The Global Philosophy of Religion Project at the University of Birmingham has awarded over £460,000 in research funding to philosophers of religion in 25 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.
The Global Philosophy of Religion Project is a major initiative aiming to make philosophy of religion a truly global field of academic inquiry. It has been supported by a £2.15 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation in the United States. The project is led by Professor Yujin Nagasawa and hosted by the Birmingham Centre for Philosophy of Religion at the School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham.
The project organises events and activities that support philosophers of religion from around the world, particularly those who address issues concerning religious traditions or geographical regions which are currently underrepresented in western philosophy of religion.
The project has announced winners for the following 2021 funding competitions:
(i) Small research project competition to support teams of researchers who coordinate activities addressing major problems in philosophy of religion from global perspectives.
(ii) Translation project competition to support scholars who translate books or papers on key topics in philosophy of religion from English to a non-English language, or vice versa.
(iii) English-language support competition to fund authors who are non-native speakers of English aiming to publish scholarly papers in leading international peer-reviewed journals in philosophy of religion.
41 winners from 25 countries – Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, USA and Zimbabwe – will work on their projects in the coming months.
Nagasawa, who leads the Global Philosophy of Religion Project, stated: “We are overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of applications we have received for the funding competitions. It is sad that we cannot fund all of them, but we are delighted to support excellent researchers from around the world. We look forward to seeing many events, activities and publications emerge as a result of the funded projects.”