Remember remember - the first of September

Hooray, it’s the first Monday of September. I guess it’s the start of the Academic Year at all of the six RRE institutions. Well, at least it is in Lund. So, it took me some effort to come out of bed at an early time this morning. (And I can tell you that I consider everything before 9 AM ‘early’ after quite a long holiday…)

I started with reading a book for my course on the Religions in Contemporary Perspective: ‘Abraham’s Children – Jewish Christians and Muslims in Conversation’ by Solomon, Harries and Winter. (T&T Clark, 2005.) The concept of the book is special: it was born out of the so-called ‘ Oxford Abrahamic Group’. In this group, Jewish, Christian and Islamic scholars came together twice a year. Three scholars would present a paper on an aspect of one of the three religions, followed by a discussion. Because of the personal beliefs of the scholars, the discussions did not only have an academic, but also a personal dimension and contributed to mutual understanding, even if the discussions were sometimes heated. This book is a collection of the presented papers and the discussion that took place in this group.

Personally, I think that this is very interesting approach and it provides definitely for different reading than other academic books I have read before. When read that Harries thanked his wife Jo “who has provided hospitality for the group, with its variety of dietary requirements”, I had to smile. However – out of the 15 contributors to the book only two are women and that made my smile a little smaller.

So, fourth cycle – what do you think about the concept of this book? And what about the ‘lack’ of female contributors? Am I making fuss about nothing? ;-)

I guess I should get back to reading in the meantime…
/PD

Re-starting up!

A renewed welcome, I think one could say! For several reasons, this blog has been down for more than half a year (we apologize!), but we have the solid intention to start this up again and continue throughout the year with blogs about anything (slightly) related to the RRE program, which could be both be very academic entries, but also just fun little posts.

A warm welcome especially to the new 5^th cycle students, who will officially begin their studies next week, but in most places probably already have had a welcome meeting. We’re happy to have you here!

Writer of the above is Paula, a 4^th cycle student (that means I started in Fall 2012) in Lund. For now, I am the only one of my cycle writing blogs, but if someone – either 4^th or 5^th cycle – feels inspired to join, that would be very great. Just send a mail to religiousroots@gmail.com.

Not only this blog is starting up again, also summer is coming to an end and a new term is almost there! The new students will, like every year, start with two smaller courses: ‘Method and Theory’ and ‘Religion and Society’. Teaching for this course will be given in Rome, to which they will leave in a few weeks. (No, we are not jealous, it only seems so. J)

Me and the other third-semester students will take two compulsory courses: ‘The Three Religions in Contemporary Perspective’ and the thesis colloquium, which should prepare us for the real work in the last semester. Apart from that, we can still choose one course. In my case that’ll be a course about the role of women in the three traditions – I’m curious.

I’m looking forward to the new semester and hope you too!

Five question to the professor- week 7

As mentioned in an earlier blogpost, we decided on doing some interviews with professors and other staff connected with the RREprogram. First one out is Martin Ehrensvärd, from Copenhagen University.

1. Please state your name,age, university and connection to the RREprogram.
Martin Ehrensvärd, 44, University of Copenhagen. I'm the local coordinator which means that I'm the one with most contact with the students, trying to make sure that everything runs smoothly. I also lecture in the programme.

2. What is your area of expertise? and which courses do you teach in the RREprogram?
I'm a Semitic philologist by training and have mostly published in the area of language, mostly classical Hebrew but also Arabic. I teach classical Hebrew and classical Arabic, and in addition I lecture in mysticism and some early mystics.

3. How do you find the this way of teaching, which is not regular university courses but also not distance learning?
I love it! I teach via Skype, and I love the flexibility of it - being able to teach students resident all over Scandinavia. Also, the teaching can go on undisturbed even if they or I am travelling. On a side note, the students in the programme tend to be bright, and this adds tremendously to the joy of teaching.

4. What do you expect from your students?
I expect that they sign up to the courses out of a genuine motivation to learn - and that they expect to be able to spend seven or eight hours pr. week, including classes. I also expect and encourage them to cooperate with me so that we together can create the best possible learning environment. When everybody state what they think without holding back, it is much easier to go forward together.

5. If you could have any superhuman power, what would it be and why?
Very interesting question. Ok, well, my greatest wish for every human being, including myself, is that we become more curious about what it actually is like to be in other peoples' shoes. In other words, the empathetic urge to set one's own agenda aside for a moment and genuinely sense into what is going on 'over there', be it in another person (like a relative or colleague) or a group of people. So, I would choose the power to plant the idea in everybody's heart that it might be a good idea to start genuinely finding out what it is like to be in someone else's shoes, especially the people one is in conflict with. And why? Because I think this would make the world a vastly better place to live for everyone.