CFP: Call for Oxford Templeton Visiting Fellowships (UPDATED)

The Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion (IRC), University of Oxford, is pleased to offer ten visiting fellowships for researchers in science and religion in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Successful applicants will be awarded up to US $15,000 to support research visits at institutions outside of CEE. Grants are intended to afford researches in CEE the opportunity to build networks with world-class researchers and institutions outside of the region

Fellowships aim to give early-career researchers working on Big Questions at the interface of science, theology, and/or philosophy in CEE countries the opportunity to develop their work at world-class institutions outside CEE.

Eligibility

Applicants will normally be researchers currently or recently affiliated with institutions in CEE. This includes permanent and temporary faculty members, as well as researchers who have recently completed a doctoral degree, or postdoctoral post. Applicants will have appropriate research experience in science, theology and/or philosophy. Applicants will be early-career researchers. Usually this will mean that applicants are within eight years of completing their doctoral degrees. Applications are welcome from researchers working in any religious tradition, and from researchers working in no religious tradition. Prospective applicants unsure of their eligibility are encouraged to get in touch with the IRC at [email protected].

For the purposes of the project, CEE is defined as: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, the former East Germany, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Big Question Research

Research proposals should focus on Big Questions at the interface of science, theology, and/or philosophy. The Project encourages applications that fall within three broad themes: science and religion in the CEE context; reason and faith; and persons, mind and cosmos. Suitable topics include:

▪ The significance of theological traditions for scientific practice today;

▪ The relations of brains, minds and human persons;

▪ Whether physical cosmology can explain the origin of the cosmos;

▪ The role of religion in the historical development of science;

▪ The place of values in the natural world;

▪ How the history of CEE has influenced views on science and religion;

▪ Free will and scientific determinism and/or divine foreknowledge;

▪ Empirical psychology and the second person perspective;

▪ Phenomenological approaches to religion;

▪ Understanding notions of God, good and evil in a scientific age.

For further example areas, applicants are strongly encouraged to visit the project website . Proposals with an interdisciplinary component are especially encouraged. Favourable consideration will be given to clear, focused research topics and questions, with the potential for broader implications.