Back to school! It's orientation week, so the courtyard was empty when I arrived at 10, but by the afternoon it was full of new and transfer students. I was there too, as part of a "Meet the Departments" event few students took advantage of in the past, but this time there were more - perhaps because there was a fancy iced coffee station with cookies for which people stood in a long line. By chance I was placed at the first table you see here, to answer questions about the Liberal Arts and Religious Studies program, and, while still few, there were enough takers for some fun exchanges.
Does the religious studies program have a specific approach? - It's academic but knows students have a more than academic interest in the subject, or at least in spirituality. Perhaps one could say that we explore the possibility that there is more than just human experience and community.
Could one design one's own major in art therapy? - Sure. though it might make more sense to do a major-minor combination in psychology and visual arts (or vice versa).
What about writing, publishing and marketing? - If you can find the classes and get the instructors' permission to register for them.
What about linguistics? - Someone tried a few years ago but had a rough time: we don't really offer enough courses, so if that's your interest you should probably go somewhere else... But this led to a fascinating conversation, as the student said linguistics was their passion, but would there be any jobs for a linguist? In the age of machine translation, the profound differences between languages - what makes it so valuable to know more than one - will be harder to convince people of, but only of greater value: I directed them to our Literary Studies representative, who specializes in literary translation (if not to a job!).
And then a student, fresh from the Philosophy table, asked if it was possible that in the afterlife everyone's beliefs came true: those who believed in heaven went there, atheists went nowhere, etc.? It's an interesting question! I'm not sure I won them over with my response, referring to the increasing prevalence of religious double belonging, not to mention syncretism, which might make it hard to know just what a person's beliefs about the afterlife really were... but wasn't it interesting that people find ways to live with pluralism and uncertainty over so momentous an issue? And yet isn't there a fact of the matter, whether we can know it or not?
Sabbatical is over, and I'm happy to be back in the fray!
