This co-sponsored session will be an interactive, skills-based offering tailored to address the needs, experiences, questions, and hopes of graduate students, some of whom are already teaching and looking ahead toward careers as teachers in classrooms and communities. The topics to be addressed include: equity-minded and trauma-informed course design, crafting an effective cover letter, teaching religion in independent high schools, developing courses outside of religious studies (such as first-year seminars), and alternatives to final papers that can boost student engagement (and potentially thwart ChatGPT). Unlike a traditional session, panelists will be asked to offer brief presentations on their topics so that the remainder of the session can be used for in-depth breakout conversations and networking. Attendees will have the chance to ask questions, explore additional materials provided by the presenters, and otherwise dive deeper into one or more of these topics. This interactive session is open to all members of the AAR who would find it useful, regardless of career status.
Course design has long been a structure of inequity in American higher education, privileging certain languages, persons, and ways of knowing. Unfortunately, we often replicate these inequities uncritically in our classes by passing down syllabi, re-using test banks, and grading in the same ways we have "always" been graded. These practices do not ensure rigor, as some claim, and certainly do not allow equitable access to education. Instead of unthinkingly replicating harmful design in religious studies courses and curricula, we need to work critically and intentionally to address aspects that may be sites of trauma and oppression. In this presentation, we will discuss four features of equity-centered, trauma-informed education that are key to course design, analyze potentially useful examples from courses in religious studies, and workshop one aspect of a current or imagined course and receive feedback on potential changes.
As students shift away from humanities majors (including religion), it is likely that religion faculty will be asked to teach fewer specialized courses and more general eduation classes. Additionally, data from the AAR/SBL jobs report shows that almost 2/3 of job positings ask faculty to teach five or more course per year. This has two major implications for graduate students preparing for careers in higher eduation: first, they need to prepare to teach a broader array of courses than might have been expected a generation ago; and, second, they need to be prepared to teach a large number of classes. I will review data and show how I come to these conclusions.
Drawing on my experience of over six years as the Dean of Faculty at a small (1,000 student) liberal arts college when I supervised over three dozen faculty searches, I will discuss how to write a cover letter that might make it past the selection committee's first cut. I will identify some specific strategies that applicants can draw upon and note some all-too-common mistakes.
Teaching religion in independent high schools offers a meaningful and a viable mode of teaching for scholars of religion that can be accessed by graduate students across fields of study with key, manageable steps. There are good jobs to be had, if one: 1) effectively navigates the structures of secondary education in the US and the ways in which the study of religion is often framed in each; 2) demonstrates competent understanding of adolescent development; and 3) presents a teaching portfolio that evidences examples of assessment practices, which are equitable, differentiated, creative, and oriented to clear objectives. This presentation provides a schematic overview of these three requirements, in conversation with key resources, chosen for the resources’ ability to anchor an initial exploration into adolescent education and their relevance to current conversations among educators. An annotated bibliographic resource sheet will be available for interested attendees.
In this presentation I will share with graduate students (and others) how their training in religious studies ideally prepares them for teaching and leadership roles outside the are of religious studies. I will also include practical advice for using the skills and knowledge of a religious studiese scholar to develop courses that can be taught as first-year seminars; how knowledge, training, and experience in religious studies can be drawn upon when applying for positions in first-year experience programs; and how a grounding in religious studies can used to lead and develop first-year experience programs.
I spent several years on the job market before getting onto the tenure track, and I now have been teaching full time for almost two years at a small, regional four-year college. I will share some of what I have learned in the process, and what I wish I had known when I started. Specifically, I will talk about developing alternatives to final papers that can boost student engagement and potentially thwart ChatGPT.