Horizons Fellows Project Guidelines

APPLICATION DEADLINE: MAR. 24, 2025

Application Procedures

  • Carefully review all components of these Project Guidelines to be sure that you qualify to apply and that you are able and willing to fulfill the project activities.
  • Review the Horizons Review Process with all its downloadable Forms and information on the Horizons series and previous publications for familiarity with the goals and processes for the series and its authors as determined by the Horizons Co-Editorial Team and Board.
  • Complete the Horizons Fellows application by Mar. 24, 2025 (must log in as a current member of REA).
  • Successful applicants will be chosen and all applicants will be notified by Apr. 28, 2025.

Project Oversight

Purpose

The REA’s Co-Editorial Team for our Horizons in Religious Education book series received a $30,000 grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion in 2024. The project’s title is “Writing Between the Avant– and Arrière-Garde: Supporting Religious Education Scholars Who Write at the Intersections of Religious Teaching and Learning.” The grant will help REA and the Horizons Board enhance our ability to mentor emerging scholars in REA as they work to develop their writing at the intersections of their pedagogical commitments, a changing landscape for publishing as scholar-practitioners, and the contexts of religious communities, academe, and public spaces in which our field seeks to make a positive difference amid both pain and hope.

Throughout the various project activities, emerging scholars accompanied by senior mentors will be challenged to confront “meta-questions” such as:

  • How do we write?
  • What do we write?
  • For whom do we write?         

along with attendant concrete questions including:

  • How do RE writers communicate, focus, and draw people in?
  • How do RE authors reach broader audiences, while also contributing to and reshaping academic fields for new directions?
  • How do RE authors “translate” the specialized knowledges of the field for public discourse and for practitioner engagement in faith communities, while taking “decolonial” turns for cues from non-dominant epistemologies and subjugated knowledges to expand the contours of the field?

Project Goals

This project seeks to gather a selected group of seasoned and emerging scholars of the REA fora uniquely designed Writing Retreat with focused activities and reflections on what it takes to hone the writing voices and skills of those whose vocation is an integrative teaching and writing life. Our goals are as follows:

  • To catalyze sustained conversation and reflection among REA scholars regarding the challenges and possibilities of “scholarship that matters” in religious education in light of public concerns today.
  • To inaugurate an initiative for the REA to nurture and mentor emerging RE scholars for an integrative and generative writing life.
  • To support interested prospective authors in navigating the intricacies of publishing writ large, and publishing with Horizons in particular, and the REA’s journal by extension.
  • To challenge and help emerging scholars understand the deep connections between their writer’s and teacher’s voice so that their writing/scholarship helps them be better teachers.

Project Activities for Accepted Applicants

Through a formal application process, 6 “Horizons Fellows” will be chosen to participate in:

  • Submitting a draft “manuscript proposal” using the downloadable HORIZONS in RE Proposal Form found in the Forms section of Horizons Review Process by Fri., Aug., 8, 2025, and bringing it, along with selected writing samples, to the Writing Retreat in Chicago, Fri., Aug. 22-Sun., Aug. 24, 2025.
  • Preparing for the Writing Retreat by completing readings and reflective exercises (to be communicated to accepted fellows with their notice of acceptance). This will include reading one another’s draft manuscript proposals.
  • Engaging during the Writing Retreat in readings, discussions, and other reflective activities with senior scholars designed to empower the fellows to claim their authority in writing, and growing in the ability to articulate and disseminate their insights in ways that can influence and transform the field of religious education, including:
    • listening to experiences from past Horizons authors (via Zoom sessions);
    • discussing qualitative data collected by Horizons on common challenges and creative possibilities facing early-career authors in writing and publishing efforts;
    • receiving an orientation to the overall process of manuscript acquisition and production for Horizons in particular, and of publishing in general;
    • reflecting and conversing on the importance of claiming their writer’s voice and authority, especially in relation to their teaching practices;
    • working during focused periods to refine their draft manuscript proposals;
    • meeting in small groups of 2 fellows, with 1 in-person mentor and 1 remote mentor (participating via Zoom) per group, to refine their draft manuscript proposals through mutually constructive review and conversation.
  • Continuing in these small groups for regular mutual accompaniment and support through Zoom meetings and/or other forms of communication as appropriate for the group members, until each fellow’s submission of a full manuscript proposal to Horizons or another appropriate venue (see below).
  • Engaging a professional writing coach/consultant by Dec. 31, 2025, to work with in refining one’s manuscript proposal, toward a submission deadline of March 31, 2026, for the manuscript proposal.
  • By March 31, 2026, participants must have a) submitted a manuscript proposal to Horizons; or b) submitted a manuscript proposal to another publisher; or c) report to the Project Director if they have the intention to turn their proposal ideas into a different kind of writing project.
  • Completing a program evaluation to aid the Project Director’s report on the project’s achievement of goals: one evaluation at the end of the Writing Retreat and the second upon submission of the manuscript proposal.
  • Attending, if possible, an introductory session at the 2025 online REA meeting and a “reunion” at the REA’s online 2026 annual meeting, to reconnect, encourage, and celebrate.
  • Considering an invitation to present at a Collaborative Session at the in-person 2026 REA meeting to disseminate outcomes of project participation.
  • As appropriate, assisting Horizons co-editors and Board in future activities disseminating best practices and other insights generated through the project (e.g., participating in resource video interviews, considering future participation in Horizons Board activities, etc.).

Eligibility

Applicants for the Horizons Fellowships must:

  • be REA members;
  • be resident in the United States or Canada during project activities;
  • be early-career scholars who have received their doctoral degree within 5 years of applying for the fellowship; or doctoral students in RE or a closely related field who have completed or almost completed their dissertation and be scheduled to defend it by the end of the 2025 spring term;
  • have not yet published their first academic or scholarly book;
  • be able to commit to the stipulated project activities, including attendance for the entirety of the Writing Retreat.

Successful applicants will demonstrate through their applications:

  • capacity and motivation to benefit from the project activities in light of overall project goals;
  • writing ability and potential to develop viable manuscript proposals;
  • commitment to the field of RE;
  • commitments to the interfaith, intercultural, and international conversations about the field of RE that guide manuscript selection for the Horizons book series;
  • ability to benefit from mentoring and constructive feedback from both mentors and peers in collaborative settings.

Support for Project Participation

Accepted fellows will receive:

  • travel and lodging accommodations for the Writing Retreat for eligible expenses as follows:
    • airfare and travel incidentals up to $600 (please book economy airfare under $500 if possible)
    • lodging at The Rose Hotel in Chicago for the nights of Aug. 22 and Aug. 23, 2025
    • meals during the Writing Retreat
  • readings and other materials for the Writing Retreat
  • up to $1000 of payment for consultations with professional writing coaches or editors (mentors will offer recommendations) for work between the end of the Writing Retreat and the submission of a manuscript proposal by Mar. 31, 2026