The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
Grove Harris
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Religious Diversity in the United States; The Interfaith Movement; Paganism
Project Description
Grove Harris’ ongoing research interests include religious diversity in the United States, the interfaith movement, and religious freedom. She speaks regularly on religious diversity, including presentations at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Union Theological Seminary, the University of Massachusetts, Boston College, U.S. Department of State international visitors meetings, and conferences including regional meetings of the American Academy of Religion, as well as international presentations in South Africa, Germany, El Salvador, Spain, and Canada.
She particularly enjoys speaking to young adult audiences such as at the Global Youth Leadership Institute, City Year Boston, and schools such as Brown Middle School in Newton, MA and Middlesex High School in Concord, MA.
She has worked with the Pluralism Project since 1994 as a researcher, and was promoted to Project Manager and then to Managing Director. She directed the extensive growth, communications, and research of the Pluralism Project and developed the network of Affiliate Researchers while continuing her own research, writing, and presentations. She compiled the statistics on religious traditions in the U.S., and generated maps from the growing directory. She wrote on Religious Diversity in the Workplace, and added atheism to the Project's research. Grove Harris served on the board of the Faith Quilts Project, was lead quilter for the Wiccan Maidens’ Sacred Space quilt, and directed the Pluralism Project’s documentation of the Faith Quilts Project’s Citywide Celebration in 2006.
A brief bio for Grove is available online. You can reach her directly at groveharris@post.harvard.edu.
Her published articles include:
- "Youth and the Pluralism Project," In Eboo Patel and Patrice Brodeur, eds, Building the Interfaith Youth Movement, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc, 2006.
- "Pagan Involvement in the Interfaith Movement: Exclusions, Dualities, and Contributions," Crosscurrents , Spring 2005.
http://www.crosscurrents.org/HarrisSpring2005.htm
From 2003–2006, she directed the Project's research on the interfaith movement in the United States, supervising student researchers Lori Calmbacher, Emily Ronald, and Tracy Wells, which culminated in:
Her work on civic issues has included supervising research on America’s National Day of Prayer as well as research and writing on the following legal cases involving civic invocations:
- Wiccan Invocation: Simpson v. Chesterfield Co. (VA)
- Wiccan Invocation: 2005 Update
- Wynne v. Great Falls, SC (2005)
Her research on Paganism is included in the Pluralism Project's Resources by Religious Traditions: Paganism and she wrote the following essays, originally published in the CD-ROM On Common Ground: World Religions in America in 1997: