By Michelle Hines , University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted: 5-3-07
Dr. Derek Krueger.
GREENSBORO, NC – Dr. Derek Krueger, who heads the Department of Religious Studies, has won a $40,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant to prepare a book on how liturgy formed Orthodox Christian identity in the Middle Ages.
The NEH grant will replace a portion of Krueger’s salary while he takes a leave during the 2007-2008 academic year. He plans to make two research trips, visiting Greece, Turkey and Italy.
Krueger’s project will begin as a series of academic articles, culminating in a book. He will focus on the liturgical formation of collective and individual identity in Byzantium between the sixth and ninth centuries – a subject he says hasn’t been fully explored by scholars of religion.
“Byzantine rituals employed performance as a technology through which Christians might conform themselves to biblical and saintly models. Hymns, sermons, ritual spaces and religious artifacts offered templates for how Christians might be present to themselves and told them who they were in relation to God, each other, the church and the state,” Krueger said.
NEH is the only federal agency that regularly funds humanities research. NEH grants are extremely competitive, with only about 11 percent of applicants receiving funding.
Krueger’s grant was among 288 new NEH grants totaling $10.7 million awarded nationwide during the grant cycle.
On May 2, Krueger also received UNCG’s Senior Research Excellence Award.
