Event Title
Teaching the Taboo: The Academic Study of Religion
Location
Hart 117
Start Time
13-5-2015 1:25 PM
End Time
13-5-2015 2:10 PM
Description
While a certain hesitancy exists to discuss religion in the public sphere—and thus at a public university—in various fields of inquiry one encounters topics related to religion. This panel begins a conversation about why we as scholars and teachers find these religious topics enriching and the challenges associated with researching and teaching religious topics. Panelists will explore topics such as: how literary texts such as ghost stories require us to examine the concept of a divine order, and how forgiveness figures as a major theme in ghost stories and horror films; the ways in which expansions upon Biblical stories, in seeking to fill in the gaps of the Biblical narrative, create a space for inventing entire back-stories for otherwise silent figures in the Bible; and the historical and social context of postwar America's increasing religious diversity.
Teaching the Taboo: The Academic Study of Religion
Hart 117
While a certain hesitancy exists to discuss religion in the public sphere—and thus at a public university—in various fields of inquiry one encounters topics related to religion. This panel begins a conversation about why we as scholars and teachers find these religious topics enriching and the challenges associated with researching and teaching religious topics. Panelists will explore topics such as: how literary texts such as ghost stories require us to examine the concept of a divine order, and how forgiveness figures as a major theme in ghost stories and horror films; the ways in which expansions upon Biblical stories, in seeking to fill in the gaps of the Biblical narrative, create a space for inventing entire back-stories for otherwise silent figures in the Bible; and the historical and social context of postwar America's increasing religious diversity.
Comments
Moderator: Matthew Dasti