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Professor of Religion; Dean's Leadership Fellow

Liz Bucar is a leading expert in religious ethics. Her research and writing covers a wide range of topics—from sexual reassignment surgery to the politics of religious clothing–but generally focuses on how a deeper understanding religious difference can change our sense of what is right and good. She is the author of four books, including her most recent, Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation (Harvard 2022) and the award-winning Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress (Harvard, 2017). At Northeastern Bucar teaches courses on sexual ethics, Islam, cultural appropriation, and the popular comparative religion program in Spain that includes a 150-mile hike on the Camino. Her public scholarship has appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and Teen Vogue. Bucar is Director of Sacred Writes: Public Scholarship on Religion, a grant-funded project that provides support, resources, and networks for scholars of religion committed to translating the significance of their research to a broader audience.

 

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Fellowships and Awards

  • Position: PI
    Title: Sacred Writes: Public Scholarship on Race, Justice, and Religion
    Purpose: This new grant will fund four initiatives that build organizational capacity while explicitly centering anti-racism.
    Funding agency: The Henry Luce Foundation
    Dates: July 2022-June 2024
    Total award: $450,000
  • Position: PI
    Title: Sacred Writes, Public Scholarship on Religion (title of original proposal was Fit to Print)
    Purpose: Train scholars to do public-facing scholarship and create media partnerships
    Funding agency: The Henry Luce Foundation
    Dates: June 2018–June 2022
    Total award: $750,000
  • Position: Resident Fellow
    Title: Writing Beyond the Academy
    Purpose: Writing retreat at Collegeville Institute, MN
    Funding agency: Collegeville Institute
    Date July 20-29, 2019
    Total award: room, board, and travel
  • Position: Senior Fellow (PIs are Charles Mathewes and Paul Dafydd Jones, University of Virginia)
    Title: Religion and Its Publics, a University of Virginia Research Project
    Purpose: Explore various publics of religious studies to increase impact of scholarship
    Funding agency: The Henry Luce Foundation
    Dates: Sept. 2016–June 2019
    Total award: $1,000,000
  • Position: PI
    Title: Reporting Religion
    Purpose: Increase religious literacy of journalists through a workshop and course development
    Funding agency: Luce/ACLS Program in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs
    Dates: Sept. 2016–May 2018
    Total award: $60,000
  • Position: Fellow (PIs are William Schweiker, University of Chicago and Günter Thomas, Ruhr-University Bochum)
    Title: Enhancing Life Early Career Fellowship
    Purpose: Support research on “enhancing life”
    Funding Agency: John Templeton Foundation
    Dates: July 2015–August 2017
    Total award: $4.6 million
    Amount of my award: $50,000
  • Position: Fellow (PI Christian Miller, Wake Forest University)
    Title: Theology of Character Fellowship
    Purpose: Support research on character formation
    Funding Agency: John Templeton Foundation
    Dates: June 2012–June 2013
    Total award: $403,000
    Amount of my award: $57,000
  • Position: Postdoctoral Fellow
    Title: American Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
    Purpose: Supported research leave
    Funding Agency: American Association of University Women
    Dates: August 2011–June 2012
    Total award: $35,000
  • Position: Postdoctoral Fellowship
    Title: Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs
    Purpose: Supported research and teaching residency
    Funding Agency: Georgetown University
    Dates: August 2006–May 2007
    Total award: $49,000

Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017).

The Islamic Veil: A Beginner’s Guide (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2012).

Religious Ethics in a Time of Globalism: Shaping a Third Wave of Comparative Analysis, ed.
E. Bucar and A. Stalnaker (New York: Palgrave, 2012).

Creative Conformity: The Feminist Politics of U.S. Catholic and Iranian Shi‘i Women
(Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2011).

Does Human Rights Need God? ed. E. Bucar and B. Barnett (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
2005).

Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation (Harvard University Press, 2022)

Courses

Course catalog

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