We are pleased to announce that Professor Leonard C. McKinnis has been named a 2022-2023 OpEd Public Voices Fellow. One of 20 scholars selected from across the University of Illinois system to participate in this innovate fellowship, Professor McKinnis will join his cohort of Public Voices Fellows in crafting his research and voice to reach a larger public audience. The Public Voices Fellowship is a national program initiated with scholars from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and has since grown to include the nation’s top universities. The Public Voice Fellowship aims to increase the public impact and presence of our nation’s top underrepresented thinkers. This one-year Fellowship includes interactive seminars, monthly sessions with media insiders including CNN, TED, and the NYT, and dedicated editors providing one-on-one editing. The overreaching goal of the Public Voices Fellowship is to assist the Fellows with producing tangible thought leadership, including op-eds, radio/TV appearances, speeches, and TED talks. As a scholar of Black religions, Professor McKinnis ambitions to use his fellowship year toward the goal of making public those matters that intersect with race and religion, Black religions, religion and public policy, and the spiritual lives of African Americans. Notes Professor McKinnis: “The public has much to learn about African Americans and how questions of faith and religion(s) impact their worldview, offers possibilities of hope, and encourage public protest and social critique in times or moral crisis.” We look forward to Professor McKinnis’ public voice in the years to come.
Related People
