By: Sabrina Doyle
Religion has a way of inciting passionate discussion. And year after year, religion professor Shawna Dolansky has seen these passions manifest in her students during class.
鈥淚 often get students who either take the class because they hate religion and want to prove it wrong, or because they grew up in a religious household and wanted to learn more. And so I try to make the course equally challenging for both groups.鈥�
She鈥檚 not trying to play peacemaker, per se, she鈥檚 just coming to the text from a completely different angle than they鈥檙e perhaps used to. While some may have traditionally looked at the bible from a theological standpoint, Dolansky makes it clear from the start that they鈥檒l be looking at it from an academic, historical standpoint.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about putting the puzzle pieces together using archeology. Finding out which match together and which don鈥檛, and creating a story out of those pieces.鈥�
Dolansky recently won a , partly for the effusive praise her students give her. Among the reasons listed in her recommendation letters: she challenges students to become more deeply engaged both in the course and in life, and not to settle for superficial answers.
鈥淚 want them to be able to question what the text actually says and what I鈥檓 saying it says. I encourage them to ask as many questions of the text – and also of me – as possible.鈥�
The next venture she wants to explore is how to incorporate more technology into her teaching. Students are often engaged in digital media during class anyway, she says, so using it as a teaching method makes sense.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 wonderful that 杏吧原创 encourages good teaching, and rewards it in this way,鈥� Dolansky says. She laments that some universities consider teaching as a distraction from research.聽鈥淭o me, you can鈥檛 separate the research from the teaching. Each enriches the other.鈥�