What if intelligence comes from within, comes from before - the formal structures of educational systems? These papers address the possibilities of decolonial, multicultural, and multireligious forms of pedagogy and praxis within and outside the academy/classroom.
This paper proposes Dal pedagogy as an intersectional pedagogical framework rooted in the historical experiences of Dalit communities in India. The Sanskrit word dal means "broken," "split," or "crushed," reflecting the structural marginalization of Dalits within the caste system. Emerging outside the academy, Dal pedaogy draws upon the wisdom of Dalit ancestors whose conversion to Christianity is a site of imagination, protest, and resistance against caste-based dehumanization. Yet, contemporary political developments, including Hindu nationalist movements and campaigns such as Ghar Wapsi, complicate Dalit Christian identity by reinforcing Dalit Christians to negotiate their caste and religious identities. Engaging intersectionality and Dalit feminist scholarship, this paper examines how Dal pedagogy continues to generate imagination, protest, and resistance in contemporary India.
A multicultural theological classroom is increasingly part of the visible future of theological education, especially in the U.S. context. Drawing on personal experience, this presentation proposes a pedagogy centered on decentering, decolonial awareness, inclusivity, and critical reflection. Using preaching courses as a case study, it illustrates how such practices cultivate students’ attentiveness to foster equitable, belonging-oriented communities and shape future ministers’ theological imagination. These classroom practices may extend beyond the academy, influencing students’ work in congregations, academic institutions, and broader social contexts.
This paper presents teaching using the circle-keeping process as not only a restorative and critical pedagogical approach, but a returning to Indigenous and ancestral wisdom that promotes alternative decolonial futures inside the theological academy. The first section briefly traces the history circle-keeping in public schools and the steps for holding circles recommended by restorative justice practitioners like Kay Pranis. The next section highlights the similarities between various Indigenous principles that inform circle practice and proposes that embracing those values reframes the goal of theological education from individual to mutual flourishing. The next section posits this reframing as a process of deconstruction and reconstruction for decolonial futuring in theological education as proposed by interreligious theological educator Christine Hong. The paper concludes with an application of the circle-keeping process to a hybrid-synchronous ministry class about the socio-political implications of the sacraments.
In times when the future of the humanities within the academy feels increasingly uncertain, this paper proposes the concept of “feminist chains of transmission” as a framework for understanding how women scholars sustain intellectual traditions and illuminate scholarly futures. Drawing on traditions of scholarly lineage within Judaism and Shiʿi Islam—particularly the concepts of shoshelet and isnād—this paper examines how knowledge is transmitted through relational networks of mentorship, care, and intellectual responsibility. While religious studies has often emphasized texts, institutions, and canonical authorities, this study argues that mentorship itself functions as a central site of intellectual transmission. Through feminist and decolonial perspectives, the paper highlights how women scholars, especially those working within minority religious traditions, cultivate networks of mentorship that sustain emerging generations of scholars. In doing so, these mentors act as beacons of light within the academy, illuminating pathways through which future scholars carry forward traditions of knowledge while imagining more inclusive scholarly futures.