Religion and Leadership

RELS 4900/6900 Dr. Cape, She/her

Class Meetings: Tues, Thurs 11:00am -12:30pm – Office Hours: Tues, Thurs 3pm-5pm

In 2015 two global icons met in India. This was the beginning of a close friendship between two Nobel Peace Prize Laureates who shared a grave history of struggle against authoritarian systems. One of them, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, led his people amidst tear gas and police dogs to protest against apartheid. He served as the head of the Truth and Reconciliation committee investigating human rights abuses, and was installed as the first Black Anglican bishop of Johannesburg. He was also the first black archbishop of Cape Town. The other was His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, who had lost his country at age twenty-four becoming a political refugee, rising to be the spiritual leader of the Tibetan government in exile, while witnessing the genocide of his people and systematic eradication of his culture. He has spent his life traveling, becoming a world leader in intereligious dialogue and peacemaking. Each of these two great leaders emphasized non-violent protest in the face of violent opposition and each reconciled religious beliefs with social action. This course will study the lives and histories of two of the most beloved leaders in the world, their context in a history of non-violent resistance, examining their lives and work in terms of leadership studies and religion. This will include the following key issues in religion and leadership:

How culture, beliefs, and values inform concepts of service, leadership, and social action
Ethics of religious leadership in protecting vulnerable communities in the face of violence
Core ingredients of effective interreligious dialogue
Leadership styles and how they are shaped by religion
The role of empathy and compassion in social justice
Teachings of reconciliation, recovery, well-being, and resilience as taught by these leaders

About the Course

This course will take a leadership studies perspective along side a historical and analytical approach. This will be coupled with self-reflective writing exercises and discussions that will require students to craft a contemporary response to the grave dilemmas faced by historical religious leaders. For historical materials, students will engage with archival materials including biographies, news clippings, and documentary footage. For a final project, students will complete a My Leadership Studies Portfolio, which will include three projects, 1) a paper critically reflecting on the choices made by a great religions leader 2) a “future resume” reflecting a personal map for developing leadership experience and skills and 3) How I Will Change the World Photo Essay.

“You can overcome the most horrendous circumstances and emerge on the other side not broken.”
Desmond Tutu

Week 1 Conceptualizing Leadership
Week 2 Ethics of Religious Leadership in the Face of Violence
Week 3 Exile from Tibet and the Life of the Dalai Lama
Week 4 Truth & Reconciliation and the life of Desmond Tutu
Week 5 Core Ingredients of Interreligous Dialogue, Mission Joy
Week 6 Core Ingredients of Interreligous Dialogue, Book of Joy
Week 7 Leadership Styles
Week 8 The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Social Justice
Week 9 Nurturing Leadership
Week 10 Reconciliation and Recovery
Week 11 The role of Human Flourishing, Well-being, and Resilience in Spiritual Leadership
Week 12 My Leadership Studies Portfolio Writing workshop
Week 13 Future Resume In Class Workshop
Week 14 How I Will Change the World Photo Essay, with Oral Presentations in Class

Textbooks

The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York, Routledge, 2016).
Dalai Lama. My Land and My People: The Original Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet. (New York: Warner Books, 1962).
Dalai Lama. A Compassionate Life. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003).
Tutu, Desmond. The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution. (New York: Random House, 1994).
Tutu, Desmond. No Future Without Forgiveness. (New York: Double Day, 1997).
Rosenberg, Arthur D. The Resume Handbook: How to write outstanding resumes and cover letters for every situation. (Avon, Massachusetts: Simon and Schuster, 2007).
Readings and videos will also be found online and in iCollege. Check the calendar of readings.

Schedule of Classes & Readings

Class 1 Welcome and Syllabus Quiz

In the first class we will meet to introduce ourselves and review the syllabus. You will be quizzed on the syllabus before the next class. For the first day of class, please prepare a short introduction of yourself that includes the following: your name, where you are from (or an important place in your life), what you would like to learn in this class, name a great leader that you admire and explain why.

Watch Mission Joy Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nlUl5yNgIE&t=3s

Week 1 Conceptualizing Leadership

Reading Textbook: Peter Gronn. “Instead of Angels: Leaders, Leadership and Longue Durée,” The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York: Routledge, 2016). 89-103
Reading Textbook: Firth, Joshua and Brigid Caroll. “Leadership and Power.” The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York: Routledge, 2016). 125-141
Reading Textbook: Bird Allan, Michael Mendenhall, Joyce Osland, Gary Oddou and Sebastian Reiche. “Global Leadership in Perspective.” The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York: Routledge, 2016). 348-358.

Week 2 Ethics of Religious Leadership in the Face of Violence

Reading PDF iCollege: Nepstad, Sharon Erickson. “Nonviolent Resistance Research,” Mobilization an International Quarterly, vol 20, 4, December 1, 2015. 415-426
Reading Online: O’Brien, Anne Sibley, and Perry Edmond O’Brien. After Gandhi: One hundred years of nonviolent resistance. Charlesbridge Publishing, 2018. 12-36, 122-132

Week 3 Exile from Tibet and the Life of the Dalai Lama

Reading Textbook: Dalai Lama. My Land and My People: The Original Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet. (New York: Warner Books, 1962).
Reading Online: Barnes, Douglas F. “Charisma and religious leadership: An historical analysis.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion(1978): 1-18.
Reading Textbook: Spoelstra, Sverre. “Leadership and Religion.” The Routledge Companion to Leadership. (New York: Routledge, 2016). 319-332

Week 4 Truth & Reconciliation and the life of Desmond Tutu

Reading Textbook: Tutu, Desmond. The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution. (New York: Random House, 1994).
Reading Textbook: Burke, Ronald. “Destructive Leadership: Antecedents, Consequences and Remedies.” The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York: Routledge, 2016). 377-390.

Week 5 Core Ingredients of Interreligious Dialogue, Mission Joy

Watch Film GSU Library: Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times
Reading Textbook: Gibeau, Emilie, Wendy Reid and Ann Langley. “Co-leadership: Contexts, Configurations and Conditions.” The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York: Routledge, 2016). 225-241
Reading Textbook: Barenstsen, Jack. “Practicing Religious Leadership.” The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York: Routledge, 2016). 260-277

Week 6 Core Ingredients of Interreligious Dialogue, The Book of Joy

Reading Textbook: Tutu, Desmond and the Dalai Lama. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World
Reading Textbook: Tourish, Dennis. “Leaders as Spiritual Heroes: The Paradoxes of Unlimited Leader Agency.” The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York: Routledge, 2016). 419-422.

Week 7 Leadership Styles in the lives of Archbishop Tutu and HH Dalai Lama

Reading Online: Diefenbach, Thomas, and John AA Sillince. “Formal and informal hierarchy in different types of organization.” Organization studies32, no. 11 (2011): 1515-1537.
Reading Online: Culp III, Kenneth, and Kathryn J. Cox. “Leadership styles for the new millennium: Creating new paradigms.” Journal of Leadership Studies4, no. 1 (1997): 3-17.

Week 8 The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Social Justice – what are multiple ideas of freedom, agency, and liberation? Why does the Dalai Lama Center Compassion in His Activism?

Reading iCollege: Mahmood, Saba. “Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival,” Cultural Anthropology 16:2 (2001): 202–236.
Reading PDF iCollege: Goleman, Daniel. “Universal Responsibility and The Roots of Empathy and Compassion.” Understanding the Dalai Lama(2009): 139.
Reading Textbook: Dalai Lama. A Compassionate Life. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003). 1-56 and 69-90.

Week 9 Nurturing Leadership

Reading Textbook: “Nurturing Leadership.” The Routledge Companion to Leadership, (New York: Routledge, 2016). 501-601.

Week 10 Reconciliation and Recovery

Reading Textbook: Tutu, Desmond. No Future Without Forgiveness. (New York: Double Day, 1997).
Reading Online: Stanley, Elizabeth. “Evaluating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” The Journal of Modern African Studies39, no. 3 (2001): 525-546.

Week 11 The Role of Human Flourishing, Well-Being, and Resilience in Spiritual Leadership

Reading Online: Flores, Thomas V., Brendan Ozawa-de Silva, Caroline Murphy, and Northern Ireland. “Peace Studies and the Dalai Lama· s Approach of Secular Ethics: Towards a Positive, Multidimensional Model of Health and Flourishing.”
Reading Online: Srivastava, Prem Shankar. “Spiritual intelligence: An overview.” International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development3, no. 3 (2016): 224-227.

Week 12 My Leadership Studies Portfolio Writing Workshop

A draft of your paper is due in class today for the writing workshop. Final copy is due the last day of class.

Week 13 Future Resume In Class Workshop

Reading textbook: Rosenberg, Arthur D. The resume handbook: How to write outstanding resumes and cover letters for every situation. (Avon, Massachusetts: Simon and Schuster, 2007).
A draft of your Future Resume is due in class today for the resume workshop. Final copy is due the last day of class.

Week 14 How I Will Change the World Photo Essay Presentations in Class

Examine the groundbreaking Photo Essay from Gongkar Gyatso, My Identity, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. https://www.mfa.org/entry/2016/my-identity
Student presentations of Photo Essays during the final class meetings and finals period. Sign-up sheets will be distributed in class to determine the order of presentations.

Assignments and Assessments

Grading Rubric for Undergraduates

Participation and Attendance 25%
Weekly Class Quizzes 25%
My Leadership Studies Portfolio 60% (20% Paper 20% Resume 20% Photo Essay)

Grading Rubric for Graduate Students

Participation and Attendance 25%
Weekly Class Quizzes 15%
My Leadership Studies Portfolio 60% (20% Paper 20% Resume 20% Photo Essay)
Religion and Leadership Oral Presentation 10%

Grading System

A + 99-100 A 93-98.99 A- 90-92.99

B+ 87-89.99 B 83-86.99 B- 80-82.99

C+ 77-79.99 C 73-76.99 C- 70-72.99

D 60-69.99 F 59.9 and below

My Leadership Studies Portfolio

Re-writing the life of a great leader paper: This assignment is five pages for undergraduates and eight pages for graduate students. Your portfolio will include a paper critically reflecting on the choices made by a great religious leader that is named in your textbook, The Routledge Companion to Leadership. You will re-write an episode of their life and choices refer to the leadership theories studied in class, with citation of these materials. Use Times New Roman 12 point font, five/eight pages, double spaced. Use Chicago style footnotes and bibliography. The bibliography does not count towards the five pages. A paper grading rubric will be distributed in class, review this carefully as each item on the list will be considered for points.
Future Resume: You will create a future resume reflecting a map or plan of developing leadership experience and skills over a ten year period starting this year. The future resume represents a plan for developing leadership skills based on roles, positions, publications, internships, workshops, service and other data. All examples used must be real places with real opportunities, for example, if you list a year internship at the New York times while you are in graduate school, you must first do the research to verify that these internships exist and that you meet the requirements. Refer to examples given in class for formatting. Future Resume should be no more than five pages, using Times New Roman 12 point font, following the resume format provided in class.
How I Will Change the World Photo Essay. Using eight original photos, each with a maximum one sentence title, explain what leadership qualities you have and how you would use this to be of service to humanity, improve the quality of people’s lives in Atlanta, or change something significant in a community that you are a part of. See Photo Essay Grading Rubric distributed in class. Presentations more than ten minutes will lose five points on the grade.
Graduate students will also offer an oral presentation on Religion and Leadership. Leaders should be skilled in oral presentations and persuasive speech. Students will spot light a religious leader and discuss their leadership in terms of the themes discussed in the reading of that week. Students should give a short biography and context of that religious leader and then demonstrate how that leader is an example of the themes dicussed in the readings that week. Students can sign up for their presentation on any Thursday of the semester, see sign up list. The presentation will last no more than ten minutes, presentations after ten minutes will lose points in order to create fairness in grading for all students who will have the exact same time.
1. In preparation for your oral presentation please review this ted talk. “The three magic ingredients of oral presentations” on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoD8RMq2OkU
2. In preparation for your slides – please review: “Death by Powerpoint,” on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpi1Lm6dFo

Attendance

Attendance and participation are required to optimize your learning experience and foster a learning community. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. Students are expected to arrive promptly, be attentive and participate in class discussions and exercises. Weekly quizzes will include material covered in class, so missed attendance will also impact students’ quiz grades. There is no penalty for missing three classes. If a student misses more than three classes, then points will be deducted. If students have a family emergency or medical emergency requiring missing more than three classes, then a two page essay will be due for each missed class to earn back attendance and participation points, see instructor for instructions.

Class Participation

This class requires a critical, historical, and generative engagement rather than a faith based approach. To study religion and leadership is to engage in a cross-cultural encounter and therefore to encounter the unfamiliar. To study religion is also to engage with topics that one may have already formed strong opinions about. Students should be open minded enough to allow the assignments to challenge their ideas and preconceived notions. Students should also actively be questioning the arguments and ideas advanced in the texts. This type of critical reflection is expected during the discussions and in your assignments.

Weekly Quizzes

Every student will be asked to answer questions about the reading and media assignments in every class, so preparation is essential. To foster lively discussions in class, every week there will be a quiz that covers topics discussed in class, subjects from the reading, presentations and assignments. The quiz will focus on reading comprehension, featuring the main ideas and main arguments of the authors. Additionally, the final question in each quiz will be to ask what you found interesting, strange or meaningful in that week’s readings. There are no make-up quizzes or late submissions. Quizzes must be completed and submitted by 11:59pm on Friday night. The three lowest quiz grades will be dropped.

How to Prepare for Class Discussions

As you read your texts, watch films and listen to podcasts, prepare answers to the following questions for class discussion:

When was this text written?
What is the function of this text – how does it function didactically to convey philosophy or make arguments?
Who is this text written for, who is the audience?
Who is missing from the text, what voices or perspectives are present and what voices or perspectives are absent?
What are the counter arguments that this text is responding to?
How does the author’s positionality show up in this text?
What morals or ethics are expressed in this text or absent in this text?
What questions does this text raise for you?
How does this text relate to your own experience or current events?
What surprises you about this text? What confused you while you read it?

Course Policies

Class Decorum

Students must arrive on time and stay until the end of the period to receive full attendance points. Students who arrive more than ten minutes late to class are considered absent.
Cell phones and laptops must be turned off before class begins. Class notes must be written by hand unless a student has signed up for accommodations. Students may only use technology in a way that is relevant to class. During group discussions, computers will also be closed. Please be aware that if you use technology for non-class activities, this will result in a lowered participation grade for that day.
Gender inclusive language is encouraged in this class.
Respect for oneself and one’s fellow students is required; this includes listening and being attentive when other students speak and refraining from talking over the instructor.
Students are expected to try to understand others’ points of views, even when they are different from one’s own. Some religious concepts may be difficult to understand, especially when they contradict dearly held beliefs. Our task in religious studies is to understand how those ideas make sense for the people who believe them, and why they make sense to them and to ask what contexts are in place that cause those ideas to make sense. You are not asked to change your beliefs, only to become familiar with other beliefs, customs, practices and theoretical approaches to the study of religions.

Accommodations

I am committed to creating a welcoming and effective learning environment for all students. If you have any type of disability or require accommodations for another reason, please see me during office hours and note that requests may be made through the Access and Accommodations Center: https://access.gsu.edu/

Sensitive Topics
The study of religion and its history may raise difficult topics including race, class, gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, war and violence. If you ever feel that a topic may be too distressing, please notify me and you will be excused from that class and may use the two page essay assignment to earn points back for attendance.

Department of Religious Studies

General Syllabus Statement Spring 2024

Welcome to Religious Studies at Georgia State University! GSU is home to a fantastically diverse student body, and our classrooms are spaces for respectful teaching and learning. As a student taking a class in Religious Studies, you are responsible for reading and understanding department, college, and university policies. Students in our classes are held to in the Student Code of Conduct and other policies discussed in the Student Handbook. If you have questions about the policies below or policies included in the Student Code of Conduct or Student Handbook, please ask your instructor.

Respect & Civility

Faculty and students in Religious Studies courses commit to supporting diversity and inclusion. We strive to construct a safe and inclusive environment by respecting each other’s dignity and privacy. We honor each class member’s experiences, beliefs, perspectives, and backgrounds, regardless of race, religion, language, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identification, ability status, socio-economic status, national identity, or any other identity markers.

Faculty in the Department of Religious Studies are committed to fostering belonging in our classrooms and programs. Instructors in Religious Studies are continually engaged in learning about and implementing welcoming and inclusive pedagogies; we are sharing and developing related resources and support for students; we are including voices and media from many perspectives in our classes; and we are engaged in mentoring initiatives anchored in belonging. In particular, we actively work to identify and interrupt microaggressions in our classroom exchanges. (See handout on microaggressions.)
Please use the names and pronouns preferred by students and faculty. Students who wish to use a name or pronoun other than what is available on the class roll may introduce themselves to the class using it, or they may contact the instructor via email.
In instances of sexual misconduct, instructor(s) and teaching assistants are designated as Responsible Employees and are required to share with administrative officials all reports of sexual misconduct for university review. If you wish to disclose an incident of sexual misconduct confidentially, there are options on campus for you do so. For more information on this policy, please refer to the Sexual Misconduct Policy which is included in the Georgia State University Student Code of Conduct (https://codeofconduct.gsu.edu/).
Students who wish to request an accommodation for a disability must do so by registering with the Access and Accommodations Center (AACE) located in Student Center East, Suite 205. Students may only be accommodated upon issuance of a signed Student Accommodation Letter through the AACE.  The signed Student Accommodation Letter may be submitted electronically to the course instructor or hand delivered by the student to all classes in which the student is seeking accommodations.

Academic Honesty & Netiquette

While the penalty for academic dishonesty is a matter of the instructor’s discretion in the Department of Religious Studies, the customary penalty for a violation of the academic dishonesty rules is an “F” in the course. See the University Policy on Academic Honesty on the reverse of this sheet.
The selling, sharing, publishing, presenting, or distributing of instructor-prepared course lecture notes, videos, audio recordings, or any other instructor-produced materials from any course for any commercial purpose is strictly prohibited unless explicit written permission is granted in advance by the course instructor. This includes posting any materials on websites. Unauthorized sale or commercial distribution of such material is a violation of the instructor’s intellectual property and the privacy rights of students attending the class and is prohibited.
In keeping with USG and university policy, instructors will make every effort to maintain the privacy and accuracy of your personal information. Specifically, unless otherwise noted, your instructor will not actively share personal information gathered from the course with anyone except university employees whose responsibilities require access to said records. This course may use websites and technologies such as iCollege. As such, some information collected from iCollege, websites, or other technologies may be subject to the Georgia Open Records Act. This means that while your instructor does not actively share information, in some cases your instructor or university officials may be compelled by law to release information gathered from the site. Also, the course will be managed in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which prohibits the release of education records without student permission.

Deadlines & Withdrawal

Students are responsible for confirming that they are attending the course section for which they are registered. Failure to do so may result in a WF or F for the course.
The midpoint is Tuesday, February 27^th. The withdrawal period begins Tuesday, January 16^th and ends Tuesday, February 27^th. Please view the calendar for other dates and information.
Students who are involuntarily withdrawn may petition the department chair for reinstatement into their classes.
A student may be awarded a grade of “W” no more than 6 times in their career at Georgia State. After 6 W’s, a withdrawal is recorded as a WF on the student’s record. A WF counts as an F in a GPA.
By University policy and to respect the confidentiality of all students, final grades may not be posted or given out over the phone. To see your grades, check the web (student.gosolar.gsu.edu).
Your constructive assessment of this course plays an indispensable role in shaping education at Georgia State University. Upon completing the course, please take the time to fill out the online course evaluation.

Finally, please keep in mind that your instructor’s syllabus provides a general plan for the course. Deviations may be necessary.