Showing posts with label Webinar Summary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Webinar Summary. Show all posts

Friday 30 October 2020

Christians and the Academy

Responsibility Towards Our University

1. politicization of the university (academic freedom, autonomy);
2. discrimination;
3. ragging, physical harassment; and
4. poor facilities and infrastructure.

Tips
- have people around who encourage you.
- find a place where you are accepted.
- inter-personal relationships are very important.

Responsibility Towards Our Society

"change the university and you change the world."
- Charles Habib Malik, A Christian Critique of the University

Universities give intellectual leadership.
Identify such universities.

Public intellectuals:
- Shashi Tharoor,
- Ramachandran Guha,
- Martin Luther King,
- Noam Chomsky.

Christian public intellectuals:
- address public issues as a Christian;
- influence public policies;
- use public forums (blog, newspapers, TV);
- challenge popular terminology and language (e.g. nationalism, leftist, liberal, )
- question common assumptions (e.g. imperialism in Western, conversion is unethical, technological advancement is progress)
- be sensitive to other's ideologies, be gentle, be wise, be bold

How to engage in productive discussion?
How do we communicate so that everyone understand?

Response - 1

Response - 2
- wrote an article on sexism, bias in algorithms;
- decided to write an article once every 3 months.

Response - 3
- encourages students to snap out of rote-learning mentality;
- considers the classroom as a sacred space for learning;
- feels that students have a utilitarian idea of education;
- encourages students to think beyond grades and placements.