Well before the beginning of Week 12, interview a religious specialist – e.g., priest, rabbi, minister, imam, etc. You should interview someone whom you do not know personally (or at least did not know at the start of the semester). This specialist will be from a religious tradition other than your own.
The topic of the interview will be:
- the sense of personal meaning that this specialist gets from leading her or his religious group, and
- the reasons that this individual finds this particular group to be a congenial religious home.
Please use the concepts you have learned during the first part of this course to deepen your conversation.
Aside from making sure you set up your interview early in the semester (to allow for the unexpected), you should:
- Prepare an interview protocol that lets you uncover the information you seek.
- I have posted a general guide — “How to Construct an Interview Protocol” — on our Guides and Resources page. I have also posted a specific guide to this assignment. Read both!
- Collect a copy of the informed consent form designed for this project. (Click HERE to download a copy.)
- You may either tape the interview or take notes, the former only with your interviewee’s permission.
Complete the interview soon enough that you have time to reflect on it before writing it up and presenting your results to the class. Once you have reflected,
- Write a short (4-page; 1000 word) report, summarizing your interviewee’s sense of personal meaning and reasons for finding her or his religious group to be a congenial religious home. Use concepts learned in this class to help your readers understand what you have learned. Submit this report at our Moodle site by noon on the date listed on our Schedule.
- Also prepare a concise, 3-minute summary of your interview to present orally to the class. You may use up to 4 slides, unless you wish to use a Mini-PechaKucha format (details HERE), in which case you may use 8. In either circumstance, turn in these slides at the course Moodle site at the same time that you turn in your paper.
There is a rubric for this report on the Guides and Resources page.