Student presentations, including capstone research, in the field of religious studies; theology; and spirituality and the arts.
Student Abstracts
Including all Youth is Good for the Whole Community
Young people develop rich, meaningful spiritual lives that need to be durable enough to meet the challenges of our time, such as systemic racism, global climate change and migration, social and economic inequalities, and full inclusion of persons. Wrapped up in their own concerns, adults often fail to welcome young people in the specificity of their embodied lives. Conditions during the pandemic have revealed existing challenges--alternately offering relief through innovation and restriction of agency. Hear students connect thoughts about God to organization of communities to support young people to flourish in their faith. Each panelist argues that efforts to include all youth in who they are benefits the whole community.
Student(s):
. .
Faculty Mentor:
Colleen Windham-Hughes
Religion and Intersectionality: From islands of isolation to bridges of compassion
Christianity in America has been a tool for both reconciliation and oppression. Though traditionally presented as a place of comfort, it has harbored regressive, hierarchal, and patriarchal ideologies that create classist divisions. That dynamic must change. This presentation explores how Christianity has harmed marginalized communities; how it can repent of that harm; and how it moves beyond mere empathy. Christianity must actively seek to foster compassion – the willingness to "suffer with" – in its members. Only a compassionate community, in which the suffering of the weakest is experienced by all, can bring a message of Good News and justice.