With support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, SVHE is to develop model programs to address religious illiteracy.  (brochure) To date, ten campuses were selected, each consisting of a team of 3 faculty and 1 student, with the goal of developing curricular and/or co-curricular programs related to issues of religion and public life to be implemented and assessed during the 2008-2009 academic year and afterward widely distributed by means of a monograph summarizing the results. Institute faculty consisted of the following:

• Robert Spivey, co-director, former chair of the Department of Religion, Florida State University; former executive director of the American Academy of Religion; former SVHE President.
• Miriam Diamond, coordinator, former associate director, faculty program, Searle Center for Teaching Excellence, Northwestern University; higher education.
• Allen Dunn, professor, Department of English, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, editor, Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal; English literature.
• Richard B. Miller, professor, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University; director, Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions; religious ethics.
• Nancy Thomas, former director SVHE Democracy Project; senior associate with Study Circles Resource Center; former director ACE Listening to Communities project; higher education.
• Kevin Reinhart, Associate professor, Department of Religion, Dartmouth College: Islamic Studies.

July, 2009 Update Synopsis CLICK to view

• On-line report, “Democratic Dialogue Skills Presented at Institute on Religion on Curriculum and Culture in Higher Education”, appeared in the National Issues Forums: News in September, 2009.
• On-line slides  of “Models promoting religious literacy among citizens of a global society” presented at the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ 2009 Annual Meeting.