study explores the different ways Black/African Americans in the Chicagoland area navigate their racial identity and experiences within the United States. It particularly explores the extent to which different religious practices - with a focus on gospel music - transcend religious boundaries to be consumed and utilized in these processes. Through the method of semistructured, in-depth interviews, this study particularly seeks to uplift the experiences of Black/African Americans residing in the Chicagoland area, drawing on the historical role of religion and gospel music during the Great Migration to challenge the sacred/secular dichotomy in the sociocultural spaces of Black life.
Kenny Miao (University of Texas at Austin) "Religious Minorities and Authoritarian Regimes: The Case of Chinese Christians" Religious minorities in authoritarian regimes often face government discrimination and persecution. Despite this, the elites within these communities sometimes support the very regimes responsible for their oppression. Specifically focusing on Chinese Christians, this study investigates the reasons behind and the consequences of minority religious elites promoting proregime propaganda, through a mixed method approach. The SSSR grant will enable the execution of an original survey experiment designed to gauge how both religious majority and minority groups perceive minority religious leaders' endorsement of authoritarian propaganda.
Julia Phelps (Arizona State University) "Interpersonal Cooperation and New Islamic Beliefs in the Philippines"
Small-scale subsistence societies are critically reliant on interpersonal cooperation to address daily shortfalls in resources, time, and skill. While kin selection, reciprocity, and cultural institutions such as traditional supernatural beliefs have historically supported this form of cooperation, these communities are increasingly adopting world religions. However, it is unclear how the traditional cultural institutions and cooperative patterns of small-scale societies are impacted by conversion to world religions. To address this gap, this study employs semi-structured and pseudo-hypothetical vignette interviews to investigate the interaction between traditional cooperative institutions and recently introduced Islamic beliefs in a Sama marine foraging community in the Philippines.
Carolina Seigler (Princeton University) "Leveraging Experimental Techniques to Understand Sexual Misconduct in Religious Organizations"
Evidence of sexual misconduct has been notably visible within large religious organizations like the Catholic Church, but observational data highlight patterns of lenience towards perpetrators in other faith settings as well. Many leaders who violate their parishioners are recidivists, serially committing sexual infractions across multiple congregations. What remains unclear, however, is whether pastoral search committees are knowingly hiring leaders with histories of sexual misconduct. My dissertation interrogates this question, exploring how an applicant’s acknowledgement of past misconduct affects opportunities for pastoral employment. Results derived from two experiments reveal counterintuitive hiring preferences and challenge assumptions about how sexual malfeasance is evaluated.
Student Research Grants
The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion offers annual research grants to assist graduate students in their research. Although these grants are normally used for dissertation support, other significant research is eligible. The ordinary maximum award is $3,000. Grants are intended to cover research expenses, travel, research assistance, and up to $1,500 in stipend for the researcher's own time. Grant recipients have two years to spend their awards and are expected to submit a brief report on their research. SSSR student research funding is transferred to the principal investigator’s university unless other arrangements are made. Please note that SSSR does not allow for any indirect cost recovery.
Applicants must be SSSR members at the time they submit their proposals and must not have won the award in the previous three years. Applicants should describe the project they wish to undertake in no more than 3 single–spaced pages (not including citations), discussing its significance for the social scientific study of religion and briefly identifying the literature on which they are drawing. The applications should include an abstract of no more than 100 words and an annotated budget that describes the rationale for proposed expenditures, as well as information about any other sources of support. The application should be accompanied by a brief curriculum vitae (no more than 2 pages) listing the most recent research and publications.
Via the submission form above, candidates should submit PDF files of the abstract, three page proposal, annotated budget, and two page CV. All application packages must be received by May 1, 2025.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Blake Victor Kent (Westmont College), Chair, 2025
Orit Avishai (Fordham University), 2026
Popy Begum (St. Louis University), 2026
Nabil Tueme (Springtide Research Institute), 2026
2025 GRANTEES
Eric Aglozo (Arizona State University), "The Role of Devil Beliefs in Negative Event Attributions: A Cross-Cultural Investigation in the US and Ghana"
Supernatural beliefs offer a way to understand life situations, yet the role of Devil beliefs in explaining misfortunes remains underexplored. This research investigates how beliefs about the moral character of victims influence attributions of misfortune to the Devil in Ghana, and whether the perception that the victim deserves the misfortune explains such attributions. The study can provide insights into how individuals use Devil beliefs to interpret others’ misfortunes and their responses to victims, such as compassion or blame.
Mike Ajayi (University of Toronto), "Strategic Religious Trade-Offs: Community-Driven Religious and Ethnic Mobilization Identities in Southwest Nigeria's 2023 Presidential Election"
Scholars often portray religion and ethnicity as fixed forces in electoral politics but, Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election reveals a more dynamic reality. This study introduces Strategic Religious Trade-Offs to explain how voters and elites in Southwest Nigeria actively negotiated their identities. Utilizing in-depth interviews, archival materials, and digital sources, it investigates evolving identity-based mobilization. Situating Nigeria’s trends within a global context including the United States, India, and Brazil, this research highlights how voters recalibrate identities in response to political realities.
Oguzhan Alkan (University of Texas Austin), "Worth of Representation? Examining Deservingness Bias Toward Muslim Candidates"
Muslims constitute a growing share of Western Europe’s population, yet remain significantly underrepresented in political office. Voters’ reluctance to support Muslim candidates is a key explanation of this gap, yet we know little about the mechanisms behind such bias. This project explores how voters rely on intuitive, moralized judgments—particularly deservingness heuristics—when evaluating Muslim candidates. It examines how religion functions as a moral gateway to political power and whether cues of civic contribution and inclusivity can mitigate this bias. Through an original conjoint experiment fielded in the UK, the study advances our understanding of religion’s role in democratic inclusion and moral legitimacy in representation.
Brian Haggard (Cornell University), "Coding the Divine: How Christian Women Authors Portray God's Acton in 21st Century Fiction"
This project will comprehensively analyze 21st century Christian Fiction, contrasting the differences between men and women authors who portray God's actions in award-winning novels. Using innovative large language model methodology, I will systematically analyze descriptions of God’s actions across 20 years of texts, revealing theological perspectives largely overlooked in previous scholarship dominated by men-authored works like Left Behind. By illuminating how this women-led movement engages with faith through writing, this research will expand our understanding of gendered dimensions in American Christianity and recognize the significant but understudied theological contributions of Christian women writers and their impact on readers.
Junita Henry (Harvard University), "Measuring faith-based parenting: Cognitive interview development from a qualitative study in Khayelitsha, South Africa"
This study aims to develop and cognitively validate a survey instrument assessing how religion and spirituality (R/S) shape parenting practices in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Despite the central role of R/S in caregivers’ lives, dominant early childhood frameworks and parenting itnerventions remain secular, overlooking faith-based caregiving. Guided by the Relational Spirituality Framework and the Bioecological Model, the study integrates qualitative findings with cognitive interviewing to identify pilot items for future work. Findings will generate response process validity evidence and inform more inclusive early childhood intervention.. This instrument advances the measurement addresses a critical gap in developmental science.
Oliver Lang (University of Wisconsin Madison)
A large body of research shows that organizational competition over potential congregants and adherents shapes religious practice and political behavior. Yet religious engagement increasingly takes the form of media consumption, not just congregational participation. The SSSR grant would fund construction of the first comprehensive dataset on the market structure and programming of religious television channels across the Middle East and Africa (2000-25). Linking the date of entry for each channel with transcripts of content scraped from channels’ YouTube pages, the proposed analyses will further our understanding of how competition shapes outcomes in an increasingly important area of religious life.
Rosalva Mejia (Loma Linda University), "Religiosity, Culture, and Healthy Aging Among Latin Americans in California"
Older Latin Americans are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population yet face systemic barriers to healthy aging. This study examines the role of religiosity as a potential protective cultural mechanism among older Latin Americans in their health aging behaviors (e.g., promoting a healthy lifestyle, adaptively coping, and engaging with life). Guided by Betancourt’s Integrative Model of Culture, we hypothesize that socially shared beliefs and practices associated with religiosity will influence healthy aging behaviors directly and/or indirectly through its impact on health-related self-efficacy and religious social support.
Tryce Prince (University of Illinois-Chicago)
In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois declared that Black folks are “gifted with second-sight.” My dissertation develops a conceptual framework for second-sight that takes seriously Du Bois's assertion that Black folks can “see America in a way that white Americans cannot.” Through ethnographic analysis of Black religious life and in-depth interviews with Black people, I observe whether and how Black folks are drawing on their second-sight to develop a critical analysis of race and their lived experience, imagining their lives (and futures) in ways that transcend the social order of race.
2024 GRANTEES
Andrew Chalfoun (University of California, Los Angeles), "Preaching in the Shadows: International Missionaries in the Age of Covert Evangelism"
Focusing the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention as a case study, this project investigates what I term covert evangelism, a set of practices oriented to the clandestine spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ in countries where public evangelism is restricted by the state or faces strong local opposition. Using interviews and previously unanalyzed archival sources, I demonstrate that, in the past half century, covert evangelism has become the dominant mode in which evangelical missionaries conduct their work. I ask why this transformation occurred and how missionaries navigate high risk conditions associated with operating in the shadows.
Danissa Paz Contreras Guzman (University of Texas at Austin), "Vox Populi, Vox Dei: The Rise of the Religious-Conservative Left and the Reconfiguration of Political Space in Latin America"
Why has the Left adopted Religious Conservatism in some Latin American countries, but not in others? To explain this phenomenon, I focus on both actors’ strategic decisions and political system constraints. I argue that the weakening of economic differences between left-wing and right-wing parties led the Left to prematurely adopt cultural progressivism as a main source of differentiation. This cleavage realignment created a disconnect between the Left and some of their voters, and a subsequent vacuum that new politicians could exploit. Furthermore, I argue that while populism facilitates Religious Conservatism, party constraints and bonds with culturally progressive groups hinder it.
Clara Gaddie (University of Notre Dame), "Connecting with Liminal Identities: How do Virtual Spaces Facilitate Religious Identity Development?"
How do online spaces facilitate religious change? Many people join online spaces as they deconstruct their religious identities. Interaction Ritual Theory emphasizes that people develop identities in physical spaces (Collins, 2004). However, online groups like “This Little Corner” (TLC) connect diverse communities over livestreams and websites, creating spaces where people gather for open discussion. This facilitates opportunities to try new religious practices outside of traditional settings and away from stigma and “triggers” that might have accompanied prior religious exit. I am requesting funding for interviews to investigate how TLC generates identity change and how this spills into offline interactions.
Victoria Isaac (University of Illinois, Chicago) "Religion, Black Culture and the Black American Experience: A Chicagoland Perspective"
This study explores the different ways Black/African Americans in the Chicagoland area navigate their racial identity and experiences within the United States. It particularly explores the extent to which different religious practices - with a focus on gospel music - transcend religious boundaries to be consumed and utilized in these processes. Through the method of semistructured, in-depth interviews, this study particularly seeks to uplift the experiences of Black/African Americans residing in the Chicagoland area, drawing on the historical role of religion and gospel music during the Great Migration to challenge the sacred/secular dichotomy in the sociocultural spaces of Black life.
Kenny Miao (University of Texas at Austin) "Religious Minorities and Authoritarian Regimes: The Case of Chinese Christians" Religious minorities in authoritarian regimes often face government discrimination and persecution. Despite this, the elites within these communities sometimes support the very regimes responsible for their oppression. Specifically focusing on Chinese Christians, this study investigates the reasons behind and the consequences of minority religious elites promoting proregime propaganda, through a mixed method approach. The SSSR grant will enable the execution of an original survey experiment designed to gauge how both religious majority and minority groups perceive minority religious leaders' endorsement of authoritarian propaganda.
Julia Phelps (Arizona State University) "Interpersonal Cooperation and New Islamic Beliefs in the Philippines"
Small-scale subsistence societies are critically reliant on interpersonal cooperation to address daily shortfalls in resources, time, and skill. While kin selection, reciprocity, and cultural institutions such as traditional supernatural beliefs have historically supported this form of cooperation, these communities are increasingly adopting world religions. However, it is unclear how the traditional cultural institutions and cooperative patterns of small-scale societies are impacted by conversion to world religions. To address this gap, this study employs semi-structured and pseudo-hypothetical vignette interviews to investigate the interaction between traditional cooperative institutions and recently introduced Islamic beliefs in a Sama marine foraging community in the Philippines.
Carolina Seigler (Princeton University) "Leveraging Experimental Techniques to Understand Sexual Misconduct in Religious Organizations"
Evidence of sexual misconduct has been notably visible within large religious organizations like the Catholic Church, but observational data highlight patterns of lenience towards perpetrators in other faith settings as well. Many leaders who violate their parishioners are recidivists, serially committing sexual infractions across multiple congregations. What remains unclear, however, is whether pastoral search committees are knowingly hiring leaders with histories of sexual misconduct. My dissertation interrogates this question, exploring how an applicant’s acknowledgement of past misconduct affects opportunities for pastoral employment. Results derived from two experiments reveal counterintuitive hiring preferences and challenge assumptions about how sexual malfeasance is evaluated.