linkedin behance facebook instagram odnoklassniki twitter vimeo vk youtube logo-edx
Skip to main content

Welcoming Dialogue on Religious Bias ASU


This To Be Welcoming course focuses on biases related to religion in the United States, introducing different terms, concepts, and conditions affecting people from different religious communities.

About This Course

This To Be Welcoming course addresses bias related to religion in the United States. We begin with key terms like free exercise clause, followed by a video module featuring faculty experts answering commonly asked questions. Next, we explore key contextual issues that illuminate the forms of bias people from various religions face. We conclude with points for starting your own discussions on religious bias and considering appropriate responses.

Learners who complete this course will earn a digital certificate of completion.

Requirements

English proficiency

Prior to taking this course, it is highly recommended that you complete TBW100, To Be Welcoming: Foundational Course. The Foundational course will provide you with the context and vocabulary necessary to make the most out of this course.

Meet Your Instructor

Course Staff Image #1

Dr. Terry Shoemaker
Lecturer
School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies
Arizona State University

Terry Shoemaker, Ph.D., received his doctorate in Religious Studies from Arizona State University. He has worked conducting religious studies research, teaching in the classroom, curriculum development, and student mentoring over the last ten years. His research focuses on the ways in which religion is both a site of resistance and repair within the American society and religion’s role in social justice efforts. As a site of social justice inquiry, Terry’s research has investigated marginalization pertaining to disability, race, and religious affiliations. He is currently a Lecturer at ASU and teaches courses on Religion, Culture, Public Life; Religion in America; and Religion and Popular Culture. Dr. Shoemaker has worked with Harvard’s Pluralism Project and the Interfaith Youth Core in both documenting religious diversity in America and cultivating religious dialogue on college campuses.

Video Contributors

Course Staff Image #2

Dr. Yasmin Saikia
Professor
Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies
School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies
Arizona State University

Yasmin Saikia is the Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and a professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Her work focuses on the histories of memory and identity; women, war, and peace; histories of premodern and contemporary South Asia (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and engaging the history of Islam and Islamic values of peace. As the Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies she advances the study of peace with a more humanities-oriented approach by paying attention to culture, history, and individual and group agency. As a historian of South Asia, she is concerned with religion, gender, identity and memory in South Asia. She is the author of the award-winning books, "Fragmented Memory: Struggling to be Tai-Ahom in India" (Duke, 2005) and "Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971" (Duke 2010). As well, she has edited several books and has published over three dozen peer-reviewed articles and essays. Her concern for the vulnerable and marginalized in society who are often the targets of hatred and violence drives her passion for advancing scholarly and public understanding of peace studies using a historical approach. Currently, she is writing a trilogy on ‘People’s Peace’ and is researching on select Muslim revolutionaries of the interwar period (1920-1940) for writing a monograph on the "Muslim Imagination of Freedom from British Colonialism." Saikia hails from Assam in northeast India and has deep connections with scholars and public in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Turkey.

Course Staff Image #2

Dr. Catherine O'Donnell
Professor
School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies
Arizona State University

Catherine O'Donnell is Professor of History at Arizona State University. She is the author of Elizabeth Seton: American Saint (Cornell University Press, 2018), which was awarded the Distinguished Book Award by the Conference on the History of Women Religious, for books published from 2016-2018, as well as the Biography Prize from the Catholic Press Association. She is also the author of Men of Letters in the Early Republic (Chapel HIll, 2008) and articles appearing in venues including the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Early Republic, Early American Literature, and the US Catholic Historian. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on early American history and the Atlantic World.

Frequently Asked Questions

What web browser should I use?

The Open edX platform works best with current versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari, or with Internet Explorer version 9 and above.

See our list of supported browsers for the most up-to-date information.

Enroll