CAUT has given its 2008 J.H. Stewart Reid Memorial Fellowship to University of Toronto PhD student Jonathan Crane.
Jonathan Crane, a University of Toronto student completing a PhD in Modern Jewish Thought, has been chosen for this year’s Stewart Reid fellowship sponsored by CAUT.
Crane holds a BA, summa cum laude, from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, a master’s degree in international peace studies from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, and a MPhil in Gandhian Thought from Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad, India. As a Wexner Graduate Fellow, he received both rabbinic ordination and a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion.
His doctoral dissertation develops a new method of understanding religious (specifically Jewish) ethical discourse. Combining philosophy of theology with discourse analysis, Crane says his study demonstrates both how religious ethicists argue and why they argue as they do, and intends to contribute to fields that analyze the confluence of law and ethics, the construction of religious norms and the role of religious discourse in multicultural societies.
In conjunction with his academic work, Crane has presented at conferences and guest lectured throughout the world on a diverse range of topics from Judaism, interfaith relations, social justice, and Gandhian philosophy to euthanasia and war and peace. He has written a book and two book chapters, and his research has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals. He has received numerous awards and honours, including Connaught and Ontario Graduate scholarships, as well as having won support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Centre for the Study of Religion and the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto.
Crane was selected for the fellowship by a three-member application review committee, which this year included Christine Storm, a former professor with Mount Allison University’s psychology department, Françoise Naudillon, an assistant professor of French at Concordia University, and Queen’s University biology professor Ken Ko.
CAUT established the annual J.H. Stewart Reid Memorial Fellowship 40 years ago to honour the memory of its first executive secretary. The program invites applications from students of exceptional academic standing in doctoral programs at Canadian universities. Stewart Reid Fellows receive $5,000 for one academic year of study.
----------------------------------------------------------------
A list of previous fellowship recipients is online at http://stewartreid.caut.ca.