LEARNING OUTCOMES:
The College mission and the course objectives shape five specific learning outcomes—common to every section of RELS 110—that students are expected achieve. At the completion of RELS 110 students will be able to:
1. Intellectual/Applied Knowledge: Students will identify, employ, and draw on specific terms related to religious traditions including but not limited to terms regarding symbols, myths, rituals of at least three religious traditions including one non-Western.
2. Experiential goal: Encountering Lived Religion: Student should effectively identify and describe how religion, as manifested in the people and places covered in class, is situated (shaped by specific circumstances and structures) and therefore dynamic (taking shape in new ways). The student builds on applied knowledge (correct utilization of relevant concepts and terminology from the course) in order to illuminate the unique settings for and expressions of observed elements. Specifically, the student can offer one or more examples to connect observations to at least one critical issue in the contemporary social context (e.g. race, class, gender, political developments, etc.).
3. Experiential goal: Defamiliarization: Student should see, recognize, and reexamine specific personal presuppositions (and the role of previous experiences in shaping them) and explain why the course material does or does not unsettle these assumptions. Once again, the student does so by drawing on specific concepts and terminology and by providing at least one concrete example drawn from the course.
4. Communicative goal: Effective Communication: Student should follow the assignments instructions and communicate information and ideas coherently, compellingly, and concisely. The presentation is well-organized, such that the different sections or required components fit together logically and effectively, and is virtually free of grammatical, spelling, typographical, or other mechanical errors.
5. Racial Awareness: Student should be able to recognize the deep-rooted ethical questions that unsettle the questions of race and gender. We will look at how certain religious texts and representations are racist in assumptions. We will develop a way to question and deal directly with racism in America and how it impacts religion in America.
ARCHES:
A great way to live what you’re learning in the classroom and really make a difference is through community-engaged learning experiences. You'll get to reflect upon your own beliefs and philosophies, which makes for meaningful discussion with peers and professors. Some past service projects include:
- You are
required to spend two full Sundays 6 hours servicing the community. We will be working with the Holocaust.
Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center on campus. I will be training you to be docents for
the Archive and you will be giving tours on
October 24th to our visitors. - You will also be split into 3 groups of 6 and present at a Zoom meeting panel with Lewis University on Stereotypes of religions. 3 hours prep
- Teacher: Afridi Mehnaz