2012-2013: Center For Christian Thought (Request for Proposals)

Biola University’s Center for Christian Thought (“the Center”) will grant multiple semester- and year-long residential research fellowships: roughly half of these will be awarded as external fellowships (for scholars from institutions other than Biola University), and the other half as internal fellowships (for Biola University faculty). Fellowship recipients will comprise an interdisciplinary group of approximately eight researchers per semester focused on the theme Contemporary Neuroscience and the Soul.

Fellowship Description

This RFP is aimed at work on the implications of contemporary neuroscience for the
existence and nature of the soul. Questions to be addressed include:

• Does the difficulty of solving the so-called “binding problem,” where this is a matter of explaining the phenomenon of the unity of consciousness, suggest an argument for the existence of the soul?
• Does recent evidence that various “mindfulness” techniques can affect neuroarchitecture suggest anything about (a) which views of soul are most plausible, and (b) how the soul might causally interact with the brain?
• What further can be said about claims by Libet and others that there is tension between recent findings in neuroscience and the existence of freedom of the will?
• What philosophical theories of soul best accommodate the deliverances of recent neuroscience?
• What are the most promising strategies for integrating the findings of contemporary neuroscience with Christian theological anthropology?
• Proposal requests from non-Biola-affiliated scholars will be for $70,000 to $90,000 (plus a $6,000 per semester housing stipend and relocation expenses) for projects lasting the full 2012-13 academic year and $35,000 to $45,000 (plus a $6,000 per semester housing stipend and relocation expenses) for projects lasting one semester that academic year.

Proposal requests from Biola faculty will be for half-time course releases. We anticipate hosting a total of 8 fellows per semester (some of whom will stay for only a semester, others for the entire academic year), about half of which will be non-Biola scholars and the other half, Biola faculty. Fellows will be in residence at Biola University for either the fall term (August 25, 2012 to December 18, 2012) or the spring term (January 28, 2013, to May 20, 2013) or both.

Timetable

November 1, 2011 – Deadline for completed applications
March 1, 2012 – Awards announced
August 25, 2012– Program start date (Fall)
December 18, 2012– Program end date (Fall)
January 28, 2013 – Program start date (Spring)
May 20, 2013 – Program end date (Spring)

For more information, see: http://cct.biola.edu.