Title: Freedom through Fostering Democratic Social Relations: Jane Addams’s Faithful Feminist Pragmatist Pedagogy

This presentation illuminates the implications of Jane Addams’s feminist pragmatist approach to education for the cultivation of ethical freedom for democracy. Although she is one of the most influential feminist pragmatists in the United States, incorporating Christian faith and pragmatism through her activism at Hull House for democratic social reform, Addams has not received due scholarly attention in religious studies. I conduct a philosophical and historical analysis of Addams’s theory of social change by contextualizing it in her faith-based activism and pedagogy. After discussing the development of her pragmatist philosophy within the context of her activism, my presentation examines her philosophy of education and unpacks her racial and colonial ideologies to glean pedagogical insights for contemporary religious scholars. Drawing from Jane Addams’s pedagogy for democracy, I argue that religious education can contribute to ethical freedom by humanizing social relations with the virtues of ethical imagination, compassion, and creativity.