The Community of Scholars
Visiting Scholars
David B. Larson Memorial Lecture
Berton H. Kaplan Lifetime Acheivement Award
Community of Scholars
Duke’s Community of Scholars (COS) represents a multi-disciplinary team of senior Spirituality, Theology and Health (STH) leaders from Duke, University of North Carolina, and other universities in the U.S. and abroad. This community serves as the leadership core whose overall mission is to move the field of STH into a new era of significance, visibility, and impact. This leadership core seeks to include scholars representing the major branches of Christianity and world religions such as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The purpose of this community is to accomplish the following goals:
- Create and sustain a trans-disciplinary community to stimulate creativity, research, and scholarship in the area of spirituality, theology and health.
- Develop collaborative, multi-center research proposals on STH for submission to private foundations, the National Institutes of Health, and other funding organizations or individuals.
- Mentor and support young investigators in STH by providing critique of and assistance with grant writing, including project design and analysis.
- Provide consultation on STH to government, private health care organizations, business, and religious organizations.
- Provide a Speaker’s Bureau of experts on STH who can give presentations to outside organizations on the topic.
- Produce joint-authored opinion pieces, consensus reports, and other articles for peer-reviewed publication.
- Participate in fund raising and acquiring resources to maintain COS, the membership society in STH, and the yearly national/international conferences.
- Review STH research proposals for private foundations, the National Institutes of Health, and other organizations that fund this type of research.
- Provide recommendations to government and private foundations on proposal revision when they have identified promising but inadequately formed STH grants in their area of interest.
Community of Scholars list and bios
Visiting Scholars
Each month during the academic year the Center hosts a university-wide luncheon seminar on a topic in spirituality, theology and health that is held from Noon - 1:30. A visiting STH scholar presents a topic for 45-60 min and this is followed by 30-45 minutes of discussion. Videos are available online within one month of the seminar. Seminars are open to the public. Registration is requested for a lunch reservation.
List of Upcoming and Past Scholars with Videos
David B. Larson
Dr. Larson founded and directed the National Institute for Healthcare Research and was a leader in the religion and health research field. A lecture was established in his memory in 2003 and is hosted by the Center. Beginning in 2008, the lecture will be held at the annual meeting of the Society for Spirituality, Theology and Health.
Information on Dr. Larson and the lecture
Berton H. Kaplan
Dr. Kaplan is Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina School of public health. His research has focused on various aspects of the community as they affect health. He has become a distinguished leader in the field and is a member of the Center's Community of Scholars. The Center named a lifetime acheivement award in the field of spirituality, theology and health in honor of Dr. Kaplan in 2008, and the award is given at the annual meeting of the Society for Spirituality, Theology and Health.
Information on the Kaplan Award and recipients
