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Dorrell Briscoe, the new dean of religious and spiritual life at Rollins, has helped secure two grants since assuming his role just two months ago. The grants will go a long way in working to advance interfaith engagement, a key component of the College’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB).

The $25,000 Calvin Institute for Christian Worship: Teacher-Scholar Grant will support a proposed program titled Theomusicology as Sociopolitical Resistance: Exploring the Historical and Sociological Significance of Negro Spirituals as a Form of Liberation. The project will involve researching the historical and sociopolitical significance of Negro spirituals in movements of liberation and to demonstrate through workshops, concerts, and an immersive learning trip how these spirituals can enrich modern religious and spirituality practices. This grant was made possible through a Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, Michigan, with funds provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.

In partnership with the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Hillel International’s Social Impact Department has granted Rollins an Interfaith Outreach Microgrant, a $5,000 award to support projects that are the outgrowth of collaborative relationship-building between Jewish students and students from other faith traditions. Programming will include hosting the International UN Day of Peace (September 21) and the Theology of Creation Care Earth Day (April 22) as annual interfaith events that focus on creation care and climate change. The grant will also help create an interfaith ambassadors program to empower and train a diverse group of students to become interfaith leaders and facilitators on campus.

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