i've found that i'm really interested in investigating religion. and how it affects . . . everything. particularly my own religion, and how it affects culture and mindsets and actions. so last year, my final semester at byu, i wrote a paper about mormon mommy bloggers. it could have been a better paper, but that really is something fascinating to me: why is there this explosion of mormon mommy blogs? why are people so fascinated with them? why do they have some many common traits?
now i'm looking at investigating religion in a totally different sphere: the writing classroom. and writing program. (not exactly an original idea, by the way, but i'm still working on an angle. and hoping i get the okay on the project.)
for example. if you think about it--WHY are we so afraid to allow religion to be discussed in the classroom? or in papers students turn in? all other similarly formative issues of identity (such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation) are applauded and discussed continuously, especially in composition classrooms--but religion is shunned and ignored and discounted, because of the stigmas that come along with being religiously oriented, such as the stigma that religious thinking is incompatible with reasonable thinking. even at religious institutions such as byu, religion is not generally incorporated into the classrooms or accepted as general topics of discussion. and in such an environment, how are professors supposed to respond to a religious student who turns in a paper affirming their faith? shoot them down, discount them, ignore it?
really interesting stuff. i need to think a lot more about it and see if i can come up with anything original. but i've read a few articles so far and it's looking promising.
5 comments:
ooh you are so right. this sounds like a fun thing to write about.
"even at religious institutions such as byu, religion is not generally incorporated into the classrooms or accepted as general topics of discussion"- SPOT ON.
it's true! I feel like when it was, the same old dogmatic conclusions were reached, which were not always a bad thing, but nothing outside the box was ever explored verbally for fear of peer/professor criticism or rejection.
you're definitely onto something... :) can't wait to see your findings and read your conclusions.
ALSO, I have a darling friend and husband in Denmark that would love to show you around when you're there. who are LDS. and I know Tommy has a good lay of the land but they'd love to hang out.
Great topic and so interesting! Please post an abstract or exerpt when you finish...
Alyse...great idea! Teaching in Provo, I find it hilarious that my students will say, "I did this thing with my family on Monday...." and I always interrupt to say, "Do you mean you had FHE? Because EVERYONE knows what you're talking about! Don't hide it!" But...on the contrary, my friends in Tallahassee were not afraid to talk about religion. It was common. It's okay to say "Praise the Lord" to the cashier while checking out in Tallahassee, if you mean it. It's awesome, and totally different. I think it's very much regionally influenced.
I love this and couldn't agree more - I'll email you an article we read last year in my "oppression and discrimination" class that talked about how the field might actually be oppressive toward Christians/religious people. It's more social work-y, but might have some good references ...
this is an awesome article about Mormon mommy blogs:
http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs
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