Denmark calling with course information

Hej alle, har i haft en god sommer?

Soon we'll upload a welcoming message for the new student, but right now we have some good news coming from the theological faculty in København, which could be interesting for both new and old student!

Firstly, Martin Ehrensvärd, coordinator in Denmark, would like to pass on the following message:

"You see, I’m giving a course in Classical Syriac this fall. Syriac is an Aramaic dialect and thus relatively closely related to Hebrew and Arabic. A vast amount of early Christian literature is written in Syriac. The course will start from scratch but will proceed quickly as it presupposes that students have earlier experience with one or more Semitic languages. There will be one Skype-based lesson pr week."

An AULA-page for the course should by now have been created and I assume that the course will head off in the week of September 1st. Who's up for the challenge?`

Moreover, Martin also asked Thomas Hoffmann, professor in Copenhagen, about his upcoming course "The Qur'an and the Bible", which is an interaction course. See here the nice Youtube clip that they made!



/PD

Five questions to the professor

Still staying in Aarhus, we asked Jakob Engberg to answer our questionary. Jakob is the head of our program, and is doing a brilliant job, I would say.  (and no, I am not handing in any exampapers to him this semester;)

1. Please state your name, age, university and connection to the RREprogram.
Jakob Engberg; 40 years old; Aarhus University; coordinator for the whole programme (since it was launched); coordinator for Aarhus; part of the team that applied for support for the developing of the programme (2007), developed it (2007-2009) and launched it (2009).

2. What is your area of expertise? and which courses do you teach in the RREprogram?
Expertise: the relationship between different religious groups in antiquity, e.g. persecution, polemics, apologetics, conversion. I teach a course on Apologetics and conversion and have taught another on Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire, both interaction courses. In addition I teach the thesis colloquium in Aarhus.

3. How do you find this way of teaching, which is not regular university courses but also not distance learning?
I enjoy very much to be together with the students for compact seminars in and out of classes. But I also appreciate the e-learning not least because I observe that it gives the students practice in writing about the subject making the transition to the exam-paper les abrupt than for “normal” students who for a whole term have written next to nothing about a subject and then are asked suddenly to write a whole 10-page paper on it.

4. What do you expect from your students?
Commitment and diligence academically; frankness in any dealings with fellow students and with me and other teachers.

5. If you could have any superhuman power, what would it be and why?
My wife would greatly appreciate if my craftsmanship was on the level of Vulcan’s (or even on the level of a human handyman). When encountering legal obstacles during the development of RRE it would have been nice to be cunning like the Norse god Loki. Sometimes a fancy spear like Odin’s Gungnir (it was unstoppable) or a thunderbolt like Jupiter’s would even have been nice. But knowing my own character I better wish for a divine ability that I cannot misuse to the detriment of others: patience!

five questions to the professor

This weeks interview, as we move ourselves from Copenhagen to Aarhus, is with Professor Marianne Scheicher from the religious department at Aarhus University. The second cycle students had a compact seminar in Aarhus in December last year, and one of the very bests things was that all three "Three religions"-professors plus Jakob joined us for dinner and a drink :)


Name:            Marianne Schleicher
Age:               41
University:       University of Aarhus
RRE-affiliation:Associate Professor

Area of expertise:
Judaism from Antiquity till today
Cultural functions of scriptural use
Gender and Sexuality in religious contexts
Jewish mysticism

Courses taught:“The three religions in contemporary perspective”

Evaluation of the RRE-forms of teaching:
I question the benefitsof posting a lot of information on our E-platforms, such as AULA, withouthaving the possibility of looking you in the eye to see if you follow myreasoning and thereby of rephrasing what may be difficult to understand.However, the E-chat room provides a corrective to this challenge. I value theweekly assignments highly in that they enable a personal dialogue betweenstudent and professor where I as a professor can counter misunderstandings etc.within a week (where non-distance teaching allows students to hide and wait foran evaluation of their understanding until the exam). The compact seminar is myfavourite because I meet with students with whom I have corresponded already,which allows for an atmosphere of familiarity.

Expectations:
I expect discipline fromthe students in their habits of studying, i.e. that they read prior to the E-confrontations,reflect independently on the content, and that they submit their weeklyassignments in a form that reflects commitment and the best of efforts.

Superhuman power …:
If I had superhuman power,I would make use of my special ability to be in several places at the same time!Why? Because it could help me counter the problems specified above about E-learning,and it would enable me to accomplish what I consider ideal vis-à-vis being amother, a partner, a colleague, a professor, and an individual who wants todevelop as well.