Biola University’s Center for Christian Thought: Research Fellowships

Biola University’s Center for Christian Thought

Request for Proposals: “Neuroscience and the Soul”

Fellowship Announcement

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 neuro- architecture 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.

The final team of fellows will comprise an interdisciplinary team of neuroscientists, philosophers, and theologians (and perhaps other disciplines too). Non-Biola fellows will have office space in the Center, a first-rate facility built around a large conference table and designed with collaboration in mind. All fellows will meet for weekly roundtable meetings to discuss and critique one another’s research. They will also participate in a year-end conference in which they present the results of their research, some of which will then be published in an edited volume. Each fellow will have the opportunity to collaborate with Center staff to communicate their research to both academic and non- academic audiences. There are no teaching or other requirements connected to the Fellowships.

During the course of the year, fellows will have the opportunity to interact with senior, visiting scholars at the Center’s roundtable meetings. This will be an opportunity for fellows to hear presentations on the RFP’s focal questions and receive feedback on their research. Visiting scholars will be in residence at the center for either two-day visits or for one-to-two-week-long visits and will return to Biola in May for the year-end conference. Visitors this year will include:

• Mark C. Baker, Linguistics Department, Rutgers University
• Michael Boivin, Department of Neurology and Ophthalmology and Department of Psychiatry, Michigan State University
• Warren Brown, Fuller School of Psychology
• William Hasker, Department of Philosophy, Huntington College
• J. P. Moreland, Philosophy of Religion and Ethics, Talbot School of Theology
• Tim O’Connor, Department of Philosophy, Indiana University
• Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., School of Medicine, UCLA
• Richard Swinburne, Department of Philosophy, University of Oxford
• Dean Zimmerman, Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University
  

Application Instructions

Applicants are asked to submit the following by Nov 1, 2011:

• Curriculum vitae
• Name and contact information of three references familiar with applicant’s scholarly work
• A research proposal of no more than 600 words describing the applicant’s proposed project. Applicants should begin their proposal with a 150-word abstract summarizing their research. The body of the proposal should clearly state the connection of the research to the Center’s theme, the significance of the research, the distinctive character of the argument advanced, and the methodology employed.

Completed applications should be submitted electronically to the Center’s Director, Gregg TenElshof, at gregg.tenelshof@biola.edu.

Fellowship Eligibility and Benefits

Applicants must have a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree. External Research Fellows will receive the above-mentioned stipends, office space, and access to the Center’s research assistants. Funds will also be available to offset relocation expenses. Internal research fellows will each receive a course reduction of their teaching load and access to the Center’s research assistants.

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.