Experience working with Graduate Students
- This is one of the things I am most excited about .
- My department has no graduate students, but I am on the graduate faculty and usually have three or so students I am working with — Some are in my university, some are in the North Carolina system, and some are international.
- Pandemic disrupted this a bit, but over the last few years – Yacine Knot, Samira Mettha, Nathan Schradle. And now Heidi Rautalahti (Also Mentoring of faculty)
Professional Networking
I have a number of professional networks.
- Digital religion (Heidi Campbell, Journal of religion, media and Digital Culture, Routledge Series, and De Gruyter)
- Berkley = PTTP {White paper last week at UVA)
- NYU
- Bolder
- Bremen (Gamevironment, AAR Unit, The Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI))Zentrum für Medien-, Kommunikations- und Informationsforschung
- Helsinki (International Academy for the Study of Gaming and Religion (IASGAR))
Active research Agenda
"Human Scientist" Method => (Ethnography, close reading of in situ texts [hugging line between humanism and social science]). Field => Media and religion (not the media, mediation and mediatization (Mediatisierung)) Topics => Neo-pagans to Nepali Festivas Current Three projects 1. Cultural Heritage in Asia 2. Tibetan Virtual Reality 3. Video Games and the problem of evil.
Academic Record
Long, first article published in 1995 in first year of grad school. < followed curiosity>
On (1) Digital Religion,
(2) Bhaktapur,
(3) Online Buddhism, and Digital Ethnography,
(4) videogaming and ludography [not just videogaming and how games mediatize society (QAnon)
Your Sketch of a Course
- Digital Ethnography. This is a field that I helped to create, and it is the one which I get the most questions about from students.
- Designed for Masters Students
- This course works through IRBs, fieldwork and participant observation, to thick description and the actual writing up of the Ethnography
- (Bonus Point)— Transmission, Generative, Transformative pedagogy
- Theory building (REL 298 –Like to teach)
DEI
[A} (Richard Delgado /Angela Harris on Critical Race Theory, International House, how much I have learned, and how much I still have to learn).
[B] Important to me both for reasons of social justice and also critical inquiry.
1. Teaching (Voice and bell) (human rights)
2. Research (gender and race)
3. Field (mentoring and blinded by the white)
4. Department (WGS, ASDS, course offerings [enslaved religion], as well as recruitment and hiring ).
5. University (Paid Parental Leave, Junior Faculty Leave, programming and outreach)
Why interested in ASPECTS
- The main thing [a] interdisciplinary, [b] would love chance to work more with graduate students,
- Dr. (Jaaw )and how great VT is (Department of Religion and Culture, presented at AAR).
- I am ready for a new chapter in my career. Personally, 20 years at UNCG and 6 years as Head of the department;
- Personal, able to relocate child first year of college [Nobel?]
Mentoring
Favorite part of the job.
- Undergrads (Sophia)
- Grads (Yacine)
- Post-docs (Lisa and Kathi)
- Junior Faculty ( department (Margaret)
- Not so Junior Faculty (Ellen, Alyssa)
- My admin Staff (Kristina)
- Not just individual but creating caring community (Circus Course)
Experience at Interdisciplinary
- (Digital Religion)
- College speakers bureau
- Grade school [History of religion and Chicago]
- South Asia Outreach
- Center for Critical Inquiry
- Merge
- IASRG
- Routledge Series + de gryueter
- GPS (return to college)
What are your goals for teaching
- Mastery of topic
- Creating Community of learners
- Voice
- Critical Thinking
- Research skills
- Methods and theory building
- Knowledge of the history of the discipline
What type of Leader
Creating Community
A lot of listening
A lot of planning
Caring Leader – (same as how I run a class)
(Role models) bell hooks and ted lasso
Deontology and Virtue Ethics
* Caring leaders can create organizations with strong cultures of care and support where employees feel like they can bring their whole selves to work.
* A caring leader cares about the people around them by creating an environment where everyone feels valued, supported, appreciated, engaged in conversation, challenged as well as heard.
- Respond when people make a request.
- Assist with people advancing in their careers.
- Don’t micromanage. Don’t make people feel “squeezed away from independent thinking and action.” Shunryū Suzuki (give you sheep a big pen)
- Have compassion, not just about getting the job done.
Matthew Heaton
Associate Professor
Department of History
African Studies
Matthew Gabriel
Committee Head
Professor and Head of Department of Religion and Culture
Crusades, medieval studies
Writes on Ted Lasso
Kelly Trogdon
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Metaphysics, Philosophy of mind
Graduated from UNCG in 1999
Jacqueline Bixler
Distinguished Professor
Languages + School of Performing Arts
Latinx
Trans-theater
Desiree Poets
Assistant Professor
Political Science
Marrons (Brazil)
Museums
Bettina Koch
Professor Political theory Islamic Political Thought Cross-Cultural Political Thought German
Experience in academic administration
> (Middle name means mid level manager)
South Asia Outreach
International House Programing
Center for Critical Inquiry (junior faculty get togethers)
AAR (Popular culture, Media and culture, Seminar on videogaming)
Chair College assembly
Merge
Head Religious Studies
New Network (getting ready to step down)
Brett Shadle
Professor
Department of History
Colonialism, Law and Marriage (Kenya), history of refugees
First Generation college student,
Development and Outreach
Development
Jewish Studies
Myatt Fund
Outreach
South Asia Outreach
Critical Inquiry (Baumen)
Madhu
Jewish StudiesResearch and Teaching Strengths in Interdisciplinary programs
Teaching (Human rights)
(Digital Religion) My own research hugs line between Humanities and social sciences (Human scientist)
Chris Helland
Xenia Zeiller
Kerstin Radde-Antweiler
(GPS) Adam Carlin
Programing (center for critical inquiry)
Agraphia
AAR (Jane Imamura)
Cultural Study of VideogamingWhat is interdisciplinary
WHAT (white papers)
> Two or more disciplines
> Three cultures (+arts)
> Not just combination, allows you to see your own (Second Naivete)
Why
To Understand Complex Systems (Climate change, or media bubbles)
What to tell
> ADMIN: significant market advantage over other private and public university competitors
> Faculty: leads to a transformative research productivity for students and faculty, one that innovates beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to establish valuable new and groundbreaking perspectives.
