Students learn to communicate across diversity

 

With a grant from Interfaith America, Gonzaga University's Religious Studies Department teachers have developed core curriculum courses centering on the reality of civic pluralism.

"We invite undergraduate students to reflect on their unique place in a religiously, racially, politically and economically diverse America," said Emily Clark, who has spent years researching and teaching American religious history.

Emily Clark joined colleagues Shannon Dunn and Daniel Pschaida to encourage students to reflect on their relationships with other people in the community.

Interfaith America invites university professors to develop new courses on civic pluralism and offers them resources on cultural and social bridge-building, on interfaith dialogue and work, and on how to relate with people in community.

"The grant requires that we use their resources, which has made developing courses easy," Emily said.

The three imagined a course in which each could incorporate their specialties. Shannon is an ethicist. Dan focuses on interfaith studies. Emily is a historian.

"We discussed how religious pluralism is part of civic pluralism," Emily said.

While there has been pressure to change teaching about diversity, she pointed out that it is a fact of life in U.S. history and the current situation in America.

"We live in a diverse society," she said. "In that pluralist American society where we have diverse opportunities, we need to see economic, religious and racial diversity as a strength if we focus on dialogue and building bridges over social, political and religious gaps."

Teaching the class from a historical perspective in the fall, Emily brought examples of tense moments, religious challenges and bridge building skills reflected in the Civil Rights movement and in Martin Luther King Jr's letter from the Birmingham jail, inviting people to engage differences grounded in shared values.

"The goal is to teach skills to the next generation to productively engage in their community," Emily explained.

Fall students told Emily that their goal is to live and see not only the effects of social polarization, but also solutions, so they do not just intersect with the world given to them. They want to productively change it.

In the fall, there were 23 students in the course geared as a first-year seminar class, not a lecture class.

Students worked in groups on a final project. One planned a campus event to involve students in a university-wide learning seminar that would engage students. They turned in a grant application to a fake Gonzaga office for bridge-building.

They proposed an obstacle course with partners handcuffed together and paired with people who are different. They needed to use teamwork and work with each other to solve problems, listening fully to a person they disagreed with.

Emily expects Daniel's version in the spring will be different

"One student came back after Thanksgiving, having spent time with family members who have different political beliefs. Family members asked about the class. The student used the course as a natural way to have different political conversations with her parents, rather than thinking their dad was a racist. The student asked her father where he grew up that shaped his views to open conversation."

Skills from the class were a mix of interpersonal skills with skills from sociology and anthropology.

"It was like a lab moment to be in the family," Emily said.

"Most in the class were not too distinctive politically. Some were more liberal and some moderate, but they were of different religious backgrounds—atheist, Catholic, Mormon, Buddhist and Jewish," said Emily.

"When they focused on how to find shared values across differences, their values transcended religious, social and political differences," she said.

For example, despite different religious backgrounds, they valued family.

"They had diverse skills at meeting people in the community with different views on issues," she said. "How do we reach out and ask questions to find values in common?

"Since I was a little kid, American culture has had impact on how people interact," explained Emily, who stepped away from church for about 15 years and became involved three years ago with St. Ann's parish, bringing her back into the church as she valued its focus on outreach and bridge-building in East Central Spokane.

"We offer a dignified way to help people experiencing homelessness find work," she said, telling of chatting with one man as he sanded church pews. He now lives in an apartment rather than a van.

"Such bridge-building does not change the polarization of America, but it changes people involved in building bridges," said Emily, who grew up Catholic in San Antonio.

She entered college intending to be an orthopedic doctor because of injuries from playing soccer, but in her sophomore year, she failed an organic chemistry exam, a subject required for medical school.

Emily realized she loved the classes in religion and cultural anthropology, so she earned a degree in religion and anthropology in 2007 at Austin College in Texas, a master's degree in philosophy and religion at the University of Missouri in 2009 and a doctoral degree in 2014 at the State University of Tallahassee before coming to Gonzaga.

"While in graduate school, I was cynical and left a traditional congregation. It took Christianity deeply rooted in a community to bring me back," she said.

She was inspired to be a university professor by a professor who prompted her to think of the world and interact with it in new ways.

At Gonzaga, she teaches African American religions, an upper division seminar on Bad Religion—looking at why some religions like cults are categorized as bad—a class on the African diaspora and a class on American Christianities.

"I'm interested in how religions that are not mainstream are seen by the mainstream, often because of racial gender or economic issues.

The American Christianities course deals with the history of different churches and their interactions with native tribes, the role of religious intolerance and Gonzaga's focus on social justice.

"We look at the history of Americans afraid of religions they did not understand and how religions connect with broader American culture," she said.

In the African American class, students watched the popular film, "Sinners," a spoof on religion, vampires and racism in 1930s in Mississippi, building understanding of gospel music and blues. They saw it both in theaters and class.

Every class fulfills some graduation requirement. Some students are religion majors or minors, but most take classes because they fulfill the religion requirement, whether they are a major in business, biology, nursing or sociology.

"I value that at Gonzaga, the university's mission statement is taken seriously by most of the campus—faculty members and students," said Emily. "Those values are a commitment to social justice, to knowledge in culture, to make the world a better place and to build leaders for tomorrow."

"On the GU campus, we can ground conversation in the university mission of being people for others and everyone is on board," she said.

For information, visit gonzaga.edu/news-events/stories/2025/3/26/cas-reli-fys-course-grant.