Center on Religion & the Professions

Improving religious literacy among professionals.

Overview: Articles

by

  • “The Professions and Their Publics: A Report on Two Surveys” by J. Kenneth Benson, Edward Brent, and Maksim Kokushkin (located in MU Center on Religion & the Professions library).
  • “Religious Expectations and Conflicts in the Relations Between the Professions and Their Publics” by J. Kenneth Benson and Edward Brent, Department of Sociology, University of Missouri-Columbia. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Kansas City, Missouri, October 2004. (Paper located in the MU Center on Religion & the Professions library).
  • “The Relationship Between Bible Literacy and Academic Achievement and School Behavior” by William H. Jeynes. Education and Urban Society, Vol. 41, No. 4, 419-436 (2009).
  • Religion Is New Diversity Push in the Workplace” by Andrea Useem. Religion News Service. March 7, 2007.
  • “Professional Ethics: Setting, Terrain, and Teacher” by William F. May. Ethics Teaching in Higher Education, Daniel Callahan and Sissela Bok (eds.).
  • “The Beleaguered Rulers: The Public Obligation of the Professional” by William F. May. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 2 (March 1992).
  • “A Study of Spirituality in the Workplace” by Ian I. Mitroff and Elizabeth A. Denton.
  • Localización: Sloan management review, Vol. 40, Nº. 4, 1999, pgs. 83-92.

Overview: More links

by

Additional helpful resources

CORP Newsletter- October 16, 2009

by

CORP NewsNews, Events and information from MU’s Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP)

Oct. 16, 2009

The Center on religion continues with its interdisciplinary research and programing in the 2009-2010 academic year, including:
Creating, delivering and evaluating interventions to dating and teen intimate violence through faith-based institutions
Measuring online news consumers’ desires for religion news
Developing profession-specific curriculum to improve cultural competencies regarding religion
Evaluating online models for teaching religious literacy

CENTER SPONSORED EVENTS
THROUGH Dec. 24. Exhibition: “The Sacred Feminine, Prehistory to Postmodernity,” a multi-media art exhibition exploring themes in religious images of women from antiquity to the present. Co-sponsored by CORP, the Center for Arts and the Humanities, and the MU departments of Religious Studies, Art History and Archaeology, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Free. Museum of Art and Archaeology, Pickard Hall, University of Missouri. For museum hours and information, visit maa.missouri.edu.

CORP NEWS
Course Completed: CORP and affiliates recently completed their first offering of “Religious Literacy for the Public and Professions” (Religious Studies 3100), which was taught online this summer through MU Extension’s Center for Distance and Independent Learning. The course provided practical knowledge about religion as it is encountered in the professional world in a pluralistic society. Participants in the class underwent pre- and post-class testing on religious literacy. An analysis of the results of these tests will be featured as a case study in a monograph series published by the Society for Values in Higher Education.

Groundbreaking Collaboration Between Religion, Health Care Journalists: CORP was a co-sponsor, along with Religion Newswriters Association and the Association of Health Care Journalists, of a recent workshop on the role of religion in health care. The program, “Spirituality and Health: A Workshop for Journalists on Understanding the Relationships Among Faith, Culture and Health,” was held Sept. 9-10 in Minneapolis and was attended by more than 50 journalists, including those from the Boston Globe, USA Today, The Associated Press and Sojourners. The event was the first of its kind in which religion and health care journalists collaborated in specialized reporting training. Topics included a history of the medical-religion debate, religion’s role in culturally competent hospital and medical training, new boundaries in bioethics, spirituality and health care policy, and the intersection of palliative care and spiritual needs.

Religion Reporting Students Collaborate on Radio Stories: Students in “Religion Reporting and Writing” (Journalism 7426), taught at MU in the Winter 2009 semester by CORP director Debra L. Mason, collaborated with reporters at KBIA/91.3 FM, Columbia’s NPR affiliate, to produce several news stories on race and religion in Columbia. The stories were aired during the summer.

OTHER CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY EVENTS
Nov. 27 Nomination Deadline: Columbia Values Diversity Awards, to be handed out for the 13th year at the 17th annual Columbia Values Diversity Celebration on Jan. 14, 2010. Nominate any individual, family, or organization you feel should be recognized for their significant impact in promoting appreciation for diversity and cultural understanding. All nominations must be received by noon on Friday, Nov. 27. Nomination forms may be accessed on Columbia’s Office of Community Services Web site at http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/CommunityServices/Programs/CVDC/Awards/index.php.

CORP IN THE NEWS:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/aug/30/two-women-share-their-thoughts-on-what-the-sacred/
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/10/14/sacred-feminine-transcends-history-art-and-archeology-exhibit/

RELIGION IN THE NEWS
Read what’s in the news about religion this week on CORP’s home page.

• Click links for more information about events.

• Bookmark CORP’s Web site here.

• See additional events here.

• Read our publication and promotion policy here.

• This newsletter comes out monthly. To unsubscribe, reply to this email, changing the subject field to “unsubscribe.”

Project Team participants needed

by

July 3, 2009 – Call for Participants: The Center on Religion & the Professions is forming new project teams for the upcoming academic year, to join existing teams. If you’re interested in training or research related to expanding professionals’ understanding of faith and spirituality in the lives of those they serve, please contact Center Director Debra L. Mason at MasonDL@Missouri.edu or (573) 882-9257.  The 2009-2010 academic year’s work will focus on professional development tools and training.

Mason speaks to Kiwanis

by

June 17, 2009 – Debra L. Mason, director of the Center on Religion & the Professions, addressed more than 80 Kiwanis members during two recent speaking engagements. Mason spoke to a Columbia Kiwanis club on April 28 and to the Fulton Kiwanis Club on June 11, both on the topic of tdebramasonbloghe Center, religious literacy and the professions.

In addition to directing the Center, Mason is a professor of journalism studies at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association. She is a nationally recognized, award-winning and widely published specialist in religion journalism, with more than 25 years of professional teaching, research and reporting experience.

The Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP) was founded in 2003 with a mission of improving religious literacy among professionals, to help them serve a diverse public. It performs research and creates curriculum, resources and public programming to accomplish that goal. For more information about the Center, call (573) 882-9257.

Online "Religious Literacy" course under way

by

June 17, 2009 – “Religious Literacy for the Public and Professions,” a new online course offered through MU Direct: Continuing and Distance Education, is under way. The course (REL ST 3100) teaches students to engage and encounter religion in day-to-day life and in the professional workplace. Its primary goal is to examine religious diversity in private and professional contexts from a practical standpoint by examining a variety of case studies. The course is open to University of Missouri students who are absent from campus for the summer or unable to attend day classes and to nontraditional students.

The course is offered through the University of Missouri’s Department of Religious Studies. The course was created by the department and the Center on Religion & the Professions at University of Missouri. The instructor is Justin Arft. The eight-week class runs June 8-July 31.

Textbooks for the course include “Religion and the Workplace” by Douglas A. Hicks and “How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook” by Stuart M. Matlins and Arthur J. Magida.

After the course is completed and assessed, a team from the Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP) will author a chapter for a monograph about the project that will be distributed nationally through the Institute on Religion in Curriculum and Culture of Higher Education.

The Center on Religion & the Professions was founded in 2003 with a mission of improving religious literacy among professionals, to help them serve a diverse public. For more information about the Center, contact Director Debra L. Mason at (573) 882-9257 or MasonDL@missouri.edu.