Teaching Religious Studies

This seminar will help prepare you for your role as a university teacher both at a practical and a theoretical level. We will focus on how to best obtain (and keep) a new academic position. We will thus often work together on "nuts and bolts" issues such as syllabus design, engaging lectures, lively seminar discussions, positive classroom dynamics, and producing a strong teaching portfolio. We will also explore recent developments in pedagogical theory, cognitive science, and educational psychology that have bearing on effective university level teaching. These will be situated within the specific demands of the religious studies classroom and supplemented by guest speakers who will help us explore how institutional context affects the ways one teaches.