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Rethinking Religion in America Through Contemporary Case and Conversation.

American Examples: New Conversations about Religion, Volume One is the first in a series of annual anthologies published in partnership with the Department of Religious Studies at The University of Alabama. The American Examples initiative gathers scholars from around the world for a series of workshops designed to generate big questions about the study of religion in America. Bypassing traditional white Protestant narratives in favor of new perspectives on belief, social formation, and identity, American Examples fellows offer dynamic perspectives on American faith that challenge our understandings of both America and religion as categories.

In the first volume of this exciting academic project, five topically and methodologically diverse scholars vividly reimagine the potential applications of religious history. The five chapters of this inaugural volume use case studies from America, broadly conceived, to ask larger theoretical questions that are of interest to scholars beyond the subfield of American religious history.

Prea Persaud’s chapter explores the place of Hinduism among the “creole religions” of the Caribbean, while Hannah Scheidt captures what atheist parents say to each other about value systems. Travis Warren Cooper explains how the modernist church architecture of Columbus, Indiana, became central to that city’s identity. Samah Choudhury dissects how Muslim American comedians navigate Western ideas of knowledge and self to make their jokes, and their own selves legible, and Emily D. Crews uses ethnographic fieldwork to read the female reproductive body among Nigerian Pentecostal congregations. Editor Michael J. Altman also provides a brief, rich introduction assessing the state of the discipline of religious history and how the American Examples project can lead the field forward.

Visit americanexamples.ua.edu for more information on the group and news about upcoming projects.
 

Pedagogy impacts all parts of library work and culture. It changes the way we interact with learners regardless of setting and however we name or define the teaching moment, from research help to outreach to leading meetings. Pedagogy is a praxis of relation, and studying it can improve all aspects of our work and organizations.
 
In two volumes, Training Library Instructors collects examples of how we train our colleagues to teach, whether they’re student workers, non-librarian staff, new or experienced librarians, or something else entirely. Volume 1, A Guide to Training Graduate Students, focuses on teacher training for graduate students in LIS programs and in academic libraries. It presents existing literature and theories, approaches to teaching library school students to teach, and critical reflections from librarians about their varied experiences receiving teacher training.
 
A Guide to Training Graduate Students provides a useful introduction, detailed examples, and salient reflections to help us better train library instructors during their time as graduate students through coursework and work experience. You’ll discover ideas for designing courses, internships, and other programs and ways to mentor graduate students who are interested in becoming library instructors.