RLPI Internal Report Summary

Teaching across Disciplines and Perspectives

Through a series of virtual sessions convened since September, the newly formed Religious Literacy and the Professions Fellows program meshed diverse vocational pathways into a unique offering for HDS graduate students. The course Religious Literacy and the Professions, which Diane Moore and 10 RLPI Fellows co-taught, is a requirement for the Certificate in Religion and Public Life. In weekly small group sections held via Zoom, students connected with experts in their fields, exploring the power of understanding the influence of religion in so-called secular arenas that include government, media and entertainment, humanitarianism, community organizing, and journalism. A dynamic community emerged, bringing together these career paths with intersecting justice issues, including those of racial justice, climate change, immigration and refugees, and native and Indigenous rights.

All 10 of the RLPI Fellows gathered on the HDS campus in Cambridge in early April to strengthen connections built over the course of convening virtual meetings. In planning for the second year of the certificate program, the group began to develop a suite of case studies exploring religious literacy across professions and issue areas related to justice and to reconfigure the syllabus for the required course.

Each fellow recorded a short video exploring a “burning question” in their field of expertise, weaving in their learnings about the power and complexity of religion in shaping our civic and public lives. Fellows also had the opportunity to connect with students, exploring career questions and internships over shared meals and during the final RPL open house.

The RLPI also hosted School-wide skills workshops in podcasting—responding to student desire to hone public engagement skills—as a tangible application of ways to enhance public understanding of religion. Next year, the skills workshops series will be expanded, with potential training sessions on op-ed writing, facilitation, and power mapping.

RLPI Fellow Karilyn M. Crockett

“RPL has enabled me to think more deeply about trust as the foundation for all change and social transformation that lasts. Trust in a higher power, trust in one another, or trust in an institution is essential for moving us toward the world we are calling
into being. As the Government Fellow, every week I had a fresh opportunity to raise thorny questions about the efficacy of public policy and democratic political institutions. The students were undaunted and consistently pushed our conversations toward the possible, while naming new vehicles for accountability and action. What was clear to me before this year, and now burns in my heart as a refreshed mandate, is that we are built to look beyond ourselves and serve based on what we cannot see. The work of identifying and getting closer to this ineffable, guiding star is the work of discernment and searching in community. For this and so many other reasons, RPL is a haven for believers who seek to transform the world as we
know it and dare to trust the truth that this is possible and necessary.” —Karilyn Crockett

Karilyn Crockett, PhD, is the first Government Fellow for the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative of Religion
and Public Life. Crockett co-founded Multicultural Youth Tour of What’s Now (MYTOWN), an award-winning, Boston-based, educational nonprofit organization. Crockett served for four years with the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development as the director of economic policy and research and as the director of small business development for the City of Boston, and she was the City of Boston’s first chief of equity. She holds a faculty appointment as professor of urban history, public policy and planning in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.