2012-13 Craft of Teaching Program Archive
Winter Quarter
The Educator as Mentor: A conversation between Prof. Kevin Hector and Prof. Jeffery Stout
Friday January 11th, from 12-1:30 pm. Swift Hall Common Room
You are invited to join the Religion and Ethics Workshop as Profs. Kevin Hector and Jeffrey Stout engage in a conversation about the role of the educator as mentor. Complimentary lunches will be provided to the first 20 students who RSVP to LeChevallier@uchicago.edu. Presented by the Religion and Ethics Workshop
A Discussion on Contemplative Pedagogy with Professor Jennifer Oldstone-Moore
Thursday, January 24th, 12 noon-1:30 pm, Swift Room 106
Featuring Divinity School alumna Jennifer Oldstone-Moore, Associate Professor of Religion at Wittenberg University. Specializing in Chinese religious traditions, Professor Oldstone-Moore teaches courses in Chinese and Japanese Religion, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Religion and Literature in East Asia, among others. Her work was recently featured at a conference of The Association of Contemplative Mind in Higher Education. Professor Oldstone-Moore's presentation will consider ways in which contemplative practice might serve as a resource for teachers of religion. Presented by the Religion and Literature Club.
Information Session on Teaching at the Graham School
Friday, Feb. 1, 12-1:30PM, Swift Common Room
Prof. Wendy Doniger and Cary Nathansen, Associate Dean in the Graham School, will talk about designing continuing education courses and teaching in the Graham School. Course proposals for the Divinity-recommended Graham School course are due February 8. Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP to Amiricia Huckabee (ahuckabee@uchicago.edu) no later than 5 pm on Wednesday, Jan. 30.
A Conversation on Pedagogy with Prof. Dan Arnold
Wed., Feb. 6th, 4:30-6 Swift 208
Featuring reflections by and conversation with Prof. Dan Arnold, Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Religions in the Divinity School. Presented by the Philosophy of Religions Club.
Discussion of Teaching Islam
Friday, February 8 at 9:30 a.m. in Swift 106
The Islamic Studies Club (AKA Div Majlis) invites you to discuss selections from the book Teaching Islam (ed. Brannon Wheeler)
Audio of this event is now available.
Thursday, February 14th, 4:30-6PM, Swift 106
The Theology Workshop welcomes Prof. Kristine Culp, Associate Professor of Theology and Dean of Disciples Divinity House, Prof. Jeffrey Stackert, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, and Cynthia Lindner, Director of Ministry Studies and Clinical Faculty for Preaching and Pastoral Care, to reflect on their own experiences and best practices for creating classroom cultures and environments that intentionally honor the body as a constitutive part of being human. All are invited to join our panelists in wrestling with such questions as: How can teachers use their own embodied presence in the classroom--and the embodied presences of their students--to deepen and inflect learning? What kinds of pedagogical practices work to unveil and dismantle oppressions in the classroom that silence or privilege certain embodied experiences? How can existing structures with which bodies may be at odds--physical space, institutional culture--be shifted, challenged, or named in order to create an academic space where bodies are not something to be overcome or managed, but to be received with hospitality as essential parts of human life and even scholarly inquiry?
Winter Craft of Teaching Seminar with Jonathan Z. Smith
Wednesday, February 27, from 4:30-6:00 PM in Swift Common Room
Click here for video of this event
Led by Prof. Jonathan Z. Smith, Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor of the Humanities, Associate Faculty in the Divinity School, and author of a forthcoming collection of essays entitled On Teaching Religion: Essays by Jonathan Z. Smith (edited by Christopher Lehrich; Oxford UP). Prof. Smith discussed his pedagogy in relation to a course he has taught at the University. Readings for the seminar can be downloaded here and here.
Divinity School Syllabus Workshop
Friday, March 8, 12-3PM in Swift 200
Led by Prof. Lucy Pick, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Senior Lecturer in the History of Christianity. This annual three-hour workshop centers on course and syllabus design. Participants draft course titles and descriptions that are peer-reviewed during the workshop.
Space is limited, and registration is required. To register, email Prof. Pick by Wednesday, March 6 at noon with your name, the title of a college-level course you might like to teach some day (or have taught), and a brief, one paragraph description of the course (up to one page total).
Fall Quarter
Workshop on Teaching in the College (CTL)
September 25-26
A two-day program of the Center for Teaching and Learning open to graduate students in all divisions and featuring sessions on a variety of pedagogy topics. Deadline to sign up is Sept. 14. See the CTL website for additional information. Note: Those seeking to complete the Craft of Teaching Program must attend the Workshop on Teaching and complete a workshop journal. Please refer to the Craft of Teaching Program requirements.
Fall Craft of Teaching Seminar with Prof. Rebecca Raphael
Friday, October 26 from 12-2PM in Swift Common Room
Listen to audio of this event.
Led by Divinity School alumna Prof. Rebecca Raphael (Ph.D. 1997), Associate Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities at Texas State University-San Marcos. Prof. Raphael will discuss her NEH grant project on the study of religion in humanistic curricula and engage in conversation on her design and teaching of recent two courses. Materials for discussion may be downloaded here.
Teaching Religion in the Internet Age: Electronic Resources in the Religious Studies Classroom
Thursday, November 1, 3:00-4:30PM Regenstein 207
Facilitated by Divinity School alumna Dr. Anne Knafl (Ph.D. 2011), Bibliographer for Religion and Philosophy, University of Chicago.
The Teaching of Jewish Studies: Theoretical and Pedagogical Reflections
Monday, November 12 at 7:30PM at the home of Prof. Paul Mendes-Flohr
Facilitated by Prof. Paul Mendes-Flohr, Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought in the Divinity School. RSVP required. Please RSVP to Sam Shonkoff (shonkoff@uchicago.edu). Presented by the Jewish Studies Workshop.
Pedagogical Problems: Teaching Religion and the Danger of Becoming "Don Juan of Myths": Reflecting with Prof. Charles Mathewes.
Thursday November 15th, 4:30-6 in Swift 200
Discussion with Prof. Charles Matthewes, Divinity School alumnus and Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Virginia Center for the Study of Religion at the University of Virginia. Wine and Cheese provided. Check the Religion and Ethics Workshop website for readings.
Teaching Introduction to the New Testament
Monday, November 26, 4:30-5:30PM Swift 208
A discussion of the aims and course designs of introductions to the New Testament in different institutional contexts. Presented by the Early Christian Studies Workshop and the Bible Club.
2011-12 Craft of Teaching Programs
Winter Craft of Teaching Seminar with Prof. M. Cooper Harriss
Listen to audio of this event.
Friday, January 30 from 4:30PM-6PM in Swift 200
M. Cooper Harriss, Ph.D. 2011 (Religion and Literature), Instructor and Visiting Professor of Race and Religion, Department of Religion and Culture, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, Virginia). Professor Harriss offers courses in American and African-American religious traditions, religion and modernity, and religion and literature.
Spring Craft of Teaching Seminar with Prof. Anne Taves
Listen to audio of this event.
Thursday, May 3 from 12:00-2:00PM in the Swift Common Room
Led by Prof. Ann Taves, A.M. 1979, Ph.D. 1983 (History of Christianity), Virgil Cordano, OFM, Professor of Catholic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Divinity School's Alumna of the Year for 2012. Prof. Taves teaches courses that focus specifically on Catholic history and practice as well as courses that examine Catholic history and practice alongside other traditions. Her undergraduate courses are structured around questions in the study of religion that can be addressed from both the perspectives of the humanities and the sciences, e.g.: How and to what extent do religious or spiritual practices transform people? What happens to a tradition when it is transmitted from one cultural context to another? How do people know or decide if an event or experience should be attributed to a supernatural source?
