Teaching and Learning Religion: Engaging the Work of Eugene V. Gallagher and Patricia OConnell Killen

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Eugene V. Gallagher and Patricia OConnell have influenced a generation of religious studies professors through their leadership in Wabash Center teaching workshops. In this book, contributors pay tribute to their influence and build on their insights in short essays focused on three perennial themes: Place, Plan, and Persona. Firstly, the book considers how negotiating your institutional context is essential to effective teaching. Reflections include essays on places of learning, the interaction between person and place, and the online teaching environment. Secondly, the contributors explore how effective teaching requires intentional self-critical design of students intellectual experience, from the arc of the course, to the scope and purpose of the curriculum. Topics include planning for playfulness, teaching strangeness, and strengthening student engagement. In the final section on persona, topics include humour in the classroom, authenticity in the teaching profession, team teaching, and ungrading. This book contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning in religious studies and higher education by engaging Gallagher and Killens insights, and by exploring a range of perspectives on core and enduring pedagogical concepts and questions.

Reviews

Teaching and Learning Religion celebrates the incredible pedagogical legacy of Patricia Killen and Gene Gallagher. Through a variety of engaging and well-researched case studies from diverse perspectives, their students make this legacy tangible for readers. The chapters illustrate how scholars of religion can engage students in the classroom and enliven the study of religion in the twenty-first century. * Lynn S. Neal, Professor of Religious Studies, Wake Forest University, USA *
In this tribute to Eugene Gallagher and Patricia OConnell Killen, Davina Lopez and Tom Pearson present seventeen original essays on teaching written by scholars in the field of religious studies. As one lucky enough to have been mentored by these giants of pedagogy, I am moved and inspired by this celebration of their guidance. Teaching and Learning Religion should be required reading for religion scholars before entering a classroom. * Nora L. Rubel, Professor in Jewish Studies, University of Rochester, USA *
Lopez and Pearson's useful and delightful volume gathers talented teachers to offer reflections on and from their engagement with two master teachers in religious studies, Eugene V. Gallagher and Patricia O'Connell Killen. From developing voice, to finding the "'sweet spot"' in teaching difficult subjects, to laughter in the classroom, the work offers much to ponder on the hard work of teaching and learning. * Carolyn M. Jones Medine, Professor in Religion, University of Georgia, USA *

Author Bio

Davina C. Lopez is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Letters (Humanities) Collegium, Eckard College, USA. Thomas Pearson is Director of the Nielsen Center for the Liberal Arts at Eckerd College, USA.