Religion is a thing both taught and learned. Over the last century, as the study of religious people and religious discourse has diversified into new disciplines and fields, the very matter of religious knowledge has been transformed, along with the habits of teaching and learning that accompany religious faiths. While these changes receive due attention in the distinct scholarly disciplines of both religion and education, these subjects are rarely studied in tandem, drawing on the resources of scholars in each field to effectively illuminate the work of the other.

In this spirit, the Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the Departments of Religious Studies at Stanford University and the University of Virginia are seeking participants for a conference that will reach across the boundaries of religion and education, and focus its attention on three sites of the production of religious discourse: teaching, learning and the classroom. Where might we look to watch religious practitioners being apprenticed to their own tradition? How does the education that takes place in the University compare to that which takes place at a ritual meal or a mourning procession? How do researchers and scholars produce, enforce, or overturn orthodoxies as they reflect and report on religious phenomena? What are the responsibilities of these “experts” to wider religious communities, many of whom do not share their same scholarly standard of religious “expertise”? How can religion be taught (or learned) in the secular university? The conference will be the first of its kind, generating long term collaborations between a new generation of scholars and building bridges between disciplines, as well as between religious and secular traditions and communities. 

This conference will not simply be a series of paper presentations and responses, but will also attempt to cultivate alternative modes of academic engagement--particularly public-facing discourse. In addition to seminar-style discussions, conference attendees will participate in workshops with veterans in the field about research, teaching, and their efforts to perform public roles.