PhD Research & Writing Guide: Teaching and Grant Resources

Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching at Northwestern University -- Searle Center approaches learning and teaching as scholarly endeavors by encouraging a curious mindset, a reflective process of inquiry, and iterative changes informed by evidence. Also, models openness to brave conversations embracing the discomfort that leads to growth.

• Reflective and Effective Teaching (RET) -- a three-quarter long certificate program offering a cohort-based learning community for graduate students from any discipline
• Learning & Teaching Guides -- a collection of teaching guides and academic tools to help educators succeed as teachers and learners
• Universal Design for Learning Practicum (UDLP) -- an open educational resource for developing and deploying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the classroom
• Reimagining Assessment Practicum (RAP) -- an open educational resource to learn about and reflect on equitable assessment and alternative grading strategies for the classroom

Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion -- supports faculty reflecting upon teaching and the teaching life in theological education; aims to cultivate peer faculty as leaders of future cohort groups, writers and designers of teaching resources, project managers for a school's institutional focus on teaching.

• Wabash Center Blogs -- Engage on a wide range of topics in teaching religion and theology in North America today.
• Podcast Series: Dialogue on Teaching -- Dialogues with faculty and administrators working in the wide range of institutional contexts illumine the complexity of teaching and the teaching life.
• Journal on Teaching -- an open access, digital journal on teaching in religious and theological studies.
• Syllabi Collection -- collected syllabi in religion and faith traditions, religion and other disciplines, religion and regions, sacred texts, study of religion, religion and special topics, etc.
• Teaching Online -- curated resources for online learning

Additional open access teaching resources

Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching

• Online Course Development Resources
• Principles & Frameworks
• Pedagogies & Strategies
• Reflecting & Assessing

Emory University Center for Faculty Development and Excellence -- Teaching Toolkit

Get Interactive: Practical Teaching with Technology

Generative AI in Education

The Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) -- FTE is a leadership incubator that inspires young people to make a difference through Christian communities.

• Fellowships for Latino/a, Asian, and First Nations Doctoral Students
• Fellowships for Doctoral Students of African Descent

Louisville Institute -- Funded by the Religion Division of Lilly Endowment, Louisville Institute awards grants and fellowships to those who lead and study North American religious institutions, practices, and movements, advancing scholarship to strengthen church, academy, and wider society.

• Doctoral Fellowship -- The two-year Doctoral Fellowship invites PhD and ThD students currently in their first or second year of a doctoral program to consider theological education as a vocation. Doctoral Fellows receive $30,000 each year for two years.
• Dissertation Fellowship -- The Dissertation Fellowship offers $35,000 grants to support the final year of dissertation writing for PhD or ThD students whose research focuses on Christian faith and life, the practice of ministry, religious trends and movements, Christian and other faith-based institutions, and religion and social issues in the United States and Canada.
• Postdoctoral Fellowship -- The Postdoctoral Fellowship provides early career theological education with vocational and professional formation through a two-year placement as a visiting scholar at a graduate theological school, college, university, or education and research organization in the United States and Canada.

Angella P. Current-Felder Women of Color Scholars Program -- This program is administered by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM), and is designed to provide financial, intellectual, and personal support to United Methodist women of color pursuing doctorates in religious studies at seminaries and universities across the U.S.

The scholarship is for females born of an African, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American parent (at least one parent); pursuing a PhD or ThD within the field of religious studies who desires to serve on the faculty or in an executive administrative position at a UM-related Theological School.

American Academy of Religion (AAR) Grant Programs -- Funding opportunities for AAR members

• Annual Meeting Travel Grants -- The AAR currently maintains a general travel grant program, one specific to graduate students working in religion and the arts, and one specific to students presenting papers informed by and/or contributing to feminist approaches to the study of religion.
• International Dissertation Research Grants -- This program is designed to support AAR student members whose dissertation research requires them to travel outside of the country in which their school or university is located.