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75th Anniversary Initiative
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  • The Luce Foundation Celebrates 75th Anniversary

    In celebration of our 75th anniversary, the Luce Foundation launches a 75th Anniversary Initiative and announces an initial grant to Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.


  • Jane Zimmer Daniels retires; Carlotta M. Arthur appointed Program Director for the Clare Boothe Luce Program

    Dr. Jane Zimmer Daniels has retired from the Luce Foundation’s staff on December 31, 2011. Initially appointed in January 2001, she has served as the director of the Clare Boothe Luce Program, and since 2009 has also directed the Higher Education Program. For three decades, Dr. Daniels has been an advocate for women’s leadership in the STEM disciplines, having directed innovative programs for women in engineering at Purdue University and co-founded the national association, WEPAN. At the Luce Foundation, she expanded the scope of recipient institutions; introduced undergraduate research awards and post-doctoral fellowships to the Clare Boothe Luce Program’s grants for women in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering; and contributed research to advance the careers of women in these fields.

    Dr. Carlotta M. Arthur has been appointed Program Director for the Clare Boothe Luce Program, effective on January 1, 2012. After completing the bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering at Purdue University, she worked as an engineer for 10 years in industry. She received the M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York – Stony Brook, where she also taught undergraduates. Following a residency at the University of Texas, she was a Kellogg post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, then taught at Meharry Medical College in Nashville and later at Smith College. Most recently she has served on the staff of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where she has been director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program and program officer for Diversity Initiatives.


  • Clare Boothe Luce Professor Receives Prestigious Awards

    Cindy Regal, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, received two prestigious research awards this year — the David and Lucille Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award.


  • Newark Museum Holds Tibet Collection Centennial

    Beginning March 5, 2011, the Newark Museum celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the formation of its internationally acclaimed Tibetan collection. The collection features 5,550 objects from the eleventh to twenty-first centuries. The Centennial, sponsored in part by a special grant from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Asia program, begins with a six-month special exhibition of 15 recently conserved thangka paintings, one of three known complete sets in the world, that have not been displayed since 1911. Throughout the year, five permanent galleries will be newly installed. The museum will also host lectures, musical and theatrical performances, tours, educational courses, and even a Tibetan bazaar.


  • 2011-2012 Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology have been selected.


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  • Rockwell Painting Displayed at White House

    This July, the Luce Foundation’s American Art program assisted the Norman Rockwell Museum with the lending of Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With” to the White House, at the special request of President Obama. The painting will remain there through October in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges’ historic walk integrating an all-white public school in New Orleans.


    (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza; White House video here.)


  • Students at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Complete 2011 Israel-Palestine Project

    Students in Diane Winston’s Reporting on Religion class at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California went to Israel in a unique collaboration with On Being, Krista Tippett’s award-winning radio program. The graduate students’ multimedia reporting was published on the On Being blog, on a class Tumblr page, and in many major publications, and the 2011 Israel-Palestine Project showcases their work online. A grant from the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs supports the project.


  • Through “Digital TV and the World” Project, UC Berkeley Journalism Students Report on Korea

    The Washington Post featured stories about Koreans and Korean-Americans by student reporters from UC-Berkeley Journalism School who are receiving training in the Tides Center’s “Digital TV and the World” special project. Project director Todd Carrel notes that this project aims to “train budding reporters to find stories that help reveal the fabric of communities in the United States and other parts of the world.” The Henry Luce Foundation’s grant supports project work on Asia.


  • Summer School for Religion and Public Life Held in Bulgaria

    Boston University's Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, supported by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs, held the 2011 Summer School for Religion and Public Life in Bulgaria. The theme, "A Mosaic of Margins: Ethnicity, Religion, and Belonging," gave fellows the opportunity to focus on problems of marginality in contemporary social life.


    (Photo: Tony Schnitter)

    Last year's summer institute, held in Cyprus, focused on the theme of "Divided Cities." A New York Times article about the project is available here.


  • SSRC Dissertation Workshop

    In early June, the Social Science Research Council's program on religion and the public sphere convened twelve advanced graduate students and five distinguished professors for a five-day dissertation workshop on religion and international affairs. Over the course of the workshop, students shared their ongoing work, considered critiques from student and faculty participants, and debated the coherence of the very banner under which they had been gathered. Throughout the summer, a group of these students have been blogging regularly for The Immanent Frame, sharing notes and reflections on their emerging research, as well as other insights and questions, ruminations and observations. Read all of their contributions to Notes from the Field.


  • Venice Workshop Examines Politics of Religious Freedom

    The “Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Norms and Local Practices,” a three-year project based at the University of California, Berkeley, and Northwestern University, held its first workshop in Venice in July 2011. A report is available here. The workshop brought together academics, human rights and civil society organizations, along with jurists and policy-makers who have helped to reshape national and international debates on religious freedom. Invited participants considered the relation between European debates and the legal governance of religious difference in other parts of the world including the Middle East, Africa, the United States, and Asia. The workshop also built on an intensive summer course on the politics of religious freedom and the rights of religious minorities co-taught by the project team at the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratization (EUIC). The project organizers were Saba Mahmood (UC-Berkeley), Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Northwestern), Winnifred Sullivan (SUNY-Buffalo Law), and Peter Danchin (University of Maryland Law).


  • Clare Boothe Luce Fellow's Research on Bog Turtles Mentioned in The Wall Street Journal

    Suzanne Macey, a Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship recipient, was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal "Urban Gardner" article about the condition of bog turtles in Dutchess County. Ms. Macey is featured weighing and measuring the turtles - the smallest in North America - before "outfitt[ing] several with transmitters." Her work with bog turtles is part of her graduate research at Fordham University.


  • Public Radio International Offers Special Dispatches from Japan

    Marco Werman of Public Radio International’s The World offered special dispatches from Japan, reporting from the regions hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, as well as interviewing Tokyo musicians and artists who responded to the disaster. Werman’s blog posts are available here. PRI’s coverage of Asia is partially funded by the Henry Luce Foundation’s Asia program.


  • Luce Scholar Contributes to NPR's Marketplace

    Luce Scholar Julia Simon reported several stories for NPR’s “Marketplace.” These stories explored HOV lanes in Jakarta, Indonesia; American wheat in the Middle East; and Egypt’s crackdown on foreign workers. To read about Julia’s year as a Luce Scholar, click here.


  • Knight Luce Fellowship Recipients Announced

    The USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism announced the recipients of the 2011 Knight Luce Fellowship for Reporting on Global Religion. From a pool of more than 50 applicants, seven American journalists were chosen to receive stipends from $5,000 to $25,000 to report and write stories illuminating how religion crosses geographic, temporal and ideological borders. The fellowship is sponsored by the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the University of Southern California and funded by a grant from the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs.


  • Woodrow Wilson Center Holds Seminar on Religion and Politics

    On Monday, February 14, 2011, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. held a seminar entitled “Religious Revival in the 21st Century: What Impact on Politics?” The seminar featured a diverse group of fellows supported over the past three years by a grant from the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs, offering presentations on topics such as “The Counter-Jihad,” “The Appeal of the Al Qaeda Message,” “Religious Revival in China,” and “Religious Politics in Latin America.” The Woodrow Wilson Center seeks to memorialize Woodrow Wilson by providing a forum for neutral dialogue on important national and international issues.


  • Orfalea Center at UC-Santa Barbara Hosts Workshop on Role of Religion in Civil Society in South/Southeast Asia

    On Saturday, January 15, 2011, the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies at the University of California - Santa Barbara hosted an all-day invitational workshop as part of a Luce Foundation-sponsored initiative to examine the role of religion in global civil society. This workshop brought together academic experts on South and Southeast Asia with practitioners from international NGOs working in the region to discuss the role that religion plays in civil society within this regional context.


  • CBL Professor Receives Presidential Award

    Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Emily Weiss (Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University), has recently received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for her work on nanostructures. Dr. Weiss will be invited to the White House to meet president Obama and attend an awards ceremony. She has received six prestigious national awards during her first three years as a faculty member, including the Packard Fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (2010), an unrestricted research grant of $875,000 to study new conducting materials; the Department of Energy Early Career Research Award (2010); the Air Force Young Investigator Award (2009); the Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award (2008), and a Dow Teacher-Scholar Award (2008).


  • Second Edition of Encyclopedia of New York City Published

    In November, Yale University Press announced the publication of the second edition of The Encyclopedia of New York City, which went through seven printings in its orginal 1995 version. Kenneth T. Jackson, a member of the Board of Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation, edited both books. The revised edition includes 800 new entries and many hundreds of new illustrations that "help complete the story of New York from Air Train to E-Z Pass, from September 11 to public order." Jackson is the Barzun Professor of History at Columbia University, where he also directs the Herbert H. Lehman Center for American History.


  • Center on Law and Security at NYU Holds Conference on "The Constitution and National Security"

    On Friday, November 5, the Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law held a conference supported by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs. The conference, titled “The Constitution and National Security: First Amendment Under Attack?”, featured scholars, journalists, policymakers, religious leaders and other experts; they explored issues such as “Free Speech and Incitement,” “The Humanitarian Law Project,” and “Islam in America.”


  • Berkley Center at Georgetown Releases Reports on Global Development and Faith-Inspired Organizations in Southeast Asia

    Two new publications have recently been released by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, supported by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs. “Global Development and Faith-Inspired Organizations in Southeast Asia” summarizes a conference that took place on December 14-15, 2009, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, while “Faith-Inspired Organizations and Global Development Policy” provides background information by “mapping” social and economic development work in the region. The initiative aims to explore the role of faith-based organizations in Southeast Asia, highlighting best practices and policy issues.


  • Aspen Institute Releases Publication on Political Islam

    The Aspen Institute has recently released “Political Islam: Policy Challenges for the Congress,” a report from a conference held in Tunis, Tunisia from May 31st-June 6th, 2010. The report explores issues discussed at the conference such as “Pakistan, Democracy and Radical Islam: Policy Options for the U.S.”; “The U.S. and Afghanistan: Next Steps”; “Engagement with Iran: A Balance Sheet”; and “North Africa: Changing Political Dynamics in Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco and Implications for the US.” The project was partially funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.


  • Brown University Holds Brown/Luce Conference on Environmental Initiatives

    Between November 4 and 6, representatives of more than 25 institutional recipients of grants from the Luce Foundation's environmental initiative assembled at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies to discuss the environment and higher education, past, present, and future. Qualities of interdisciplinary work, international engagement, experiential learning, and management around environmental studies were addressed in the gathering.


  • NYU Holds Public Conference on Religion and Politics in the Americas

    On November 4-5, 2010, New York University hosted "States of Devotion: Religion, Neoliberalism and the Politics of the Body in the Americas." The conference aimed to promote and strengthen interdisciplinary dialogue about the changing role and place of religious discourses and practices in the wake of the transformations wrought by neoliberal globalization upon communities, societies and polities across the Hemisphere. The event was part of a multi-year project on "Religion and Politics in the Americas" funded by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs.


  • American Abroad Media Holds Roundtable on "Africa's Holy Healers"

    On Friday, November 5, American Abroad Media held a roundtable discussion on Africa’s Holy Healers, its one-hour documentary on faith-based public health services and religious healers in sub-Saharan Africa. The event, held at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, was supported by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs.

  • New School's India China Institute Holds Workshop in Kathmandu

    From October 24 to 28, 2010, the New School's India China Institute (ICI) hosted the inaugural planning retreat of Everyday Religion and Sustainable Environments in the Himalayas, a project supported by the Henry Luce Foundation. The workshop took place in Kathmandu, Nepal. The project is a three-year initiative that seeks to foster interdisciplinary inquiry on the interrelationship of religion, environment, and international development in the Himalayas.


  • Claire Gaudiani, Luce Foundation Director, Releases Book on Philanthropy

    Claire Gaudiani, a Director of the Henry Luce Foundation, has recently published Generosity Unbound: How American Philanthropy Can Strengthen the Economy and Expand the Middle Class. Dr. Gaudiani, former president of Connecticut College, teaches at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, and has been awarded the Henry Rosso Medal for distinguished service to philanthropy from the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University. Her previous books include The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism and Generosity Rules! A Guidebook to Giving.


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  • Freer Sackler YouTube Channel Launched

    The Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution have created a YouTube channel that will regularly display lectures and other interactive features associated with their current exhibitions, including “Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia,” funded by the Luce Foundation.


  • "Faith and Public Health in Africa" Featured on American Abroad Media Website

    American Abroad Media's website currently features an interview with Dr. Anne Peterson on “Faith and Public Health in Africa” on its AAM Insight exclusive web interview series. AAM's Faith and Public Health program was funded by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs.


  • Khubilai Khan Exhibit Opens at Metropolitan Museum of Art

    On September 28, 2010, “The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty” opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The exhibit, partially funded by the Luce Foundation, displays art of the Yuan dynasty, one of China’s most culturally rich periods. It covers the period from 1215, the year of Khubilai Khan’s birth, to 1368, the year of the fall of the Yuan dynasty. Open until January 2, 2011, the exhibit contains painting and sculpture as well as artifacts of daily life.


  • Foundation President Michael Gilligan Gives LaGuardia Community College Commencement Address

    On September 21, 2010, Foundation President Michael Gilligan gave the keynote speech at LaGuardia Community College’s commencement ceremonies, held at Radio City Music Hall. He was also awarded the President’s Medal “in recognition of outstanding leadership and service in support of higher education” by Interim President Peter Katopes on behalf of President Gail O. Mellow.


  • Reception Celebrates Publication of Indonesian Drama Anthology

    On July 27, 2010, the Luce Foundation and the Lontar Foundation co-hosted a reception to celebrate publication of The Lontar Anthology of Indonesian Drama, a three-volume set of 34 plays written between 1895 and 1999. A four-volume Antologi Drama Indonesia also resulted from this project. Since its establishment in 1987, the Lontar Foundation has worked to promote Indonesian literature. John McGlynn, Lontar’s co-founder and chairman, writes that both English and Indonesian-language versions of the Anthology make most of these plays available for the first time for teaching, research and general enjoyment.


  • Luce Foundation Honored at Silliman University, Phillipines

    On March 25th, 2010, Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, inducted the Luce Foundation into the Order of Horace B. Silliman, the university’s highest distinction for its supporters. President Ben Malayang III presented the award to Foundation President Michael Gilligan in an elegant ceremony in the newly restored Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium. The Luce Auditorium – the largest in the Philippines outside Manila – was completed in 1974 with a major grant from the foundation, and through the United Board the Luce Foundation assisted with its renovation in 2008-2009. Silliman was founded by Presbyterian missionaries in 1901 – in the same period as the Luce family’s missionary work in China – and today is a leading private institution in the country’s Visayas region.


  • Yale Hosts Discussion on Henry Luce

    Also on March 25, 2010, New Haven, Yale University hosted a public program, “Henry R. Luce and the 20th Century.” Yale University President Richard C. Levin gave the introduction, and Shelly Kagan, former Henry R. Luce Professor of Social Thought and Ethics, moderated a discussion between Alan Brinkley and Lance Morrow, authors of two new biographies of Henry Luce scheduled for publication this spring. Kit Luce and Margaret Boles Fitzgerald, Chair, were joined at the event by more than 10 members of the Luce family – as well as a number of the foundation’s previous grantees and current staffers of Yale Daily News. An excerpt of Brinkley’s The Publisher appears in the May 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, describing Harry Luce’s and Briton Hadden’s founding of Time.


  • Survey of the state of multifaith education at seminaries and resource for seminary faculty are now available online.


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    American Art Program
    Luce Fund
    New Inquiry Date for Exhibitions:
    April 1st
    (Proposal receipt deadline remains June 15th.)




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