Semester:
Offered:
Teaching Fellow under Professor Diane Moore, Harvard Divinity School
The focus of this course is to develop an understanding of the evolving relationship among religion, secularism, democracy and public education in the United States. Our exploration will include 1) a historical review of the relationship between religion and public education in the U.S. with special attention to pivotal Supreme Court decisions that have shaped public policy discourses in these areas over the past half century; 2) a consideration of the social and moral consequences that stem from privileging secularism and democracy as the normative ideologies of the public sphere; and 3) a historical and contemporary analysis of differing views regarding the nature and purpose of public education and the role of religion in those debates. Final projects may focus on the legal, political or curricular dimensions of the course.