Grove City College’s English Department received a generous grant from the Lilly Fellows Program to help host its annual Christian Writers Conference in March 2021.
English professors Dr. Kristen Waha, Dr. Adam Loretto and Dr. Sarah Berry worked together to write the grant proposal, which met Lilly Fellows requirements that the conference covers “matters of special intellectual concern to faculty and others in Christian higher education.”
The $12,500 grant will cover costs of hosting and compensating speakers, hospitality and transportation for participants and promotional and advertising materials for the event.
The English Department has hosted the Christian Writer’s Conference annually since 2001. The conference sometimes focuses on a particular Christian artist or writer, and sometimes hosts a conference with a broader focus like 2021’s theme of “Christianity at Global/Cultural Crossroads.” The conference will look at the richness of global texts outside the Western tradition that engage with Christian traditions, theologies and communities around the world.
“We are grateful to the Lilly Fellows Program for the opportunity to think about literature and faith in global contexts with fellow thinkers and artists from around the country and our own region,” Waha said.
Founded in 1991, the Lilly Fellows Program seeks to strengthen the quality and shape the character of church-related institutions of learning through postdoctoral teaching fellowships, Lilly Graduate Fellows Program, maintaining a collaborative national network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities and the Lilly Faculty Fellows Program for mid-career faculty leaders across the disciplines. The Lilly Fellows Program is based at Christ College, the interdisciplinary honors college of Valparaiso University.
The Lilly Fellows Program allows member institutions to apply for conference funds and selects winners from that pool of applicants.