16. Teaching Sexualities at a Religiously Affiliated University and/or Among Religious Student Populations

• In Event: 232 - Informal Discussion Roundtable Session

Abstract

This roundtable discussion will be among faculty members who teach Sexuality in a particular social location—the religiously affiliated university (Catholic, Jesuit, Protestant, non-denominational)—or whose teaching is strongly affected by the religious beliefs of their students. Teaching sexuality means addressing a wide variety of controversial topics within the classroom. An additional layer of difficulty is added for the faculty member who is negotiating the internal politics of a university with a religiously affiliation. Different but equally challenging, is when many of the students themselves are highly religious. Frequently, the sexual norms and prescriptions put into place by religion differs from the changes which sociologists examine that are happening in the larger society (premarital sex and childbearing, birth control usage, acceptance and growth in legality of same-sex marriage, increasing acceptance of transgender and intersexed people, etc.). Please join us, as we discuss: What are a variety of techniques one can use in the classroom when teaching sexuality to limit the difficulties and enhance one’s effectiveness as a faculty member? How does one’s social location in the university (tenure-track, tenured, adjunct, administrator) add or ameliorate the associated difficulties? To what extent should the beliefs of various religions be discussed or examined when teaching sexuality?

Author

• Medora W. Barnes, John Carroll University