Baylor University researchers will examine virtue formation in higher education moral communities, both secular and faith-based, with a $2.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The project, “The Role of Meta-identity in Developing Moral Communities Within Higher Education,” is co-led by Perry Glanzer, Ph.D., professor of educational foundations and resident scholar with Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and Sarah Schnitker, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, in partnership with colleagues from Baylor, the University of Notre Dame, Wheaton College, the Oxford Pastorate, Loyola Marymount University and the Anselm House Christian study center.
Over a two-year period, researchers will conduct longitudinal studies of students at three religiously affiliated institutions, five centers or institutes for Christian study that promote spiritual formation and community for college students, and the five secular universities whose students those Christian study centers serve. Institutes or centers for Christian study are organizations and facilities adjacent to campuses that serve students in a shared religious context to think and live as Christians, students and citizens.