Ten promising doctoral candidates are about to discover what happens when rigorous academic training meets real-world impact. This summer, the American Council of Learned Societies is launching an ambitious experiment: placing PhD students deep into the trenches of organizations grappling with America's shifting religious landscape.
The Graduate Internships on the Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future program represents something increasingly rare in academia—a deliberate bridge between the ivory tower and the institutions actually shaping public discourse. Rather than spending another summer buried in library archives, these ten fellows will spend nine weeks applying their advanced research skills to tangible projects that matter beyond departmental walls.
What makes this initiative particularly noteworthy is its scope and ambition. These aren't token positions or coffee-fetching arrangements. The host organizations have worked directly with ACLS to design projects that genuinely leverage what doctoral researchers bring to the table: sophisticated analytical thinking, deep subject expertise, and the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly. The fellows come from diverse academic backgrounds—religious studies, theology, anthropology, sociology, film studies, and American studies—suggesting that understanding faith in modern America requires intellectual approaches from multiple disciplines.
The underlying premise is refreshing: our universities are producing incredibly talented scholars who understand religion in sophisticated ways, yet many struggle to imagine careers outside academia or to grasp how their research could shape public understanding. Meanwhile, nonprofits and cultural institutions desperately need people who can think critically about complex social phenomena. This program creates obvious value on both sides.
For the fellows themselves, the benefits extend well beyond a summer paycheck. Program co-leader Jonathan Anjaria from Brandeis University notes something crucial: these internships improve academic writing, enhance job prospects, and multiply the social relevance of doctoral research. In other words, they're not distractions from the real work of scholarship—they're transformative experiences that make scholars better at what they do.
There's also something quietly revolutionary about reshaping what a PhD actually means. For decades, doctoral training has followed a narrow template: publish papers, build a CV in your discipline, hope for a faculty position. This program suggests an alternative vision where doctoral expertise becomes a resource for the broader public good, where training includes learning to communicate with nonacademic audiences, and where career success isn't limited to university positions.
Funded by the Templeton Religion Trust and centered at Bryn Mawr College, this inaugural cohort is essentially a proof of concept. If it works—and early indicators suggest it will—we may be witnessing the beginning of a larger shift in how universities prepare humanities scholars for the world beyond campus.
