So what do you think of massively open online courses (MOOCs)? Well, they’re not “massively open” like they were at the start (back in 2008), since now they’re tied to venture capital, the profit motive, tuition fees, and corporate/university branding. There were those who thought they were the future of higher ed, and not just for distance ed students either, but there are now those who are not so confident. […]
Category: Relevance of Humanities
Posts in this category discuss the wider relevance of those tools, methods, and disciplines often grouped together and called the Humanities.
Collaborative Learning?
How do you think a classroom ought to be structured? Who is the expert — is there even one? Is everyone in it together or are some speakers more authorized than others? After all, one of the people in that classroom is assessing the others — or is everyone assessing everyone else, with the same consequences on the line for all? Consider this article: Read it all here. […]
“You Don’t Get to Use Us”
Interested in a frank discussion of race, identity, and some implications for university campuses interested in diversity among students and faculty? Then consider this clip that our inaugural Zach Day lecturer, Prof. Monica Miller, posted earlier today on Facebook, featuring Prof. Yaba Blay, of Drexel University, and the author of (1)ne Drop: […]
What is the Academic Study of Religion?: A Graduate’s Perspective
Tim Davis earned his B.A. in Religious Studies and Spanish in 2006. He went on to earn his J.D. at UA’s School of Law. He is now practices law, with an emphasis in civil litigation, in St. Clair County, AL. Tim wrote this piece for new REL students shortly before graduating. As an entering freshman at The University of Alabama I knew that my older sister, a junior at the time, was a Religious Studies major but I had no […]
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STEM Myths, Part 2
Yet another article has been posted that offers doubts to the no taken-for granted mantra that the US needs more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) graduates. […]
A Grad’s Reflections
Rearview Mirror with Justin Nelson from UA Religious Studies. Hear what REL Grad Justin Nelson as to say about his undergraduate degree… […]
“We Have Failed to Make the Case for Those Skills…”
Have you read this article, posted online by the University of Missouri’s Department of Religious Studies? It’s on the unemployment rates for various degrees, and fields in the Humanities are far lower than the “crisis in the humanities” rhetoric portrays it. As the article argues: […]
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Rearview Mirror, Take Two…
“You need to be here.” from UA Religious Studies. Have you seen our latest video of grads reflecting on their undergraduate degree? See what they have to say. Dad came along, too… […]
“Grad Tales” Kicks Off
Last night we kicked off a new speakers series: “There and Back Again: Grad Tales.” We’re inviting back some former REL majors, who have graduated and gone on to some interesting careers. Coz if you think that the study of religion is all about being religious, then you’ve likely never thought it might be a great preparation for being a high school teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, or maybe even starting your own business. Sure, some of them went on […]
Good For All of Us
Have you read the foreword, by novelist J. M. Coetzee, to John Higgins’s Academic Freedom in a Democratic South Africa? […]