Teaching Religion Outside of Religious Studies: Curricular and Pedagogical Approaches

 A Center for Teaching and Learning Graduate Student Workshop

convener: Dan DiMassa, CTL Graduate Fellow, German

featuring:

Dr. Ilya Vinitsky, Associate Professor and Chair of Slavic Languages and Literatures
and
Dr. Liliane Weissberg, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences

When: November 21st, 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
where: The Max Kade Center (3401 Walnut St, Floor 3)

 * Pizza will be served

When Benjamin Franklin set out to establish the Public Academy of Philadelphia in the 1740s, it was set to be the first of its kind; until that point, the only American colleges in existence functioned as centers of divinity education. In 2011, of course, Franklin’s secular model has become the norm. Nonetheless, the last decade has witnessed a reemergence of interest in religion, which has affected the development of humanities curricula at institutions like Penn. In this workshop, we will explore both curricular and pedagogical approaches to religion: how can the trend toward religion be incorporated into humanities courses and, perhaps, even serve as a marketing tool for our courses? And, moreover, what challenges does the teaching of religion pose for instructors? Liliane Weissberg, professor of German and comparative literature, and Ilya Vinitsky, associate professor of Slavic, will lead our session. Dr. Weissberg has taught courses on German-Jewish connections, Freud, and the supernatural and fantastical, while Dr. Vinitsky has taught courses on mysticism and the supernatural.