Oregon Humanities

Free Summer Teacher Institute on Fundamentalism

Oregon Humanities offers teachers the chance to explore the social and political roots of fundamentalism.

01 February 2011 | Permalink

Oregon secondary school teachers will examine the topic of religious fundamentalism at a free summer institute sponsored by Oregon Humanities.

“The Many Faces of Fundamentalism” is a free weekend program offered to Oregon secondary school teachers July 7-10, 2011, at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The registration deadline for the institute is April 15, 2011. Interested teachers may register online.

Enrollment is limited and preference is given to first-time participants and full-time Oregon secondary school teachers. Institute participants earn thirty hours of continuing education credit. Two optional graduate credits are available for a fee. Attending the institute is free, though there will be a $50 materials fee for participants. For more information, please contact director of programs Jennifer Allen at (503) 241-0543 or (800) 753-0543, ext. 118, or by email.

Oregon Humanities’ Teacher Institutes are offered thanks to the generous support of individuals, foundations, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Institute Director Paul Powers is associate professor and department chair of Religious Studies at Lewis and Clark College. His research focuses on pre-modern Islam, especially Islamic law. A central question of his work has been how Islamic law deals with human subjective states. Many of the courses he teaches, such as “Religious Fundamentalism,” “Islam in the Modern World,” and a seminar on Islamic law, explore theoretical and methodological questions about the nature and study of religion, as well as gender-related issues and questions about the nature of “modernity.”