Religion and Encounter in the Public Sphere: Using the Case Method in Religious Studies

• In Event: Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Religious Diversity in and Beyond Higher Education: Building a Common Good Through Religious Pluralism

Abstract

This presentation will explore the use of dilemma-based case studies in religious studies courses, focusing in particular on cases developed by researchers at the Pluralism Project, a research and educational project based at Harvard University. Observations from Dr. Diana Eck’s course at Harvard, “The World’s Religions in Multicultural America: Case Studies in Religious Pluralism,” will inform this presentation as will feedback received from other professors who teach with materials from the Pluralism Project’s Case Study Initiative. The presentation will also compare and contrast classroom use of dilemma-based case studies with the use of cases in community settings such as interfaith or civic groups.
The case method has long been a staple of many professional school curricula, including in the study of business and law (Garvin, 2003). As a pedagogical approach, the benefits of using case studies in place of, or in tandem with, traditional lecture-based pedagogies to promote critical thinking have been well documented (see Bok, 2005). With each dilemma, students are asked to consider: What is at stake and for whom? In the course of preparing for, participating in, and reflecting upon a case discussion, students actively analyze situations, formulate responses, evaluate performances, and construct creative responses to conflict.
Using the case method within a religious studies context offers a unique opportunity to engage students in discussion of complex issues that arise within civil society, public life, and religious communities. Students may also encounter similar issues in their own professional or public lives as leaders and citizens of a complex and religiously diverse society. If you are a member of city council in Hamtramck, MI, and approached by members of a local mosque for permission to publicly broadcast the call to prayer, how will you respond? And what of neighbors’ concerns about noise? What will your message be to the media when the request gains national, and often unfavorable, press? Additional assigned readings also serve as supplements to case texts and discussion, inviting further investigation into broader questions: How does concern over the city’s changing ethnic demographics inform residents’ opposition to the proposal? In what ways is the call to prayer perceived as similar to or different than church bells? Is hearing participatory in a way that seeing is not? (see Weiner, 2013)
Today, religious literacy and the skills to engage effectively across difference have become necessity. Immigration trends of the past several decades have made encounters involving religious difference in the public sphere, whether in schools, hospitals, or the courts, increasingly frequent. Dilemma-based case studies can reflect this reality and turn real world examples into rich pedagogical opportunities.
Bok, Derek. Our Underachieving Colleges (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 2006, chapter 5.
Garvin, D. A. "Making the Case." Harvard Magazine, September-October 2003, Volume 106, Number 1.
Eck, Diana. A New Religious America. (New York: HarperCollins), 2002.
Weiner, Isaac. Religion Out Loud: Religious Sound, Public Space, and American Pluralism. (New York: New York University Press), 2013.

Author

• Whittney Barth, Pluralism Project at Harvard University