Religious Studies professor awarded NEH Summer Stipend

Richard Callahan, assistant professor of Religious Studies, has been awarded a research summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Professor Callahan is one of five Missouri recipients of the award for 2004 and the only one from the University of Missouri-Columbia. The stipend will allow Callahan to to investigate themes related to the intersection of religion and everyday life through the project Explorations of the Lived Religion of Nineteenth Century New England Whalers.

"To understand the way that religion works in people’s lives," says Callahan, "it is necessary to examine the way religious idioms are used in specific times and places. Also, studying America’s seafaring whalers promises to begin to recover early examples of the impact of global trade on religious belief and practice."

Work as a concept has shaped the American experience — consider the importance Americans place in the work ethic, for example. Work as a material reality has also shaped the American experience — consider that immigrants have been drawn to the United States for work, people and whole communities have moved around within the United States because of work, and the everyday lives of most of the population are defined in large part by the work that people and communities do. And specific occupational cultures have produced religious expressions that emerge from and speak directly to the material and social experiences of the work and world defined by those occupations. Explorations of the Lived Religion of Nineteenth Century New England Whalers will begin Professor Callahan's long-term exploration of this intersection of religion and everyday life.

Our Lady of Good Voyage in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Atop the Catholic church that serves the Portuguese fishing community in Gloucester, the Virgin Mary cradles a ship instead of the more common infant Jesus. photo: R.J. Callahan

Callahan joined the department in 2002 after receiving his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was principally responsible for the recent conference at MU Moving Boundaries: American Religion(s) through the Louisiana Purchase.

Callahan's project and summer stipend are part of a select group. NEH awarded a total of 142 summer stipends across the country for this competition that provide $5,000 to each recipient for two consecutive months of full-time research and writing in the humanities. Endowment grants are awarded each year on a competitive basis; humanities experts outside of the endowment assess all applications and judge the quality and significance of each proposed project.

For more information, contact Richard Callahan.

Additional links:

Richard Callahan
Department of Religious Studies

National Endowment for the Humanities

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