What Religion and the Arts Travel Grant Recipients Say about the Program

“This was my first chance to share this research with a broader intellectual audience, and to receive feedback from noted scholars in the field. This experience will surely be valuable to me moving forward as I continue to refine my project and present it in front of other audiences. Further, the networking opportunities afforded by the AAR are incomparable. As I hope to be applying for jobs very soon, it was very important to me to converse with professionals in my field. I learned about opportunities that I did not know existed. Further, I was able to make myself a significant participant in many conversations, both official and unofficial, going on in the field. So I think the grant helped me quite a bit. I have been traveling to the AAR every year for the past 6 years, usually without funding from my department or outside sources. The travel grant really helped to take out the stress that comes from the cost of travel. I was honored to receive it, and also relieved!” – Matthew Lynch, University of North Carolina