Taught Courses List

Office hours for Semester 1, 2012: Mon-Wed 1-2pm

The following is a list of courses that I teach in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Please click the links below for the UoN Course Tracking System which gives more detail on each courses’s content and objectives.

  • RELI1010 World Religions (2012 Semester 1, On-campus/Online)
  • THEO1021 The Church: Foundations and Experience (2011 Semester 2)
  • RELI2030 Reel Religion (2012 Semester 2, On-campus/Online)
  • THEO3001 Religious Ethics (2012 Semester 1, On-campus/Online)
  • RELI3030 Religion, Ritual and Consciousness (2011, Semester 2)
  • RELI3060 The New Visibility of Religion (2012 Semester 2, On-campus/Online)
  • RELI4001 Religious Studies Honours Methods and Theory
  • RELI4003 Religious Studies Honours Thesis I
  • RELI4004 Religious Studies Honours Thesis 2

Past courses taught at the University of Manchester: 2008 and 2009.

Click here for relevant links on Theology and the Study of Religion.

Why Study Religion Today? from Timothy Stanley on Vimeo.

How do I teach? 

Every lecturer teaches differently so let me explain a bit how my courses work. Most semesters I teach courses which have Blended Online/Face-to-Face options. That is, all of my courses are available for students to take face to face in class, completely online, or a mix of both to suit their schedules. This is possible because all course materials are available in the online Blackboard (readings beyond textbooks, bibliographies, assessment submission), and each week’s face to face lecture is recorded as a Quicktime .MOV file which is then available for download from the UoN’s lecture hosting system Echo360. The recording includes a voiceover the PowerPoint presentation, which most students find as an excellent echo of the class time they were unable to attend (for an example see the Vimeo above).

Lectures typically run for two hours made up of a 40 min lecture, a 20-30 min pair-and-share discussion, finishing with another 30 minute lecture.

Depending on the course level at first, second or third year, assessment items include one or two short essays (1000 words), one long research essay (2000 words) and then 5-8 online quizzes or discussion board posts which relate to weekly readings.

Each lectures aims to introduce key themes from the readings to help students focus on important passages and learn to read more critically for quizzes and discussion board posts. As well, they relate to the topics for the essays, which help students recognize their interests and get them started on researching those aspects of the course that most interest them. For instance, in the first year World Religions course (RELI1010), there are lectures which corresponds to the research essay topics on the meaning of Jihad in Islamic thought as well as Jewish-Christian relations after the holocaust. So, if you’re interested in a topic, the lecture is provided as a face to face and online resource to get you started.

My marking practices are critical but fair, and I do my best to prepare students to grow in their understanding and application of the scholarly practices which result in their future success. I provide at least one essay writing workshop during each course.

When students were surveyed as to whether “Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of this course,” the majority of students taking my courses in 2011 strongly agreed. On average all of my courses scored 4.74 out of 5 for this question on the UoN’s Student Feedback on Courses survey (4.5, 4.8, 4.75, 4.92).  

Why do I teach?

Although nineteenth century social theorists like Marx and Durkheim predicted that religion would dissipate like a fog over a clouded western culture, the exact opposite has taken place. Religious belief and practices continue to survive if not thrive in our increasingly globalized multicultural societies. Some predict this will result in ever new forms of religious violence in an inevitable clash of civilizations (Huntington). However, and this is where we position ourselves at the University of Newcastle, others, such as Mark Juergensmeyer suggest that “the cure for religious violence may ultimately lie in a renewed appreciation for religion itself.”  My vision is to create learning environments where people develop the intellectual empathy necessary to dialogue with each other and equitably engage each others’ viewpoints. This is as needed for those who practice within Islamic, Christian, Jewish and other South Asian religious traditions, as well as people who share irreligious or more agnostic political and philosophical traditions.

Intellectual empathy may sound like an oxymoron, as many students don’t consider empathy, or the ability to feel what another is feeling, as an intellectual skill. However, this is precisely what is being achieved when students learn to read another scholar’s viewpoint coherently, with depth and detailed understanding. Critical reading implies that students really try to listen to the views of others, and that they not only understand their ideas, but they start to empathize with a scholar’s concerns and issues. When we study Freud or Marx, or even more controversial figures like St. Paul or Martin Luther, my aim is not for students to see how right or wrong they were (there are opinions on both sides), but to understand why they wrote what they did and what it meant for the way people understood themselves and the world they lived in, much more how their ideas continue to haunt western democratic societies today.

Said another way, thinking is a practice, and my courses aim to help students practice the skills of good thinking. We live in a complex information culture, and humanities degrees provide crucial training in the art of interpreting the signs of our times (news media, politics, and the day to day of many today’s employment opportunities). We have tremendous power to access information through the search engines built into our laptops and smart phones, but information does not inevitably lead to meaning and understanding. Immanuel Kant’s Enlightenment challenge, “dare to know,” remains ever out in front of western democratic societies, which depend upon the ability of its citizenry to interpret the world around them and decide, vote, and participate in its political systems. 

Study at the University of Newcastle

The following are a number of links for students interested in studying Philosophy and Religion at the University of Newcastle, which scored 4* in the recent Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment in the 2204 Religion research area, one of only four other university religion and religious studies subject areas in Australia to do so.

How Australian domestic students can apply: For undergraduate or postgraduate taught degrees, the University of Newcastle processes applications through the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC). For Honours degree students, this PDF application form must be submitted. For Research Higher Degree (RHD) students applying for MPhil or PhD degrees this PDF application form must be submitted.

How International Students can apply: If you are applying as an international student from outside Australia for any of our degrees, a list of forms can be found by clicking here.  

International Undergraduate Degree Prospectus (PDF)International Postgraduate Degree Prospectus (PDF)International Research Higher Degree Prospectus (PDF)Domestic Undergraduate Degree Prospectus (PDFDomestic Postgraduate Degree Prospectus (PDF)Domestic Research Higher Degree Prospectus (PDF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to all University of Newcastle Degree Prospectuses

Newcastle was named one of Lonely Planet’s Top 10 must see destinations in 2011: http://bit.ly/g1HIQQ