Skip to main content
Home » Resources » Blogs

Blogs

Crossroads for Student Learning

Sophie Gilliat-Ray Director Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK Cardiff University I want to pick up and develop here a theme introduced in my previous blog – the idea that students in the field of Islamic Studies – and indeed Theology and Religious Studies more broadly

Ten curriculum assessment tools every dean needs. Part 5: Alumni Surveys

Theological school deans are not just theological leaders for their institution, they must be EDUCATIONAL leaders. That is, they must implement sound educational practices related to curriculum, instruction, supervision, assessment, and administration. There is a variety of ways to assess...

Learning Outcomes

Cláudio Carvalhaes Associate Professor McCormick Theological Seminary All of the schools under the Association of Theological Schools are required to have a very clear and strong sense of educational effectiveness. One of the ways to gauge such effectiveness is by evaluating to what extent a course meets its stated ‘learning

Teaching Islam through Literature: A Recommended List of Books

Youshaa Patel Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Lafayette College My primary objective as a professor is to nurture my students’ ability to think critically. Given the rising tide of Islamophobia and the increasingly acerbic rhetoric targeting Muslims in national political discourses, however, I consider developing their empathy and compassion an.

The Importance of Being an Absent-Minded Professor

Tat-siong Benny Liew Class of 1956 Professor in New Testament Studies College of the Holy Cross If you can remember a time when you kept track of your appointments by writing them on a huge calendar pad that took up half of your desktop (and you know that “desktop” once

Learning in Tragedy-Time

Derek Nelson Associate Professor of Religion Wabash College On February 17 the Wabash community got word that police were on the campus looking for a suspect in a double murder. As it turned out, the suspect was an employee. He had taken a college van, and later ended his life

Teaching Islam and gender: why we need to set an ethical agenda for the classroom

Caleb Elfenbein Assistant Professor Grinnell College Last year, I began asking students in my Islam, gender, and sexuality course to write a paragraph about what they think it means to study these topics from a humanistic perspective. It’s the first thing they write for the course. This year (as with...

A Strategy to Re-Humanize

Nancy Lynne Westfield Associate Professor of Religious Education Drew Theological School The intent of racism is to dehumanize. Consequently, a prevalent strategy of racism is to convince caring people that non-white people are lacking - lacking in values, lacking in character, lacking in abilities, lacking in that which makes for

Seize the moment, trash your lesson plan

Sufia Uddin Associate Professor Connecticut College Since 9/11, colleges and universities have increased their course offerings in Islamic traditions and Muslim cultures. Yet, it seems that anti-Muslim rhetoric is everywhere. In Caleb Elfenbein’s recent blog, he points out that our students know only the world with our “war on terror”

Syllabus creation

Cláudio Carvalhaes Associate Professor McCormick Theological Seminar To teach is to create worlds. Worlds known and unknown, worlds that we will visit and be visited by, worlds that will haunt us. Worlds that we hope students will engage in many ways. Worlds that hopefully will show the ways in which

Write for us

We invite friends and colleagues of the Wabash Center from across North America to contribute periodic blog posts for one of our several blog series.

Contact:
Donald Quist
quistd@wabash.edu
Educational Design Manager, Wabash Center

Most Popular

Are You Okay?

Are You Okay?

Posted by Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D. on October 1, 2025

On Plagiarism and Feeling Betrayed

On Plagiarism and Feeling Betrayed

Posted by Katherine Turpin on October 27, 2025

Executive Leadership Involves New Questions

Executive Leadership Involves New Questions

Posted by Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D. on December 1, 2025

Embracing the Imposter Within

Embracing the Imposter Within

Posted by Fred Glennon on September 15, 2025

Xenophobia

Xenophobia

Posted by Daniel Orlando Álvarez on October 15, 2025