AAR Member Note

Harold Morales and Rupa Pillai

Awards and Accomplishments

Henry Luce Foundation Awards $250,000 Grant

The Henry Luce Foundation has awarded Morgan State University’s Center for the Study of Religion and the City (CSRC) a $250,000 grant to build upon its work in Baltimore, expanding it nationally as part of a broader effort to support the development of public education and community engagements highlighting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and emerging visions of the common good. This marks the third grant CSRC has received from the Foundation, bringing the total support to date to nearly $1 million. The current grant will fund the Center’s “Good Life Project,” which seeks to learn from public wisdom through collaborative and life-giving community events in eight cities throughout the U.S., beginning with a recognition that a pre-pandemic “normal” was never an ideal for many Black and Brown communities.

The Good Life Project is led by Harold D. Morales, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Morgan and executive director of the CSRC, and Rupa Pillai, Ph.D., a senior lecturer of Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Read the announcement