Navigating Normativity: Pedagogical Challenges and Opportunities of Diverse Commitments in the Classroom (with the Theology & Religious Ethics Workshop)
4:30 – 6:30 PM
Location: Swift 106
It as become a truism that there is no neutral position from which course material may be examined, either on the part of students or of teachers. Not exclusively but certainly not least in religious studies, students and teachers alike enter a class with held positions of some kind toward the objects of inquiry. Particularly when the material at hand is disturbing or provocative (e.g. the Crusades; demonic possession), ethically uncompromising (e.g. animal rights activism; the Left Behind novels), or under contemporary public scrutiny (e.g. race relations; religiously motivated violence), being able to monitor and respond to the range of attitudes brought to bear by participants in the classroom is essential to ensuring learning. However, just how to relate to these commitments and to what extent address them explicitly can trouble even veteran teachers.This workshop is intended to cultivate sensitivity and strategy in relation to the commitments of students and teachers, which come together in an inevitable but variable mixture specific to each classroom setting. Teaching effectively to and not only about diversity is a challenge that we will embrace. There will not be one solution but rather a palette of possibilities with which teachers may choose to proceed in light of their pedagogical contexts and goals. Our panel represents three different fields in three different institutional settings:
–Prof. Laurie Zoloth (Northwestern University) is Professor of Religious Studies, Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the Feinberg School of Medicine, and Director of Graduate Studies at Northwestern University’s Department of Religious Studies. She is co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Section on women and Religion and a member of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning, and she has been a member of the NASA National Advisory Council.
–Prof. Jonathan Ebel (U of I Urbana-Champaign) is Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of Religion. His research program involves religion and war, religion and violence, lay theologies of economic hardship all within the American context. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School (PhD, 2004).
–Prof. Valerie Johnson (DePaul University) is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at DePaul University. Her research focuses on urban politics, African-American politics, and urban education.