Markofski receives grant

Wes Markofski, Assistant Professor of Sociology, has received funding from the Louisville Institute for his project “Good News for the Common Good: Multicultural Evangelicalism and Ethical Democracy in America.” The Louisville Institute Sabbatical Grant for Researchers enables ecclesially-engaged academics and scholarly religious leaders to conduct major studies that contribute to the vitality of Christianity in North America. Grants support year-long research projects that address Christian faith and life, the practice of ministry, and/or religious institutions. With his grant, Wes will produce a major new book on multicultural evangelicalism and ethical democracy in the United States based on twelve months of full-time ethnographic fieldwork with faith-based organizations in Portland, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Boston, including 92 in-depth interviews with racially diverse evangelical and non-evangelical religious and civic leaders, community activists, organizers, lobbyists, and neighborhood residents. The book’s descriptive breadth and comparative leverage will offer a theoretically rich and empirically robust analysis of multicultural evangelical strategies of public engagement in the United States. Wes has already incorporated some original research material relating to this project into several of his courses, and expects his grant-funded work on the book to further advance his teaching. Louisville Institute is funded by the Religion Division of Lilly Endowment and based at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The Institute’s fundamental mission is to enrich the religious life of North American Christians and to encourage the revitalization of their institutions, by bringing together those who lead religious institutions with those who study them, so that the work of each might inform and strengthen the other.