TF has succeeded in providing students with physical teaching and learning environments, while also offering digital and hybrid solutions in order to accommodate and remain flexible for students who for various reasons are unable to partake physically. I am appreciative of the pedagogical labor that our Faculty members have undertaken in order to make these different teaching and learning environments available to our students.
Building a academic community and establishing a sense of belonging
Also this semester we were fortunate to be able to take our first year students to Granavolden G?stgiveri. Due to the lingering pandemic, we were forced to divide our first year students according to program and make two seminar trips to Granavolden instead of one. Nonetheless, I believe the seminars functioned as intended and were central for both student groups in terms of building academic community and establishing a sense of belonging. I was invited to be part of the Religion and Society seminar, where the case study this time around took as its starting point the British sitcom We are Ladyparts (Vi er Lady Parts – NRK TV) in order to engage the relationships between religion, politics, the media and publics, while also paying careful attention to lived religion approaches and what can be learned from thinking through questions of religion and religious meaning-making when engaging “ordinary lives” and “everyday practices”. If you haven’t yet seen it … it comes strongly recommended! Notably, the case study was a “homerun” in terms of inspiring student engagement and discussion, and I was deeply impressed by the students’ ability to raise relevant and critical questions, to engage academic literature in relation to the case study in meaningful ways, their level of reflection, and, indeed, their expression of respectful comradeships when engaging one another. I want to pause and also give thanks to our universitetslektor Markus and our seminar teachers, Rezi and Marita, whose academic insights and stellar pedagogical skills made invaluable contributions not only to these processes of teaching and learning, but also to academic community building. And, to our student assistants who were our “sociable agents” at the seminar: May the money-well never run dry so that we can continue to enjoy the fruits of your creative labor!
The World Mental Health Day
Importantly, the 10 October we marked the World Mental Health Day, a day that focus our attention towards global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. Due to the pandemic, the University of Oslo decided to dedicate a whole week (11-15 Oct.) to focus attention on mental health with particular attention on life under and after the pandemic. In addition to a number of local initiatives (TF and TSU), our Faculty collaborated with the Faculty of Humanities and the International Summer School to host the event: “Alene i karantene – og livet tilbake” (?Alene i karantene - og livet tilbake? - Universitetet i Oslo (uio.no)). The event consisted of a panel conversation that raised the important topic of student life under and after the pandemic and was facilitated by the Dean of Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, Gunn Enli. The panel consisted of former prorektor of the University of Oslo, Gro Bj?rnerud Mo, the leader of the Student Parliament, J?rgen Hammer Skogan, medical doctor and author Kaveh Rashidi, and our very own Kaia R?nsdal.
Islam, Inclusive Spaces and Diversity in Religious Leadership
Looking forward, I would like to call attention to an event that will take place on 15 November. Our Faculty will together with Hikmah-huset and Film fra S?r host an event entitled Islam, Inclusive Spaces and Diversity in Religious Leadership . During the event we will showcase the documentary: Seyran Ate?: Sex, Revolution and Islam, by Nefise ?zkal Lorentzen. The screening will be followed by a panel conversation that will engage the important themes of inclusive mosques and diversity in leadership. The panel will consist of Seyran Ate?, the founder of the Ibn-Rushd mosque in Berlin, Rania Al-Nahi, Hikmah-huset and student in the MA program Leadership, Ethics and Chaplaincy, and Amina Selimovic, universitetslektor in interreligious studies and PhD candidate at TF. The event is timely and relevant for many of our study programs and I strongly encourage you to “spread the word”, as it were, to our vibrant student community.
Onwards, onwards!