VCU receives $60k grant to support integration of religious pluralism in health professions learning
The two-year award from Interfaith America will support projects related to teaching, mentoring and research collaborations.
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The Faith & Health Campus Grant will support two projects at VCU – one focused on undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring, and a second focused on research collaborations among humanities researchers and clinicians. (Enterprise Marketing and Communications)
By Brian McNeill
The nonprofit organization Interfaith America has awarded a two-year, $60,000 grant to Virginia Commonwealth University to integrate religious pluralism in health professions learning, focusing on the undergraduate learning experience while addressing graduate education and scholarship to shape the fields of religion, spirituality and health.
The Faith & Health Campus Grant will support two projects at VCU – one focused on undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring, and a second focused on research collaborations among humanities researchers and clinicians.
“There’s a lot of exciting work going on at VCU — and in medicine and the humanities more broadly — at the intersection of religion, spirituality and health, and we’re thrilled to have the support of Interfaith America to enrich our teaching and research in this area,” said Mimi Winick, Ph.D., the Powell-Edwards Chair in Religion and the Arts and an assistant professor of religious studies in VCU’s School of World Studies, part of the College of Humanities and Sciences.
The first project, “Enhancing VCU’s Health Humanities Curriculum with Religious Literacy,” will build on VCU’s existing health humanities minor, working with faculty and clinicians to create and teach courses at the intersection of religion, spirituality and health.
The second project, “Spirituality and the Humanities in Medical Care,” a joint initiative with VCU Health, will bring together clinicians of diverse faith backgrounds with scholars in the humanities for a series of conversations, each featuring a different question on the topic of suffering, transcendence and spiritually informed medical care in a religiously pluralistic society.
The team working on these projects includes VCU faculty members in history, English and religious studies, as well as a physician trained in the medical humanities.
The projects emerged from the Spirituality, Care and Culture Lab, co-sponsored by VCU’s Humanities Research Center and the Center for the Study of Global Religions and Spirituality.
Founded in 2002, Interfaith America works to equip individuals and professionals with the knowledge and skills needed for leadership in a religiously diverse world.
A version of this story was originally published by VCU News
