Miriam Usher Chrisman Travel Fellowship
To honor a long-time member and past president of the Society for Reformation Research, the society offers the Miriam Usher Chrisman Travel Fellowship of $2000 every other year in odd-numbered years to doctoral students who need to travel abroad to do research for their dissertations. The award competition is open to all students of European studies, ca. 1450-1650, whose dissertations deal with religion or the Reformation in some significant way. All geographic and confessional concentrations are eligible, and students just beginning their archival research as well as those finishing up are encouraged to apply. The purpose of the award is to help defray the expenses of working abroad.
Applicants should provide a 3-5 pp. (double-spaced) description of their research projects, which must include when and where they plan to use the fellowship. (This description should be double-spaced with 1" margins and 12-point type.) Applicants should keep in mind that just sending in a dissertation prospectus is insufficient, as the selection committee wants to know more specifically how the fellowship will be used and how the funds will help the applicants complete their dissertations. Applicants should also provide a curriculum vitae and ask their dissertation advisers to submit a letter of recommendation. All applicants must be members of the Society for Reformation Research at the time of application. The current student rate is $10 per year (please go to http://www.reformationresearch.org/membership.html).
All materials should be sent directly via email as attachments (in MS Word or as a pdf) to Lynneth Miller Renberg, the Recording Officer of the society. She will then forward all materials to the Chrisman selection committee appointed by the current President of the society. The deadline for applications for this year’s competition is February 15, 2025. Watch this web page or “like” our Facebook page for competition announcements.
Previous Winners:
2023-- Katherine Goodwin, "“Praying with Syon: the Vernacular Theology of Anne Bulkeley’s Book, BL Harley MS 494,” Baylor University, Beth Allison Barr, adviser
2021-- Kelly Douma-Kaelin, “‘To Be Proposed as Useful:’ Women’s Transatlantic Marriage and Missionary Work in the Eighteenth-Century Moravian Church,” The Pennsylvania State University, Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, adviser
2017 -- Adam M. Bonikowske, “Anabaptist Masculinity in Reformation Germany: Challenges to Civic Norms in Radical Religiosity,” University of Arizona, Susan Karant-Nunn and Ute Lotz-Heumann advisers
2015 -- David Yoder Neufeld, "Seeking Toleration in a Persecuting Society: Anabaptism in Zurich, 1535-1650," University of Arizona, Susan Karant-Nunn and Ute Lotz-Heumann advisers
2013 -- Stephen Scheperle, "Distinguishing Saints from Sinners, Shepherd from Sheep, and the Affluent from the Afflicted: Individuating the Community in Sixteenth-Century Geneva," University of Iowa, Raymond A. Mentzer adviser
2011 -- Amy Rogers Hays, "Gender, Education, and Childhood in Sixteenth-Century London," Georgetown University, Amy Leonard and Jo Ann Moran Cruz advisers
2009 -- Bronwen McShea, "Cultivating a New World: The Jesuits' Social Vision for France and North America," Yale University, Carlos Eire adviser
2007 -- Anne Throckmorton, "Saints, Sacred Landmarks, and the Fluid Boundaries of Faith in Post-Reformation England," University of Virginia, Paul Halliday adviser
2005 -- Jana Elizabeth Condie-Pugh, "Taming Pazzia: Madness in Early Modern Italy," Northwestern University, Edward Muir adviser
2003 -- Thomas Ridenhour, Jr., "Reformed Method, Law, and Politics: The Legal and Political Works of Johannes Althusius in their Intellectual and Cultural Context," University of Virginia, Erik Midelfort adviser
2001 -- Andrew H. Weaver, "Piety, Politics, and Patronage: Motets at the Habsburg Court in Vienna During the Reign of Ferdinand III (1637-1657)," Yale University, Ellen Rosand adviser
Anne Jacobson Schutte Early Career Research Grant in Early Modern Studies
The Society for Reformation Research accepts applications for the Anne Jacobson Schutte Research Grant for Early Modern Studies every even-numbered year. The award commemorates Schutte’s distinguished academic career. The Society for Reformation Research distributes this grant to scholars who study Italian and European culture during the early modern period (1300-1700). The grant is available to early career scholars (PhD students and those who have earned the PhD degree within 5 years of the application closing date, and who do not hold a tenured position at a university), with preference given to research concentrating on Italy or Italians, on religious life and religious change, on the experiences of women, or on Italian culture in relation to other parts of Europe and the world.
The purpose of the grant is to support research travel expenses and direct research expenses at archives, libraries, repositories, institutes, and equivalent research venues, primarily in Europe but also in other regions of the world on the basis of demonstrable need connected to the above grant description. Applications will be judged in terms of the Grant’s potential for advancing the applicant’s research and leading to completion of a dissertation, habilitation, or published research. Each grant made from the Fund will be distributed directly to the recipient.
Applicants should provide a 3-5-page description of their research project, which must include when and where they plan to use the fellowship. This description should be double-spaced with 1" margins and 12-point type. Applicants should keep in mind that sending in just a dissertation prospectus is insufficient, as the selection committee wants to know more specifically how the fellowship will be used and how the funds will help the applicants complete their projects. Applicants should also provide a curriculum vitae and ask their dissertation advisers to submit a letter of recommendation. All applicants must be members of the Society for Reformation Research at the time of application. The current membership rate is $10 per year for students and $20 per year for regular membership (please go to https://www.reformationresearch.org/membership.html).
The call for the Schutte Award will appear in late 2025.
Previous Winners:
2022- Nathalie Miraval, “The Art of Magic: Afro-Catholic Visual Culture in the Early Modern Spanish Empire,” Yale University, Cécile Fromont adviser.
2020 (awarded 2021)- Dr. Fabio Battista, Instructor of Italian, University of Alabama
Bodo Nischan Award
For years, Dr. Bodo Nischan (Professor of History, East Carolina University) served the Society as secretary. Following his untimely death due to cancer, the Society decided to honor his service to SRR and the scholarly community at large through the creation of the Bodo Nischan Award for Scholarship, Civility, and Service. The award is offered every other year on even numbered years. To learn more about Dr. Nischan you may read a eulogy given at the 2002 Plenary Session of the Society at the Sixteenth Century Society Conference in San Antonio, Texas by then SRR President Dr. Robin Barnes. The next award will be made in 2024.
Nominations are now open for the award. Nominees for the award should have made significant contributions to the SRR and to the profession at large; individuals may be nominated by any member of the society. Nominators should submit nominees to the Recording Officer, Lynneth Miller Renberg, via email (lrenberg@andersonuniversity.edu). Nominators should include a statement of approximately one paragraph explaining why the nominee is worthy of such an award. Multiple Society members may nominate one individual.
Nischan Award Winners
2022 -- Elsie Tshimunyi McKee, Princeton Theological Seminary
2020 -- Robert Kolb, Concordia Seminary
2018 -- Raymond and Beth Mentzer, University of Iowa
2016 -- Susan Karant-Nunn, University of Arizona
2014 -- James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota
2012 -- Anne Jacobson Schutte, University of Virginia
2010 -- Thomas A. and Katherine G. Brady, University of California-Berkeley
2008 -- Robert M. Kingdon, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2006 -- Helen Nader, University of Arizona
2004 -- Miriam Usher Chrisman, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
2002 -- Charles Nauert, University of Missouri-Columbia
Nominations are now open for the award. Nominees for the award should have made significant contributions to the SRR and to the profession at large; individuals may be nominated by any member of the society. Nominators should submit nominees to the Recording Officer, Lynneth Miller Renberg, via email (lrenberg@andersonuniversity.edu). Nominators should include a statement of approximately one paragraph explaining why the nominee is worthy of such an award. Multiple Society members may nominate one individual.
Nischan Award Winners
2022 -- Elsie Tshimunyi McKee, Princeton Theological Seminary
2020 -- Robert Kolb, Concordia Seminary
2018 -- Raymond and Beth Mentzer, University of Iowa
2016 -- Susan Karant-Nunn, University of Arizona
2014 -- James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota
2012 -- Anne Jacobson Schutte, University of Virginia
2010 -- Thomas A. and Katherine G. Brady, University of California-Berkeley
2008 -- Robert M. Kingdon, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2006 -- Helen Nader, University of Arizona
2004 -- Miriam Usher Chrisman, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
2002 -- Charles Nauert, University of Missouri-Columbia