Gustavus Adolphus College

Assistant Professor of Religion Thia Cooper

Gustavus Adolphus College Assistant Professor of Religion Thia Cooper has been selected from a national applicant pool to attend one of 27 summer study opportunities supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The NEH is a federal agency that each summer supports seminars and institutes at colleges and universities so that teachers can work in collaboration and study with experts in humanities disciplines.

Cooper will participate in a seminar titled “Religious Diversity and the Common Good.” The six week program will be held at the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. The 15 teachers selected to participate in the program each receive a stipend of $4,200 to cover their travel, study, and living expenses.

Topics for the 27 seminars and institutes offered for college and university teachers this summer include American Indian ethnohistory, African American history as public history, pragmatism, the Scottish Enlightenment, the Reformation, Berber North Africa, the Middle East, York Cathedral, Chinese culture, Brazilian literature, and Roman religion, as well as works by Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Charles Dickens, and Flannery O’Connor.

Cooper is the third Gustavus faculty member to receive a summer opportunity from the NEH. In April it was announced that Associate Professor of Religion Mary Solberg and Assistant Professor of History Sujay Rao will receive Summer Stipends from the NEH to support project research. Click here to read more about Solberg and Rao’s projects.