Gabriel Raeburn, a PhD candidate in the departments of religious studies and history, has been awarded the 2020 Dissertation Grant from the National Institute of Social Sciences.

Mr. Raeburn received the prestigious award for his proposal to research and complete his dissertation, “Preaching Prosperity: Pentecostals and the Transformation of American Evangelism.” He studies 20th-century US religion and politics and the histories of race, inequality, and evangelicalism. Mr. Raeburn’s dissertation explores how Pentecostal evangelists created the “Prosperity Gospel” and used their growing influence to remake the American religious and political landscape.

The National Institute of Social Sciences launched its Grants Program (originally called the Seed Grant Program) in 2011 to support outstanding graduate students in the social sciences. The grant funds support research in two political and religious archives that help illuminate the relationship between Pentecostals and conservative politicians/strategists throughout the 1980s.