August 2022, Vol. 8, No. 3

Critical Conversations #30

Anne Colby, Stanford University

The research reported in our current article, “What College Students Are After and Why?,” is part of our larger study of purpose development during college. The study centers on this topic because prior research evidence is strong that purpose is highly beneficial not only for the common good but for purposeful individuals themselves. It is associated with academic and vocational success, resilience, and psychological and physical health throughout life (Bronk, 2013; Malin et al., 2017; Morton et al., 2018). For that reason, purpose has the potential to bring self-related, personal concerns and other-focused concerns together into a harmonious whole. Read More.

Questions Relating to Moral Development: JCC, August 2022

Pamela C. Crosby, Co-Editor, Journal of College and Character

Here are some important questions that relate to moral development that are explored in articles in the August 2022 issue (vol. 23, no. 3) of the Journal of College and Character. Read more.

Lessons in Moral Development Learned From a Sabbatical Adventure

Loneliness, Mystery and Community

Peter Mather, Ohio University

Before I set out on my year-long, solo camping adventure, many of my beloved friends and family members were concerned about me—a confirmed extrovert—spending this extended period alone. As I heard these concerns from the people who knew me well, I became circumspect about my sabbatical plan. Despite the hesitation, I decided to launch into my adventure, even though I had not camped for decades and never alone. Read more.

Critical Religious Studies in Higher Education

What Does Secularism Look Like in Higher Education?

Julia Collett, SUNY Buffalo State College

My goals in this blog post are to highlight the ways the supposed secularity of public and private institutions of higher education are not actually neutral. I want readers to understand that higher education is rooted in Christian hegemony and to identify changes that can be made on any campus to support students of minoritized religions. Read more.

Engaging Civic Religious Pluralism

Engaging Civic Religious Pluralism: Pursuing Radical Candor and Emergent Strategy

Becca Hartman-Pickerill Interfaith America

As I watch the January 6 hearings, read about the wars abroad and at home, and consider the myriad effects of our ongoing pandemics, I find myself pursuing models of being and belonging that generate health and life. I invite you to imagine with me a conversation between Kim Scott, coming from the business world, and adrienne marie brown, whose focus is on love centered liberation. In molten cultural moments like these, as people ask foundational questions of society, higher education, and work, we have opportunities to imagine something new and begin to practice it. Read more.

Fostering Moral Development

Hope Revisited

Alan Acosta, University of Massachusetts Medical School 

Like many of you, I have kept an eye on events across the world, particularly in the U.S. Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions assaulting what I assumed were basic freedoms, continued racialized mass gun violence, concerning changes to election laws, and other actions I find disconcerting continue to happen at a rate with which it is almost difficult to keep up. Read more.