A Conversation with Sheila F. Winborne, 2024 AAR Excellence in Teaching Award Winner

Dr. Sheila F. Winborne is the 2024 recipient of AAR’s Katie Geneva Cannon Excellence in Teaching Award. She currently serves as Teaching Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Northeastern University in Boston. Since 2011, she takes an interdisciplinary approach in the studies of religion, philosophy, race, and film. Her research involves analysis of visual culture of the late nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. This includes exploring how visual culture reflects and influences community beliefs and practices, and how artists use forms of spiritual and prophetic language to describe their purposes.

The following interview was conducted in 2024 by Nichole Phillips (chair of the AAR Committee on Teaching and Learning) on behalf of RSN and has been edited for space and clarity.

RSN: How would you describe your teaching life? Is there a word or phrase that captures your pedagogy and in what ways?

SW: I describe my teaching approach as an interdisciplinary pedagogy of “the Other.” My starting points of interest are religious studies and visual culture. I invite the undergraduate students I teach to see familiar popular film themes and filmmaking techniques through a new lens. This involves inviting students to explore various questions regarding the films we watch. Some of these questions include:

• What does it mean to be human with god-like powers to create systems that support defining and representing some humans as “the Other”?
• In film worlds, what does it mean to be defined as a fully valued human as opposed to a less valued human or disposable body?
• Is slavery less of a moral concern when the slaves are represented as machines, animals (such as apes), extraterrestrial aliens, or even walking dead zombies?
• If we live in the best of all possible worlds, why is there evil and suffering, and what should and can humanity do about it?
• Why are the ways we believe we should live often so different than the ways we actually do live?

I begin courses with these broad questions and then give attention to specific ways that “otherness” is represented in film and how that relates to our real world including the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religious affiliation.

I also address how human tragedies represented in film reflect and influence our worldviews, and therefore our real-world realities. I ask students to consider how films can reflect the historical times in which they were released as well as sometimes make predictions about the ways we live today or may live in the future. I take these approaches because I think that to change things for the better, we must be willing to focus not only to the good but also to the tragedies about what it means to be human. We must be willing to focus on human tragedies in order to more fully understand those who came before us and ourselves as a part of a complicated species. We need this understanding to effectively reach toward more ethical, moral, and just ways of living.

The core of my teaching life is my commitment to interdisciplinary education in Religious Studies and film as they relate to studies in philosophy and race. This includes analysis of films created and/or distributed through the Hollywood system as a form of visual culture. My starting point in analyzing films is with the visual elements and how they relate to and are enhanced by the uses of sound and as a cultural story- and myth-telling medium. Some of the courses I teach include “Apocalypticism in Film,” “The Problem of Evil in Film,” and “Race and Religion in Film.”

RSN: What does it mean for you to create an “an inclusive learning environment” in your classrooms?

SW: I am aware that students bring different life experiences and worldviews to my courses, and I stress that all voices are welcome. I ask students to enter the courses I teach with an open mind and respect for differences. My approach to creating an inclusive learning environment involves taking a pluralistic approach that involves open discussions and constructive critiques; collective confrontation with difficult questions and controversial ideas; and respect for cultural and intellectual diversity. I include the following among the participation policies stated in the syllabus for each course: “while it is sometimes appropriate in discussions to share our beliefs, opinions, and personal theories, they should be informed and supported with careful, thoughtful, and organized evidence-based critical thinking and supporting research.” I believe that all people should have a right to self-definition, and that we often become more introspective about what we believe and why when we are exposed to ideas and perspectives different from our own.

My approach to pluralism is influenced by the work of Diana L. Eck, who describes pluralism as not about relativism or diversity for diversity’s sake, but as energetic engagement with and commitment toward actively seeking understanding across lines of difference. Eck states that pluralism is not a foregone conclusion but a possible achievement.

Many students enter the courses I teach with questions, assumptions, and confusion about the differences between religion as organized faith traditions and Religious Studies as an academic discipline. To address this, I created a reference sheet that includes sample descriptions and related theories of pluralism, religion, philosophy, and film that we give focus to throughout each course.

RSN: What specific resources do you find to be the most helpful in your syllabi or course designs?

SW: Regarding required resources that I assign, I use a diversity of 20^th and early 21^st century films as well as writings by scholars from a variety of disciplines such as Religious Studies, Philosophy, African-American studies, and Film Studies. I focus these resources in relation to contemporary realities. I primarily utilize historical films because I believe that we must have some understanding of history in order not to continually repeat the mistakes of the past and to reach toward beginning to create better ways of living in the present and future.

The following are just a few examples of some of the written resources I use in courses: Toni Morrison’s The Origins of Others; Katie Geneva Cannon’s Black Womanist Ethics; John Lyden’s Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals; SB Rodriquez-Plate’s Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World; Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin’s America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies; and George E. Tinker’s Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide.

I assign final projects with options allowing students to complete an individual or group original creative project in a medium of their choosing. Among some of the numerous types of projects students have completed are short films, screenplays, a dramatic play that symbolized the moment when God is silent as described in the biblical book of Revelation, an apocalyptic-themed figure skating routine, an original violin duet centered on the themes of good versus evil, paintings, drawing, poetry, illustrated children’s stories, graphic novels, video games, and podcasts.  

RSN: Do you use any special exercises to help students develop their writing skills?

SW: I created a recorded lecture on argumentative writing that I require all students to watch. I find that making the lecture available so that students can view and review it as needed works better than if I just shared the information once live within the classroom. The lecture tells students how to approach argumentative writing assignments and includes a list of campus tutoring services and online writing resources. It also includes information about the purposes of argumentative writing and how this type of writing relates to the type of approaches used by scholars in course required readings. I share with students the reasons why and how argumentative writing can help them carefully examine and support their own and others’ ideas. This includes guiding students in how to evaluate conflicting claims and judge the quality of supporting evidence. I expose students to various scholarly methods of investigation. For example, I assign a required reading titled “Reading Philosophy with Background Knowledge & Metacognition” by the philosopher and religious studies scholar, David W. Concepción. In this article, he provides a method for deconstructing scholarly writings.

RSN: Tell us about your pedagogy of the “Other” and “flipped classroom” concepts. How do you think either or both contribute to the sheer number of religion majors and non-majors that you attract to your religion courses?

SW: Most of the students I teach are non-majors. Most of my students are majoring in engineering or business, with a few majoring in biological sciences, media studies, or other areas. I primarily teach introductory courses that do not have prerequisites. Most students take the courses I teach as an elective to fulfill various requirements. My multilayered pedagogy of “the Other” supports Northeastern University’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging vision. After taking one of my courses that focuses on “the Other,” many students feel more comfortable discussing issues of difference and diversity than they would otherwise. Beginning with a wider lens and moving to how specific related issues are represented in film help attract students who might not otherwise take a course that includes focus on religion, race, and gender. Other students are drawn to the courses because of the focus on issues of diversity and human tragedy, and many students enroll because they want to think about and be exposed to an academic approach to discussing apocalyptic events and other types of disasters.

The “flipped classroom” approach that I use involves having students learn much of the main content before class meetings and applying what they have learned to in-class group assignments. Before most classes, I have students closely watch a required film and complete a related film exercise plus complete a close deconstructive reading of the main required text for the class. Before class, they also complete a discussion posting in which they present an argument and support it based on evidence from the required film and reading. I usually have a pre-assigned group of students meet and develop a set of questions about the required film and reading that they will present and have us as a class discuss for a part of the class meeting; this student group also can suggest which film scenes we rewatch together and discuss in class. I find that having students complete the main assignments before class and then complete related in-class assignments leads to more in-depth and detailed discussions.

RSN: Do you believe these have been your most effective tools in reaching students? Are there other additional tools or strategies that have been effective in the classroom?

SW: I think that the tools that I mentioned above are among some of the most effective tools that I use in reaching students. I am aware that students have different preferred ways of expression. Some are more comfortable expressing themselves verbally – either individually or in collaborative group settings – while others are more comfortable expressing themselves in writing or creative projects. For this reason, I often present written, visual, auditory, and multimedia texts in the classroom.

As I stated above, within pre-agreed guidelines, I give students the option of creating individual or group final projects in a medium of their choice. I think this also has been among the most effective tools I have used in reaching students.

RSN: What do you believe is your major contribution to the profession of teaching?

SW: One of my major contributions to the profession of teaching is that I have introduced many undergraduate students who are not religious studies majors to the academic study of religion. On average, I usually teach about 300 students a year. I am projected to have taught over 3,000 students by the end of this academic year. My goal is to help students begin to understand just how interdisciplinary and expansive and complex approaches to religion in academics and beyond can be. This includes asking students to consider how films have influenced their worldviews since they were young children and saw their first Disney film, as well as why related critical analysis is important for children as well as adults. 

RSN: What advice would you give to junior faculty just beginning their teaching careers?

SW: Be persistent and don’t be afraid to experiment. Don’t give up on yourself or your students. Don’t stop working to figure out better ways to reach the students you teach. Be willing to continue to expand and improve your teaching approaches as the generations of students and their primary concerns change over the years. Realize that everything you try may not necessarily easily work at first.

I have found it helpful to be transparent with the undergraduate students I teach about why I require specific assignments and why, in general, elements of my pedagogy are as they are. I have found it helpful to create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) with answers and a reference list for each of the courses I teach. I include answers to the main questions that students have asked during previous semesters as well as answers to additional questions that I think will be helpful for students to know at the beginning of the course. The first question that I present and answer in each list is “What are among the things I [as a student] need to do in order to do well in this course?” I include in my answer to this question an estimate of how much time students will need to complete assignments each week, for example.

RSN: Given the changing landscape including shrinking religion and humanities departments, what would you say to a person on why it is important to continue to teach religion?

SW: Religion is a core aspect of cultures. All people are influenced by it whether they define themselves as participants within a faith tradition or whether they no longer practice their faith tradition within a traditional way, or whether they define themselves as atheists or agnostics. The majority of persons in the world are either continuing to understand themselves as a part of an organized faith tradition, or they are reacting against a specific organized faith tradition, or they are against organized-institutionalized approaches to religion in general. To embrace religion or oppose religion results in religion influencing one’s worldview. The result is that religion influences our worldviews regardless of one’s perspective. Therefore, it is to our advantage to directly know something about the complex histories and actual beliefs of people instead of just depending only on what you may hear from someone who is not well informed. An interdisciplinary education in religion with other areas of study can support not only expansions in contextual thinking that can enhance well-informed critical, creative, and ethical thinking.