Recognizing the increased focus on identity politics in higher education and the broader culture, the National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education (NAKHE) recently focused on the topic of identity politics at the 2016 Leader Development Workshop. My aim in this article is to introduce and explain concepts related to identity politics,…

Students who return from an immersion experience often report that it was "life-changing," but how do we know that students' lives have changed, especially when change is best measured several months or years after the immersion? Each year, 1.6 million Americans participate in short-term immersion experiences or missions outside the…

This article emerges from a collaborative research project between a religious studies professor at DePaul University and the executive director of the Chicago-based non-profit Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants (ICDI). In 2016, we forged a community partnership to explore and enhance the relationship between pedagogy, faith, and social…

Spirituality and religion predicted the development of social justice orientation (SJO) among young adults in a previous study (Chenot & Kim, 2013). The current study explores the manner in which the effects of spirituality and religion on social justice orientation vary depending on the career aspirations of young adults. The longitudinal…

Current literature about religion in higher education typically emphasizes belief as a central component of religious identity. Through framing this discourse with a critical social justice lens, I argue that there needs to be a purposeful distinction between religious/spiritual belief and religious identity/culture in order to acknowledge the…

While access to technology presents language learners with a view of the second language (L2) and culture that is very broad and current, foreign language curricula tend to be outdated and much narrower in scope, and they usually do not incorporate critical perspectives. Following the lead of researchers who seek to use education as a bottom-up…

The curriculum of each learning community at Duquesne University is integrated around a shared theme. The integrated classes equip students to articulate their biases in reference to the theme. The residual effect of the thematic communities is a byproduct of pedagogy informed by theory and embodied in service. The learning communities at Duquesne…

The current study compared perceptions by college students (n = 304; M age=19.75 years old) enrolled at an urban and diverse Roman Catholic university on self-report measures of faith/belief structures, social justice, and community service attitudes. Survey results indicated that both horizontal and vertical faith maturity perceptions…

The Serve Program at Ignatius University combines academic study of theology with a year-long community service project focused on combating poverty. An analysis of the Serve Program during the 2008-09 academic year revealed that participating students demonstrated a significant increase in their interest in theology; a greater desire to enroll in…

This ethnographic project explored the extent to which the campus culture at a small liberal arts college was open to student experiences and expressions of the spiritual and the religious. The authors found that despite the college's reputation for valuing diversity and a commitment to social justice, students shared a narrative of religious…

The Freedom Seder is a multicultural and interfaith celebration based on the Exodus themes of the Passover Seder. Conceived during the Civil Rights Movement, this ritualized program has been used successfully to build bridges between diverse communities at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (and elsewhere). This article provides insight into…

Conflict can shut down communication, the key to social justice advocacy. In this article, the author shares his insights on how some communication strategies can help manage conflict and sustain open conversation with students about contentious issues. Recently, the author participated in an extremely heated discussion session for student affairs…

This study proposes an empirically based model with a strong theoretical foundation in higher education and social psychology to better understand how the college experience influences the development of attitudes of acceptance towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons. Our results demonstrated that students develop more accepting attitudes…