Religious Studies Professor Awarded Fulbright, Will Teach in Romania in Spring 2023
Craig Prentiss, Ph.D., professor of Religious Studies and Theology聽at Rockhurst, was recently granted a聽Fulbright Scholar Award to teach at the University of Bucharest in Romania in spring 2023.聽聽are prestigious and competitive fellowships that provide unique opportunities for scholars to teach and conduct research abroad.聽
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鈥淭he grant proposal involves a very detailed description of what you intend to do, why you intend to do it, and what benefit your proposal will have not only for the country you鈥檙e applying to teach in, but also for your home institution,鈥 Prentiss said.
Prentiss chose Romania because he was interested in countries that were actively in the process of shaping their identities considering recent history.
鈥淩omania checked all the boxes as a country that remains in the process of transition after decades of Communism and a brutal, totalitarian regime that is now transitioning toward a democratic society,鈥 Prentiss said. 鈥淎nd this transition is taking place in the midst of a larger European context that is also witnessing rising support for authoritarian leadership systems and ethnic nationalism. Religion, of course, has played a major role in these trends and tendencies.鈥
Prentiss will teach at the University of Bucharest, offering courses on 鈥淩eligion, Ethnicity, and Race in the Americas鈥 and 鈥淩eligious Pluralism in the U.S.鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 hoping to convince a lot of Romanian students and faculty that it鈥檚 really hard to understand the United States without understanding the role religion has played in the formation of American ideological frameworks," he said. "Sometimes the best way to learn about your own society is to see how things operate in another one. I know that鈥檚 been true for me. Ideally, those Romanian students will make connections between how ideas form in the U.S. through a religious lens and how ideas form in Romania through a religious lens, which in the case of Romania has been overwhelmingly through the Romanian Orthodox Church.
"I鈥檓 also excited to have to rethink some of the things I teach at Rockhurst through the prism of a very different set of students," Prentiss continued. "I鈥檝e found that in the previous times I鈥檝e had to do this, it鈥檚 led to my making real improvements to some of my classes at Rockhurst because I was kind of forced to experiment with new things.鈥
Upon completion of his time in Romania, Prentiss hopes to help provide new ventures for both Rockhurst students and faculty. 聽
鈥淚 hope I聽can set up opportunities for Rockhurst students to interact with Romanian students聽and for Rockhurst faculty to guest lecture in the American Studies program there through Zoom," he said. "And if there鈥檚 an audience for it, it would be great if this could lead to some study abroad opportunities and summer programs looking at Eastern European life for Rockhurst students.鈥