Politics and religion: two topics we’ve been taught to avoid discussing at the dinner table. And they are certainly fraught with risk in educational settings, as well. New headlines break daily on the consequences of educators saying the right thing (or the wrong thing); too much (or too little) around these subjects. This supercharged environment leads those who are paying attention to steer clear of such topics. Ironically, the continued avoidance of these matters helps to ensure a future that is just as fraught and supercharged, as yet another generation of college students is left to navigate these topics on their own without guidance from the very faculty to whom they’ve entrusted so many other areas of their personal and professional development.
Religion continues to hold a central role in American society despite the academy’s efforts to render it peripheral in American higher education. Furthermore, college campuses have seen religion resurge, with campus student religious associations enjoying higher numbers and more diversity than ever before. Students are integrating their beliefs into their college experience outside of the classroom; why should they not be invited to do so in the classroom, as well?
Growing evidence points to an opportunity lost when faculty fail to harness closely held epistemologies that can potentially lead students to higher-level thought work and academic performance. This paper strives to bolster the efforts made by teaching and library faculty to make the most of this opportunity.
