Deborah Whitehead, PhD
Deborah Whitehead, PhD, of the Religious Studies Department at CU is not afraid to share a YouTube video of dancing Quakers in her lectures. She is interested in how religion in the United States is changing and how young adults interact with religious authority today. Students nominated Whitehead for a 2013 ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award for her efforts. One student wrote of Whitehead:
Professor Whitehead was an overall OUTSTANDING professor. [emphasis original] She effectively placed all highlighted points on the power point, but explained everything in an unbiased manner. In addition, she would share relevant videos and music to keep the class interesting. She was passionate, informed, and wonderful at teaching.
Most of Whitehead's PowerPoint-based lectures in her Religions of the United States course include an element of multimedia intersected with readings of historic primary source tests. Whitehead incorporates media into teaching because:
It helps me make connections between past and present...I also think that when you teach about religion to students today, you have to engage media because that’s how students get information. I can’t tell you how many students today tell me they learned about religion through religious themes in television shows and music. [I] bring that directly into the classroom [in] a head-on way.
The “What Does George Fox Say?” YouTube video (a parody of “What Does the Fox Say”) quotes Religious Society of Friends founder George Fox’s 1656 journal entry: “Be patterns, be examples in all countries…” Whitehead may show a video like this in class during a review of American Quakerism.
For example, while studying the role of the Quakers in the founding of this country, Whitehead may play the YouTube video, "What Does George Fox Say?" that Quakers made to tell their history in a funny and accessible format. The video is a parody of Ylvis's video "What does the Fox Say?" (which itself seems a parody of the modern pop music scene). Although goofy with colonial-era costumes and techno sound--at one point the Quaker founder George Fox does the hula hoop--the "What does George Fox Say" video's lyrics overview Fox's commitment to peace and integrity.
While entertaining, the "What Does George Fox Say" video also demonstrates a new "medium of expression" for religion, Whitehead says. Videos like these show the growing role of "media and culture in religion, and give life to the past." Whitehead stresses that such historic religious groups continue to be important in American society. She feels that giving relevance to such videos lends credence to the increasing number of young adults who may take their time in choosing what religion feels right to them, if any at all ever do. (Pew, 2014)
Course Blog
Whitehead maintains an interactive class blog for her Religions of the United States course
In addition to incorporating video into her lectures, Whitehead also maintains an interactive course blog on which students can access extensive background information on religions in the United States and submit assignments in an interactive format. This way, students, too, have the opportunity to use media in their learning. Recently, for example, students each wrote blog entries to share their experiences of exploring Native American websites to learn about the diversity of modern Native American culture.
Whitehead is committed to her teaching and says,
I love studying religion because there is always something new. There is always human creativity. There is always some new way of thinking...The most important thing I want to do in my classes is to teach religious literacy so that students can participate in conversations about religion in informed ways, both as private individuals and public citizens.
