As recognition of this work, Bush has been honored with the Graduate School Faculty Award for Advising and Mentoring.
“His work with our students is simply extraordinary: mentoring as a patient, attentive practice of guiding emerging scholars as they find their academic voice, their scholarly footing, and their future career path,” shares Mark Cladis, Brooke Russell Astor Professor of the Humanities.
A Philosophy of Intellectual Generosity
Bush's approach to mentorship begins before a course even takes shape. When preparing to teach a graduate seminar, he starts by asking his students what class would meet their interests. He then designs a course that weaves together both their expertise and his. For students who feel constrained by standard course offerings or who want more specialized training, he regularly offers independent reading courses tailored to their needs.
That same attentiveness shapes how he works with students on their research. When one advisee was struggling to articulate their ideas, Bush spent several hours working through it with them, helping them build a clear, step-by-step framework. The goal, always, is to help students develop arguments that are not only rigorous but distinctly their own.
“He is a careful reader of graduate student writing, offering exceptionally thorough feedback and posing questions that serve to make our writing and our ideas stronger,” five graduate student nominators shared in a letter.
Beyond the Classroom: Professional & Personal Support
Bush's mentorship extends well beyond the classroom. He helps students navigate the practical demands of academic life by encouraging them to pursue fellowships and summer opportunities, and offering individualized guidance tailored to each student's timeline, goals, and interests.
“Professor Bush demonstrates a remarkable level of care, intellectual rigor, and steady commitment to graduate student flourishing,” shares Cladis.
When students bring him the more personal difficulties that inevitably accompany years of graduate study, Bush meets them with the same patience and thoughtfulness he brings to their scholarship. "He has helped us cope with the impact of everything from interpersonal matters to global politics on our work," his nominators wrote.
Leadership and Community
Bush is a longstanding leader in the graduate program in Religious Studies. His formal roles alone testify to his dedication: he has served as Chair, Director of Graduate Studies and as coordinator of the graduate subfield Religion and Critical Thought. All three positions are demanding and require sustained advising across multiple cohorts of graduate students.
In these capacities, he supported students through virtually every stage of their academic progress—teaching them in seminars, preparing them for preliminary examinations, serving on their exam and dissertation committees, and directing dissertations with remarkable care and analytic acuity. Brown graduate students “look to Professor Bush for keen insight for the sake of improving and advancing their work but also for wise guidance in navigating academia,” says Cladis.
Students across the curriculum consistently rank Bush’s courses and his instruction in the highest categories, praising his organization, intellectual challenge, openness to differing views, and his extraordinary thoroughness in feedback.
“His contributions to our graduate community are profound, enduring, and truly transformative,” says Cladis.
Reflecting on the honor, Bush emphasized that the success of the program is a collective effort. “Graduate students are essential to the intellectual life of the Brown community, they are the future of higher education, and they are a joy to work with. In my time at Brown, I have benefited and learned from the example of so many of my colleagues who excel in mentoring and advising. I deeply appreciate the graduate school's recognition of the value of advising in this award, and am honored to receive it,” says Bush.
Faculty members Erica Larschan, Daniel Harris, Stephen Bush, and Holly Case receive the Graduate School’s Faculty Award for Advising & Mentoring at the University Awards Ceremony on April 29, 2026.