Course info

This seminar invites collaborative inquiry and action research on the questions, themes, and issues that define a phenomenon that vexes the human condition: the pervasive and insidious forms of violence in contemporary societies. Gleaning from literature from the fields of practical theology, cultural studies, sociology, and critical pedagogy, the course introduces participants to frameworks that guide structural analyses of violence in its varied forms that transverse bio, psycho, social, cultural, political, spiritual, and ecological dimensions. Specific topics for exploration include religious education in the aftermath of racialized violence; personal and corporate bullying; social trauma and mass shootings; the slow violence of environmental racism; moral inquiry. The conceptual premise is that deeper understanding of violence’s making (how it is taught and learned) would yield generative clues for it