About the Pew Grant
The Pew Summer Research program was begun at Union University in 1995 when Prof. George Guthrie (Christian Studies) put together an application to the Pew Charitable Trusts to fund the program. The Pew Trust funded the program for approximately three years; after the Pew support expired, Union University generously continued to fund the program internally. Despite the fact that the Pew Trust no longer supports the grant, the Pew name has remained.
The Pew Summer Research Program seeks to nourish Christian scholarship that will make a lasting impact on future academic discussion. By “Christian scholarship” we mean scholarship which may have an overt Christian content, as well as scholarship which is intrinsically shaped by one’s faith and worldview. Ideally scholarship of this caliber would be publishable in refereed scholarly journals and by recognized academic presses, or disseminated through performance or other refereed means appropriate to the academic discipline of the faculty member.
George Guthrie served as chair of the Pew committee for its first five years; Prof. David Thomas (History) chaired the program for its second five years. Currently, Prof. Gavin Richardson (English) is the chair of the Pew Summer Research program as it celebrates over a decade of scholarship at Union University.