Teaching Religious Studies and Religious Literacy for College Students

Gene Gallagher, Connecticut College

Monday, December 10, 2018

Gene Gallagher is the Rosemary Park Professor Emeritus of Religious Studiesat Connecticut College and founding director of the Joy Shechtman Mankoff Center for Teaching & Learning. He is also a co-chair of the new AAR effort to create guidelines about what every two- and four-year college graduate should know about the study of religion. He also contributed an excellent chapter in the new Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Education about the history of religious studies in higher education.

Gene Gallagher retired from teaching in 2015. His interests focus on new religious movements with a comparative and historical perspective. His intellectual interests in this area shape how he teaches a series of case studies, including courses on Understanding Global Religions, Cults and Conversion in Modern America and Holy Books: Scripture in the Western Tradition. Gallagher was named the 2004 Connecticut State Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2001, he received the American Academy of Religion’s Excellence in Teaching Award.