June 2025
In the academic year cycle, summer is a change for slowing down to reflect on the past year and plan for the next. And wow--there is so much to be grateful for when I think of the wide-spanning work of the Religion and Public Life Center!
- In August 2024, the longstanding success of the Religion and Public Life Program culminated in officially becoming a center of the Boniuk Institute at Rice University. We kicked off with a dynamic celebration event!
- From August-May, the RPLC hosted 8 Religious and Civic Leader Gatherings that engaged 356 religious, civic, and academic leaders in Houston and around the nation.
- We also hosted weekly scholars meetings that included undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral research fellows, and other staff and faculty associated with the RPLC and the Boniuk Institute.
- This spring, I co-taught a section of the Boniuk Institute's Reading Religion Salon through Rice University's Department of Religion.
- Finally, I co-hosted the Religion Unmuted podcast with Elaine Howard Ecklund, and you can check out this season's episodes here.
There is so much more I could add, but suffice to say it has been a very successful year of advancing our mission to use research on religion to build common ground for the common good. I couldn't be prouder of this work and everyone who contributes to it.
And so, I share some bittersweet news. I will be stepping down as director of the RPLC at the end of July to join the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee as an Assistant Professor of Religion and Public Life.
This new position will allow me to extend beyond the work I have done the past three years as director of the RPLC to a full-time faulty role, and I am excited for new personal and professional growth opportunities.
At the same time, I will miss the Boniuk Institute and the RPLC, and I will especially miss leading the Center's Religious and Civic Leader Gatherings. The work of our religious and civic leaders truly nourishes my spirit with hope about the future of our city, our nation, and the positive roles religion can plan in the world around us. It has been such an honor and privilege to lead the RPLC these past three years. The networks of people and ideas that fuel the RPLC have transformed me and will continue to do so in this next phase of my personal journey.
Warmly,
Rachel C. Schneider
Director, Religion and Public Life Center