Birmingham-Southern religion professors to attend summer teaching workshop

For Immediate Release
Jul. 24, 2018

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Two Birmingham-Southern College professors will participate in the “Integrating Reflective Structured Dialogue in Religious Studies Classrooms” workshop July 29-Aug. 2, studying ways to help students engage in civil, respectful, and difficult conversations.

BSC Associate Professor of Religion Dr. Amy Cottrill and Assistant Professor of Religion Dr. Keely Sutton will immerse themselves in core texts and examine how to intentionally create spaces for dialogue focused on questions of curiosity, listening to understand, speaking to be understood, crafting dialogue questions, and learning intervention techniques. The workshop will be held on the campus of Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.

Jill DeTemple, associate professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University, and John Sarrouf, director of strategic partnerships at Essential Partners, will lead the workshop. There will be 12 participants from six U.S. colleges.

“Our participation in this workshop is fully funded by the Wabash Center and will offer us an opportunity to expand our pedagogical repertoires in ways that we think will enhance our classrooms immensely,” said Cottrill.

“I am looking forward to exploring techniques for using dialogue in the classroom that will help our students engage more deeply with course content and with each other,” said Sutton.