Have you read Mike Altman’s post on the recent controversy surrounding the Miss America contest? No? You should. He concludes: […]
Who Gets to Think?
Think New Thoughts! A recent tagline promoting the Department of Religious Studies is not simply highlighting our desire to challenge student preconceptions but emphasizing our department’s effort to develop important intellectual skills. While public discourse often emphasizes education as the means to gain economically and overcome poverty, some evidence suggests that economic privilege breeds economic success and that education for the children of the 1% may differ from education for children of the lower rungs of society. […]
Not So Crazy After All?
Did you see this article? The gist of it is: It’s worth reading, and thinking about the various factors that can inform the decision on an undergraduate major and whether to pursue graduate studies. Thanks to REL grad Chris Scott for bringing it to my attention. […]
Race and Displacement
Race and Displacement, co-edited by our own Prof. Simmons and Prof. Marouan (formerly of REL and now of Gender & Race Studies), has just been published. It is based on a conference held at UA several years ago. As the University of Alabama Press’s site describes it: “it captures a timely set of discussions about the roles of race in displacement, forced migrations, nation and nationhood, and the way continuous movements of people challenge fixed racial definitions. The multifaceted approach […]
Why the U.S. State Department Should Take Mike Altman’s Introduction to Religious Studies Course
Did you hear Sec. of State John Kerry’s comment (on Aug. 7, 2013) on the importance of understanding the role of religion in international affairs? […]
“The Stories of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated…”
Seen this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education? Give it a read and ask yourself why — if this is what the public actually thinks — we all seem to assume that there’s a crisis in the liberal arts? That is, if the skills taught all across the liberal arts are so essential (read the results [PDF] of the study for yourself) then why do we all seem to agree so easily that they are so non-essential — i.e., […]
Read More from “The Stories of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated…”
What’s of Value to You?
Did you see this article in the New York Times‘ “Common Sense” column? A lot of people now seem to be measuring the worth of their investment in higher education in terms of the possibility of future earnings — their “return on investment.” But what would happen if the return that concerned you was something else that’s empirically measurable and that’s likely pretty relevant to people too, something like, say, life expectancy? After all, earning potential is a speculative generalization […]
Lucrative, But Defined How…?
Ladies (ok, gents too, I guess): how do you define “lucrative”? Give the story a listen. […]
“The Same…, But Different”
[This post is reblogged from Culture on the Edge] In 2008 I took a small group of undergraduate students from our Department at the University of Alabama to Thessaloniki, Greece (that’s us above, with a famous philosopher, who has a shiny toe, likely from tourists rubbing it), where I had been for a conference a couple years before, and at which I first met my Culture on the Edge colleague, Vaia Touna. I’ve returned several times since that first trip, […]
Jonathan Z. Smith on the Craft of Teaching
A presentation by Jonathan Z. Smith, (2003-4 Aronov lecturer) as part of the University of Chicago’s “Craft of Teaching Seminar,” from February 2013. […]