Through the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation, the AAR has been able to provide funding for members adversely impacted financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, we provided financial assistance to nearly 200 members through crisis grants. In 2021 and 2022, we helped lapsed members regain access to benefits such as discounted registration fees for the Annual Meeting, networking opportunities with colleagues around the world, and promotion of their work and achievements. We would like to continue helping lapsed members in this way in 2023 and 2024.
To make Annual Meeting attendance a reality for members who would otherwise struggle to participate, the AAR has developed generous grant programs to help defray travel costs associated with attending. 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.
With funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Luce-AAR Advancing Public Scholarship Grant program offers grants to support scholars of religion who are working to engage publics in innovative ways, through projects designed for presentation in public spaces and outreach through publicly accessible sites.
Since 2018, the AAR has been a nominating partner in the Whiting Foundation's Public Engagement Programs, which annually award $50,000 fellowships and $10,000 seed grants to humanities scholars involved in public-facing work. New guidelines and eligibility requirements are released each year.
Regional Development Grants provide funds for special projects within the regions that promise to benefit the scholarly and professional life of AAR members and do the work of the AAR in the regions. Workshops, special programs, training events, and other innovative regional projects may be funded through this source.
Individual research grants support important aspects of scholarly projects, such as fieldwork and travel to archives and libraries. Collaborative research grants stimulate cooperative research among scholars with a clearly identified research project or support interdisciplinary work with scholars outside the field of religion. The Undergraduate Research Grant program is designed to allow AAR members to support an undergraduate student conducting research on religion.
Creative projects grounded in international research relationships receive funding through international collaborative research grants. Graduate students needing to conduct international dissertation research can apply for grants and fellowships as well.