Congratulations to Jill DeTemple, Bill Barnard, Rick Cogley, and Mark Chancey. The four Religious Studies professors were honored with nominations for SMU’s HOPE award last night. A special congratulations goes to Jill DeTemple was awarded the 2020 HOPE Professor of the Year award.
SMU Magazine Originally Posted: Dec. 6, 2019 Professor Jill DeTemple teaches students how to take topics that drive people apart and reframe the conversation around personal experiences to promote understanding. Through curious questioning and thoughtful listening, students learn they don’t have to agree with their political opposites to understand where they’re coming from. Columnist Sharon Grigsby wrote about the class published for The Dallas Morning News on October 16, 2019. READ MORE EXCERPT: Professor Jill DeTemple, in the religious studies department of SMU’s Dedman College, has developed a discussion tool, dubbed reflective structured dialogue, that she is using in her own classrooms and sharing with professors here and across the nation. The idea is to take topics that drive people apart — gun rights, abortion, [...]
Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: October 17, 2019 I don’t know about you, but the sorry state of what passes for debate these days — hair-trigger anger and social media carpet-bombing — beats me into believing that thoughtful discussion about life’s toughest stuff is dead and gone. Too often, I wind up feeling timid, tentative or just plain tired-head around hot-button issues. That’s why I went back to college last week to look into what I had heard were powerful efforts by one professor and her students to revive civil discourse. I didn’t find a magic potion for what ails society, but I did come back with better ideas on how to reengage. The timing couldn’t have been better, given the hotbed of political emotions [...]
Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: Septemeber 11, 2019 Jill DeTemple is associate professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University and a faculty associate at Essential Partners. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News. It's not too late to start listening. Giving ear and respect to other perspectives builds trust and a sense of community we have lost and desperately hope to regain. There's an opportunity to do this in classrooms, living rooms and assembly rooms. It starts with setting the stage and ground rules to promote honest and safe dialogue. It continues with free-flowing exchanges after we take a chance and learn why others believe what they believe. "I used to joke that I was a passive anarchist waiting for civilization to [...]
CNN Originally Posted: May 7, 2019 Mark Chancey, an SMU professor of religious studies, was quoted in this article. (CNN) -- Legislators across the country have reignited the fight for, and debate over so-called "Bible literacy classes" -- elective courses in public schools about Scriptures' impact. Alabama, Florida, Missouri, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia are among the states that have seen Bible literacy bills so far in 2019. Several of those efforts have fallen along the wayside. While advocates for such classes believe students ought to be able to learn about the Bible's influence on world history, culture and language, opponents tout separation of church and state and their concerns that teachers might possibly stray into proselytizing. READ MORE
D Magazine Originally Posted: December 2018 issue The Rev. Dr. Michael W. Waters earned a B.A. in political science and religious studies from SMU in 2002, followed by two degrees from Perkins School of Theology: the M. Div. cum laude and Doctor of Ministry with honors. On September 12, six days after 26-year-old Botham Jean was shot and killed in his apartment by an off-duty Dallas police officer named Amber Guyger, a press conference was held in the Flag Room at Dallas City Hall by citizens demanding the creation of an office of police oversight. They wanted an independent review board armed with subpoena power and the authority to investigate police shootings. What they really wanted was justice. This, at least, would be a step in that direction. [...]
Event Date: October 25, 2018 Location: Dallas Hall Time: 7:30 pm "Israel, BDS, and Campus Life: Complexities of Jewish Identity in the American Academy" by Profs. Doron Ben-Atar and Andrew Pessin, authors of _Anti-Zionism on Campus. The University, Free Speech, and BDS_ Many scholars have struggled with rising anti-Israel sentiments on college and university campuses worldwide. Drawing on their extensive qualitative research, Profs. Doron Ben-Atar and Andrew Pessin will explore the deleterious impact of the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement on the most cherished Western ideals of free speech, civility, respectful discourse, and open research. Link for more information: https://www.smu.edu/Dedman/academics/programs/jewishstudies/events
Essential Partners Originally Posted: September 6, 2018 Jill DeTemple Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University Can we make space in the classroom for students to develop convictions—identify what they believe, understand why they believe it, and become willing to share it—while simultaneously inviting them to hold those convictions with humility—an openness, curiosity, and willingness to listen to others? Dialogue in the classroom has been shown to deepen learning, improve student retention, and strengthen interpersonal connections. It can also help students strike that balance between humility and conviction, a balance that is crucial not only to intellectual rigor but also to the functioning of a diverse free society. For the past three years, Essential Partners has been working with a team of faculty [...]
Chronicle of Higher Education Originally Posted: July 19, 2018 Hello and welcome to Teaching, a weekly newsletter from The Chronicle of Higher Education. First, Beckie explores one approach to a common problem: leading substantive classroom discussions on divisive issues. Then we ask for your help finding examples of how colleges encourage professors to try new things in the classroom for an upcoming special issue. Dan shares what one instructor learned from student feedback, and we’ll close out with some new books you may want to read. One Way to Run Classroom Discussions on Divisive Issues In these politically polarized times, it can be difficult to meaningfully discuss a hot-button issue in the classroom — or anywhere else. Rather than considering something new, or even really [...]
Congratulations to the following who received prestigious Dedman College awards on May 9, 2018. Outstanding Professor: Johan Elverskog Robert and Nancy Dedman Outstanding Senior Student: Ekiomoado Olumese Caren Prothro Faculty Service Award: Mark Chancey Johan Elverskog received the Dedman Outstanding Professor Award, Mark Chancey received the Caren Prothro Service Award, and Ekiomoado Olumese received the Dedman College Outstanding student award at the Dedman College Outstanding Faculty and Student awards on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 in Dallas Hall and Fondren Science building on the SMU Campus.