BiographyLynn Schofield Clark Ph. D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Communication and Director of the Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media. She teaches courses in journalism and new media, journalism history and social movements, cyberculture studies, media and music, and qualitative research methods.
Lynn is author of the book From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural (Oxford University Press, 2003/2005), which received a Best Book award from the National Communication Association. She is also co-author of Media, Home, and Family(Routledge, 2004), editor of Religion, Media, and the Marketplace(Rutgers University Press, 2007), and co-editor of Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media(Columbia University Press, 2002). She is currently working on a book about how young peoples’ emergent practices with new media challenge traditional sources of authority.
Lynn came to DU in the Fall of 2006. Prior to that, for five years she was an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Colorado's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Before her university career, she worked in advocacy, educational, and not-for-profit journalism, and was also a writer and producer for educational, inspirational, and advocacy television programs on HGTV and the Hallmark Channel.
Research
Lynn's research centers on the ways in which we all use the stories and myths of culture, particularly stories in the entertainment and news media, to make sense of our lives and to ascribe meaning to our actions. She is especially interested in how our own ideas about "the way things are" tend to echo the taken-for-granted ideas of a society - and how, through life experience and perhaps through our consumption of media, we can learn to question what we think we know. Her research looks for models of how and when that happens, particularly among young people and in families. In addition to the books listed on the home page of her portfolio, she has written several articles and book chapters on young people, families, and media use that have been published in the Journal of Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, New Media & Society, and in other places. She serves on the Board of the International Communication Association and is Chair of their Popular Communication Division, and also serve son the editorial boards of the journals New Media & Society, Popular Communication, and Communication and Religion.
For more information see: Lynn Schofield Clark's portfolio
Meeting August 24th 2007
Programm
10:30 Discussion and tour, University of Denver
11:30 lunch with Luis Leon, University of Denver faculty, ReligiousStudies
12:30 meet with Rabbi Levi Brackman, The Movement for a Tolerant World
1:30 meet with Rachel Monserrate, research assistant, University of Denver
2:30 meet with John Dolan, The Catholic Foundation (formerly withUniversity of Denver)
Conversation with Lynn
Lynn is working on a new project called: Religious Pluralism, New Media, and Public Good:
Fostering and Documenting Conversations Across Differences of Nation, Culture, and Religion.
Project Description:
Today’s Catholic young people grow up in a world that is religiously plural. By and large, young Catholics of the Western world are socialized into a Catholic identity within the contexts of their parishes and homes, but in other settings they learn about the need for understanding difference and negotiating with people of faiths other than their own. Because of the religiously plural context in which they live every day, some young people express concern about whether or not they are able embrace their own religion in a way that will not be perceived as a form of intolerance (Smith and Denton, 2005). As a result, some young people are therefore more likely to be silent about the convictions they hold that arise from their religious background, or they may not make a connection between those convictions and the institutional Catholic church at all (D’Antonio, Davidson, Hoge, and Gautier, 2007).
To what extent are young people able to talk about their commitments to justice and relate them to their own religious and cultural backgrounds? Many have claimed that talking about one’s own religious background can contribute to tension and greater misunderstandings; indeed, in the U.S. people adhere to the separation of church and state to avoid such problems within our civic life together (see Carter, 1994). Yet can such talk lead to better understanding and trust between people of differing backgrounds? Collaborators on this project believe that this is possible, but that we need to know more about how such conversations happen, particularly among young people who are in the process of embracing and enacting their religious identity in a religiously plural setting.
With the advent of the Internet, it is perhaps more possible than ever before for young people to experiment with conversing about their convictions among persons who do not share their backgrounds, beliefs, or even their nationality. Indeed, some have claimed that the Internet and its related technologies hold the promise of fostering relationships across differences of nation and culture (Castells, 1996).
In the everyday lives of young people, however, such grand goals are not likely to manifest themselves – at least, not without guidance. Young people use the Internet most often for prosaic matters: for relationship maintenance, consumer activities, and the completion of homework assignments (Goodman, 2007; Selwyn, 2006; boyd, 2006; Clark, 2005; Lenhart, 2005; Wellman, 2004). It is the goal of the current research effort, therefore, to build upon current patterns in the social uses of the Internet to explore how conversations across difference might be and already are being initiated, nurtured, and supported online. The project therefore holds implications for how university curricula might be developed to foster endeavors that utilize new media to encourage greater understandings across difference.
Research Design:
The “Religious Pluralism and New Media” research project will launch in early 2008. During the Spring semester/Winter quarter of 2008, at least five professors – each of whom is recruiting at least six young women aged 20-25 from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and secular backgrounds – will follow a jointly-designed and simultaneously implemented curriculum that utilizes The Movement for a Tolerant World’s website and materials, and includes readings of various World Association of Christian Communication publications, such as The Media & Gender Monitor, Fundamentalisms Revisited, and various issues of Media Development (each of these emphasize communication as “a basic human right that defines people’s common humanity, strengthens cultures, enables participation, creates community and challenges tyranny and oppression” [WACC, 2007]). (NOTE: Additional readings nominated from Middle Eastern writers/scholars are needed). Elements of the curriculum include both in-person and online collaborative conversations and the development of joint analyses that focus on specific instances of media representation of religious intolerance or stereotypes.
Taking turns, each university-based group will compose and post questions about a specific instance of media representation of religious intolerance or stereotypes on the website of The Movement for a Tolerant World (http://www.tolerantworld.com/). Members of each of the other university-based groups will discuss this issue and its related questions in an in-person group, and each individual will be asked to write a response online. Additionally, each student will be assigned a “partner” from a differing nation, culture, and religion. These partners will exchange stories of personal experiences of discrimination or oppression, and each will offer the other what they aim to construct as an empathic response. Finally, each university participant is to invite a friend from their home country to read the entries of the collaborative effort and to offer their own online response. Students will therefore be encouraged to participate in a structured experience of collaboration as they create topic-driven questions and responses and draw upon their own personal experiences and their developing knowledge of those whose personal experiences differ from their own. Each participant will also be asked to continue as a member of The Movement, and will be invited to offer suggestions on how to further foster collaborative relationships across differences of nation, culture, and religion.
Once the first phase of the research is complete, researchers and advocates will analyze the materials developed in The Movement for a Tolerant World and the discussions that took place in person among the various university constituents. The researchers will consider patterns in the conversations, noting instances in which conversations seemed passionate and engaging and instances in which dialogue seemed halted or certain participants seemed silenced. Working together, they will develop an interpretation of these findings and the implications of their findings for others who wish to develop online cultures of collaboration.
This research is thus designed to offer insights into how to incorporate social networking and multi-university collaboration into a university course curriculum that encourages conversations that cross differences of nation, culture, and religion. As Western universities continue to seek ways to meet the growing demand for greater understandings of the Arab world, this kind of close collaboration that intentionally links students from different universities across the world in a dialogical model of knowledge-building will fill a need and make good use of the available technology. At the same time, with its attention to the analysis of trust-building and conversational development as it has occurred online settings, this research project will provide insights into how young people strive to, and in some cases successfully maintain, their unique religious identities within the context of religiously plural conversations and actions. It is the goal of this research project to employ the Internet to foster the kind of understanding and mutual respect that leads to greater participation in campaigns for human rights that are taking place around the world and that are in constant need of new alliances, and that we believe are central to a life-giving religious identity within Catholicism as well as in many other religious affiliations.
Remarks
- The design of this research is very interesting, because in this project teaching and research are intermingled. The student is subject of his or her own learning process, but at the same time their materials are object of research. From the perspective of Spirituality, mystagogy could be an important notion. What is the transformation process of the student during this curriculum.
- The collaboration of students worldwide with the use of internet was very much appreciated by the students in the project of Spirin Education. I am looking forward to the results of this project.
- Maybe it is possible to have Dutch female students (Feminist Theology) of the University of Nijmegen involved in this project.
Luis Leon, Ph D
Luis Leon Ph. D., University of California, Santa Barbara (specializing in the history of religions in the Americas). Dr. Leon received the Master of Theological Studies (MTS), from the Harvard University Divinity School where he studied American religious history and liberation theology; he earned simultaneous A.B. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, in Chican@ Studies and Rhetoric. He is the author of La Llorona’s Children: Religion, Life, and Death in the United States – Mexican Borderlands (UC Press, 2004); and co-editor with Gary Laderman of the Encyclopedia of Religion and American Cultures (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO), 2003. He is currently writing a book entitled American Religious Politics from the Border: Cesar Chavez in light of Gandhi and Martin Luther King (under contract, UC Press); and working on a critical study of “machismo” focusing the intersection of spirituality and eroticism among Latino men, tentatively entitled American Machos: Religious Erotics among Latino Men. With Laura E. Perez he is co-editing a collection of essays on De-Colonizing Spirituality and Sexuality. His teaching areas include religion and politics in the United States; Latin@/borderland religions; method and theory in the study of religions; cultural studies; and queer theory.
At the moment his object of studies is César Estrada Chávez. César Estrada Chávez (1927–1993) was a Mexican American (Chicano) farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union workers. He is considered a hero for farm laborers, and fought against illegal immigration to help keep wages higher and improve work safety rules. He is hailed as one of the greatest American civil rights leaders after Martin Luther King, Jr.. His birthday has become a holiday in four U.S. states. Many parks, cultural centers, libraries, schools, and streets have been named in his honor in cities across the United States.
He is interested in the field of spirituality and social action.
During lunch we have discussed the possibilities of Spirin Encyclopedia. Both were in favour of this project. Like Stewart Hoover, they stress the fact that you can present yourself in a kind of bulletin board or homepage with the field of research you are working in.
Rabbi Levi Brackman & The Movement for a Tolerant World
BiographyRabbi Levi Brackman, 28, was born in London, England and studied in Yeshivot in Israel, America and Canada. He has taught classes in Halacha, Talmud, prayer and Jewish mysticism at Yeshivat Hadar Hatorah in New York and at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He received rabbinical ordination from the Tzemach Tzedek rabbinical college in the old city of Jerusalem, Rabbi Zalman Nechemye Goldberg and Rabbi Mordechai Ashkenazi. Levi also holds an MA in Hebrew & Jewish Studies from the University of London.In January 2001, Levi was appointed to the position of senior rabbi at the Enfield & Winchmore Hill Synagogue where he become known for his inspiring sermons, thought provoking articles, lively and insightful lectures, and effective life and marriage counseling.
Levi is also a founding member of The Movement for a Tolerant World, an organization that offers young people in Asia, the Middle East and internationally a positive and tolerant ideology and through that the opportunity to make real and positive changes in their world.
In August 2005, Levi moved together with his family to Evergreen, Colorado where he started a Jewish outreach and cultural organization entitled, Judaism in the Foothills, which serves the foothill communities of west Metro Denver, Colorado.Levi writes a weekly article, which is distributed over the Internet and is read by thousands globally. Levi's articles have been published on popular websites such as chabad.org, algemeiner.com, isralert.com and many others. Levi's articles have also been published in print in the Jewish Chronicle (UK), the Intermountain Jewish News (Colorado), Torah Studies (New York) and Etehaad (California). Levi has also appeared on TV and his work has been featured in newspapers both in the USA and in the UK.
Levi lives in Evergreen, Colorado with his wife Sheindy and their three young sons, Dovi age 4, Benny age 2 and Shmuley who was born on March 4, 2006.
The Movement for a Tolerant World
As a goal-driven advocacy effort, TMTW has been concerned with building real tolerance, democracy, and peace across communities, societies, and the world. The Movement’s leaders believe that “the true nature of religious conflict does not stem from disagreements over theological issues but rather from religious stereotypes and association of religious identity with ethnic divisions and economic factors.
TMTW employs Internet technologies to provide a platform for collective blogging, online forum, space for editorial comments on news stories related to issues of religious tolerance and intolerance, and other online resources. Each of these elements are mobilized to introduce people to one another through discussions of shared goals of tolerance and shared commitments to the opposition of dictatorships, intolerance, and terrorism. Not all who come to the online discussions of TMTW bring with them a religious affiliation or perspective, although some do. Discussions of differing religions, nations, and cultures are encouraged, as are discussions of differing experiences of intolerance whether based on race, class, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality.
Internet Used for Bringing Awareness
There is much subtle and overt bigotry and intolerance in the United States and the rest of the world. Most people, when made aware that they are practicing bigotry will make an effort to stop doing so. TMTW will raise awareness amongst people about their bigotry through advertisements, both online and imprint and using online questioners.
The Movement for a Tolerant World’s Strategy: online and offline
TMTW’s strategy to achieving its aims is as follows. The organization has developed its website so that people of all cultures can interact and communicate. As people begin communicating with each other across the cultural, religious and international divide within a framework of tolerance much of the fear and stereotyping will be taken away. Our portal on the internet will become the global go-to place for young people for all things related to tolerance.
In the future TMTW planes to use some of the language translation software which is available to will allow people communicate with each other across the language boundaries as well.
Through the use of research, TMTW will develop curriculums for teaching tolerance to youth and those will be marketed and sold to schools and universities internationally.
Through these educational tools students of schools and universities where TMTW curriculums are taught will be directed to the TMTW networking website to put what they have learned into practice with other students their age who are culturally, religiously or ethnically different to themselves. Thus, TMTW’s educational programs and curriculums marketed to and used by schools and universities will work in tandem with its sophisticated networking sites.
Ultimately, through New Media and brick and mortar marketing and educational efforts in places young people are found TMTW will recruit young people to begin TMTW chapters which will spread an ideology of tolerance and peace to young people. An international revolution of tolerance will be created.
Rachel Monserrate is Masters student at the University of Denver’s School of Communication. She is a documentary filmmaker with interests in racial/ethnic identity and its intersection with the economic interests of the rural southwest. She is currently conducting in-depth interviews with several young people involved in high school journalism efforts in the Denver area.
In early 2007, Rachel Monserrate embarked on a project to make a film about homeless veterans. Initially, her film was focused on finding agencies committed to helping homeless veterans get off the streets and telling the stories of those vets who had succeeded. But after hitting numerous bureaucratic roadblocks and being unable to secure interviews with government officials, caseworkers, and veterans, Monserrate’s vision changed.
Discarded became an exploration of the obstacles homeless veterans face while trying to receive the benefits they are due. Through documenting the filmmaking process, Monserrate highlights governmental sidestepping and the need for advocates who are willing to stand up for America’s discarded heroes.
Documentary film production on veterans of Rachel Monserate.
At the moment she is research assistant in the following project: Media, Meaning, and Work: Youth and Civic Engagement. This research effort is a qualitative interview-based project exploring how young people involved in high school journalism discuss the relationship between the responsibilities of work, familiy, and wider community in relation to publicly-available and mediated narratives of what it means to have a purposeful and meaningful life. She interviewed 25 teenagers and we had a conversation about the lack of language in expressing their involvement, because of the taboo on religious language.
John Dolan, The Catholic Foundation (formerly withUniversity of Denver)
Website: http://www.thecatholicfoundation.com/
With John Dolan we have discussed the possibilities of funding the project: Religious Pluralism, New Media, and Public Good: Fostering and Documenting Conversations Across Differences of Nation, Culture, and Religion.
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