Cara Anthony, University of St. Thomas
Elise Amel, University of St. Thomas
Psychological “Framing” in a Theology Classroom
What does daily diet have to do with faith? Is the way I eat a meal sustainable and meaningful? Are my food choices consistent with my religious values? These are the kinds of questions students grapple with through our team-taught, upper-level course that fulfills a core requirement in theology at the University of St. Thomas. At this level, courses are designed to give students an interdisciplinary perspective or to address a pressing social issue. “Theology & the Environment” does both, since we address the issue of food sustainability through the lenses of both theology and conservation psychology.
Melissa Stewart, Adrian College
Deborah Field, Adrian College
Interdisciplinary Team Teaching
In times of budget cuts and the shrinking of the humanities, women’s studies courses offer religion professors an opportunity to build interdisciplinary networks across campus. Women’s studies in particular relies on multiple disciplines as well as personal experience to construct knowledge; it requires students to synthesize diverse types of information and insights. This makes it both inspiring to students and challenging to teach. We suggest that a transparent model of team teaching is a pedagogical strategy that can meet this challenge by modeling how to integrate various disciplinary insights and personal experience into true interdisciplinary knowledge production. By transparent team teaching, we do not mean splitting lectures in half; rather we refer to a process of open-ended, open-minded intellectual interaction that we will describe below.
Mary C. Boys, Union Theological Seminary
Sarah Tauber, Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Reading Memoirs, from Cover to Cover
Memoirs for Fall 2012
Fremont, Helen. After a Long Silence: A Memoir(Delta, 2000).
Fremont tells the story of a deep family secret, and explores its consequences for her family’s sense of identity.
Lester, Julius. Lovesong: Becoming a Jew (Arcade, 1995).
Lester, son of black Methodist minister, a prolific author and civil rights activist, narrates his own complex search, including his conversion to Judaism and interracial marriage.
Miles, Sara. Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion (Ballatine, 2008).
Allen, Judith A., and Sally L. Kitch. “Disciplined by Disciplines? The Need for an Interdisciplinary Research Mission in Women's Studies." Feminist Studies 24, no. 2 (1998): 275-299.
Bess, James L. et al. Teaching Alone, Teaching Together: Transforming the Structure of Teams for Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
Brookfield, S.D. and S. Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Butkus, R. A., & S. A. Kolmes. “Theology in Ecological Perspective: An Interdisciplinary, Inquiry-Based Experiment.” Teaching Theology & Religion, 11, no. 1 (2008): 42-53.
________. Environmental Science and Theology in Dialogue. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2011.
Cates, Shannon and Jonathan Ferguson. “US Study Abroad in India.” International Briefs for Higher Education 3 (2013) 25-27.
Amy L. Allocco, Elon University
Brian K. Pennington, Maryville College
“India’s Identities,” in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Tamil Nadu
At both of our institutions, Elon University (NC) and Maryville College (TN), three-week travel/study courses led by two faculty members in the January (or winter) term have long served to further the global education and internationalization goals that are major campus priorities.
Nelly van Doorn-Harder was born and raised in the Netherlands where she earned her PhD on the topic of women’s monasticism in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. Before moving to the USA, she was director of a refugee program in Cairo, Egypt and taught Islamic Studies at universities in the Netherlands (Leiden) and Indonesia (Yogakarta). She held the Surjit S. Patheja Chair in World Religions and Ethics at Valparaiso University from 1999-2009. She then moved to Wake Forest University, where she has been a Professor of Islamic Studies since 2009.
Otto Maduro, past president of the American Academy of Religion and renowned philosopher and sociologist of religion, died on May 9 at the age of 68. Professor Maduro’s prolific body of work included over one hundred articles published in a dozen languages, and his work in the Academy was grounded in the pursuit of the liberation of marginalized peoples. Just before his death, Otto retired from his position as professor of world Christianity and Latin American Christianity at Drew Theological School where he had taught since 1992.
Nelly van Doorn-Harder was born and raised in the Netherlands where she earned her PhD on the topic of women’s monasticism in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. Before moving to the USA, she was director of a refugee program in Cairo, Egypt and taught Islamic Studies at universities in the Netherlands (Leiden) and Indonesia (Yogakarta). She held the Surjit S. Patheja Chair in World Religions and Ethics at Valparaiso University from 1999-2009. She then moved to Wake Forest University, where she has been a Professor of Islamic Studies since 2009.
I have to admit that despite how ridiculously excited I am to be nearing the final stages of the graduate school process—to get into the classroom and put some of this knowledge to practical use—I’m a bit afraid of the students who will be sitting on the other side of the desk. We’ve all experienced it in some capacity; a room full of eyes staring at us, brimming with expectations, and if we’re lucky, even interest. However, as I observe the next generation of students I can’t help but be aware of a new set of expectations they have for their faculty—the kind of expectations that leave me wondering if we, as future instructors, are fully prepared.
Otto Maduro, past president of the American Academy of Religion and renowned philosopher and sociologist of religion, died on May 9 at the age of 68. Professor Maduro’s prolific body of work included over one hundred articles published in a dozen languages, and his work in the Academy was grounded in the pursuit of the liberation of marginalized peoples. Just before his death, Otto retired from his position as professor of world Christianity and Latin American Christianity at Drew Theological School where he had taught since 1992.
