Inter/Sections

Race and Religion in the U.S. - A Conversation with Khyati Joshi

Host Bernie Wagenblast speaks with Dr. Khyati Joshi, professor of education at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Joshi is the author of White Christian Privilege: the Illusion of Religious Equality in America and New Roots in America's Sacred Ground: Religion, Race, and Ethnicity in Indian America. 

Joshi's work is concerned with the intersection of race and religion in the United States; particularly the Asian American religious experience, social justice education, and culturally relevant pedagogy. In this episode, Joshi discusses the relationship between religious pluralism and race, and how this shapes the American experiment.

The Pluralism Project: A Conversation With Diana Eck

Bernie Wagenblast sits down with Pluralism Project Director Diana Eck to discuss the Project's mission, past, and future. Eck speaks on the difference between diversity and pluralism, as well as America's changing demographics and attitudes toward religious issues. The Pluralism Project conducts research on religious communities and interfaith organizations, and provides resources for higher education.

Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation

On October 27, more than 3,000 attendees from around the world had the opportunity to learn about the Pew Research Center’s survey on religious tolerance and segregation in India. Seton Hall University’s Institute for Communication and Religion (ICR) collaborates with the Journal of Inter-religious Studies to produce its Inter/Sections podcast series on inter-faith dialogue and, for the first time, host Bernie Wagenblast ’78 interviewed experts in a live simulcast format. Guest speaker Anway Mukhopadhyay of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur joined Rabbi Alan Brill, Seton Hall’s Cooperman/Ross professor of Judeo-Christian Studies, to provide insight on how to interpret the survey results. 

Interreligious Studies and Secondary Education: Teaching Interreligiously and Faith-Based Partnerships

 This episode features a conversation between Dr. Celene Ibrahim and Dr. Irvin Scott with host Bernie Wagenblast concerning the topics of interreligious education, faith-based partnerships with public schools, faith-based community organizing, and religion and civic engagement. Each comes to these topics from different perspectives, experiences, and professions; they underscore the importance of interfaith/interreligious education and partnerships at the secondary education level. Dr. Celene Ibrahim, a teacher in the Groton School’s Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy (High School), has taught at colleges, universities, and theological schools across New England, co-directed an institute on interreligious studies and religious leadership, and served as a chaplain at Tufts University. Dr. Ibrahim has authored numerous publications in the fields of women’s and gender studies, religion in America, and Islamic studies. She has studied at Princeton (B.A.), Harvard (M.Div), and Brandeis (Ph.D). Dr. Irvin Scott is a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has worked as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and chief academic officer in the public school system before coming to Harvard. In addition, he served five years as the deputy director for K-12 education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led the investment of $300 million in initiatives focused on transforming how teachers are recruited, developed, and rewarded. In an effort to address educational inequities in the U.S., Scott also led an effort at the Foundation to build strong partnerships and deeper engagement between faith-based organizations that serve underrepresented students, families, and communities.

The Journal of Interreligious Studies at Ten Years: Commemorating the Past, Looking toward the Future

Join the founding editors of the Journal of Interreligious Studies, Dr. Stephanie Varnon-Hughes and Rabbi Joshua Stanton, along with current publisher Rabbi Or Rose, for a conversation about the past, present, and future of not only the journal but also the field of Interreligious Studies. In this episode, we explore the founding of the journal through the personal narratives of our guests, along with the development of this relatively new field of interreligious studies and its relationship to other disciplines and practices, such as interfaith/interreligious dialogue, the study of religion, and more.