ETA:

I was just notified that the Tariq Ramadan lecture has been posted on you tube, so I plan to watch that this week.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch it before this project is due, but I am excited to see the event that I was looking forward to!

Week 11:

Upon completion of this project, I have many more questions than answers.  Which I think might be the point.  I have always been proud of my openness to people different from myself, but I was shocked to realize that this project helped me to make my first Muslim friend.  As a Women’s Studies degree holder and a feminist, I have committed myself to working to make the world a better place for women.  And yet I had never talked to anyone about the significance of the veil in Islam, and – in addition to the religious connection – what a feminist statement that might be. 

            I am sorry that I did not have the opportunity to interview a Jewish student this term, however that is the religious tradition I am most familiar with.  I would have liked to have talked to more students, and this project reminded me how much I enjoy my chances to interact with students on campus.  My role as a fundraiser limits my student connection, which is one of the only things I dislike about my job. 

Moving forward, I hope to continue to grow in my understanding of diverse student populations.  As John Hardt has said, “the atheist on campus is as important as the Jesuit.”  Dialogue with people who are different from us is what allows us to grow, and I hope that I will take with me the commitment to discovery that this project has encouraged in me.

Week 10:

This week, I received an invitation from VN to join her for a MSA sponsored event at the lake shore campus.  I was pleased that it would be held on a Saturday afternoon, and agreed to meet her there.  The MSA had arranged for Tariq Ramadan, Oxford Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies to speak on the topic “Islamic Principles, Western Perspectives, and the Arab Awakening.” 

Unfortunately, when I arrived on campus, I found out that the event had been postponed due to the speaker not arriving on time.  VN had found out about the delay earlier in the day and had tried to reach me, but I missed her email.  I was disappointed to miss this event, because I anticipated it being a situation where I would be the odd person out, and would be taken a bit out of my comfort zone.  I went to the room the event was scheduled to take place in, but because the event organizers had communicated via the facebook page, student attendees knew not to show up at the scheduled time.  I didn’t see VN, and it was unclear whether the event was delayed or cancelled, so I made the decision to return home.

This was to be my primary exercise for the week, and I used up much of the time I allocated for it in transit.  When I arrived home, I did some online research on Tariq Ramadan, who seems very interesting, but I don’t have much depth to report this week.

Week 9:

This week, a brief letter to the editor in the Chronicle of Higher Education caught my attention.  This letter dealt with Christian Privilege, which – to this point in the project – had not been a concept that had occurred to me to cover.  I went looking for an academic article on this topic, and settled on “Christian Privilege, History, and Trends in U.S. Religion” by Ellen Fairchild.  This article really had an impact on me.  I am so unaware of the privilege I walk around with every day.  I am white.  Heterosexual.  Christian.  Born and raised in the US, as were several generations of my family before me.  Sometimes I bemoan the fact that my family doesn’t have a lot of traditions.  We are so very “American” that we don’t know much about where our ancestors came from.  Our holidays are the typical Christian American holidays, and we don’t have anything special outside of that. 

I have a fairly diverse group of friends, and have been invited to Orthodox Easter celebrations, Summer Solstice events, and Hanukah parties.  Whenever I am invited to something out of the norm for me, I find myself jealous.  I want that connection to who I am, to where I have come from.  I have moved so far from religion, and my family is so far from who we were before we were American, that we have nothing unique to us anymore.  In my privileged bubble, I have never once stopped to consider the downside to having a non-typical experience.  Hanukah falls during a time when the whole country is bombarded with Christmas messages.  No one worries if Ramadan falls during finals.  My son’s public school was closed for a “local holiday” on Good Friday, but Passover went without mention. 

As a Catholic institution, I am not yet sure what I feel Loyola’s responsibility is to students of diverse religions.  But I am certainly much more aware of the variety of challenges non-Christian students face on our campus.

(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.flagship.luc.edu/doi/10.1002/ss.302/pdf)

Week 8:

This week, our class readings and discussion allowed me an opportunity to reflect on the two student interviews I completed.  Baxter Magolda’s theory of self-authorship is an interesting lens to use to try to understand the development that these two students are undergoing while on campus as undergraduates.  I wonder about the progression through the phases of self-authorship from arrival on campus to the time that they leave, and what impact the external influences of exposure to another religion have on their personal definition and identification of their faith. 

VN was very interesting in this sense, as she took a dramatic step in her external declaration of faith shortly before coming to Loyola.  By deciding to wear the veil, she placed her religion front and center for everyone to see.  It seems to me that she completed phases 1 and 2 as a high school student, and came to Loyola is stage 3.  The choice to wear the veil was living out her beliefs, and doing so against the wishes of her parents was even more so an act of self-authorship. 

MA, although older than VN, does not seem to be as far down the path toward self-authorship.  She seems to be confused about the role of religion in her life, and concerned about the potential of returning to Nepal where she will have to confront her confusion about the importance she places on Hinduism in her future.  In particular, her concern about her family’s reactions to her “American ideas” on religion tell me that she may be in phase 1.  When in Nepal, she did not question her faith, even though she attended a Catholic school where attempts were made to convert her.  But, once separated from her family and in an unfamiliar setting, she became more open to the idea of Catholicism, and has delicately approached acceptance of Catholic religious ideals while here on campus.  MA might benefit (if maintaining a commitment to Hinduism is important to her) from a stronger tie to a Hindi community either on campus or in the Chicago area.