Each year the Religious Studies team hosts the dynamic and thought-provoking World Religions Experience Day, an outreach initiative designed to inspire and engage Year 11 students. This is the second year the event has toured up to Cairns before running at UQ for 2 consecutive days of immersive learning.
Over 3 days, the team connected with nearly 1,000 students from more than 25 schools across Queensland. This included a vibrant gathering of around 150 students from 6 schools at St Andrew’s Catholic College in Cairns, where the event brought world religions to life through interactive sessions and a Q&A panel.
Leading the charge were 4 academics from the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry—Associate Professor Adam Bowles, Associate Professor Tom Aechtner, Dr James Lancaster, and Dr Ryan Williams—joined by Kristen Johnston and Stephanie Rieck from HASS Marketing and Engagement, along with current Advanced Humanities student Grace Wilson.
Curriculum aligned content was presented to the students with Tom exploring Rituals being Humanity’s Moral Glue, Adam sharing Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, James explaining the Meaning of the Sabbath in 20th-century America and Ryan presenting on Islam and the Hajj. Each session was run twice to allow the students to attend 2 sessions each.
UQ also welcomed Chara Scroope, PhD Candidate in Religious Studies, and BA graduate and valedictorian Jessica Esfahani to the panel session at St Lucia.
Events like this that align with curriculum in schools are proving more popular than ever and this event is an exemplar of high school outreach in HASS.
A big thank you to everyone involved in this venture. At a very busy time of the year days like these would not be possible without the commitment and dedication of our staff.
Anyone interested in learning more about this event and how you might become involved please reach out to HASS Engagement.
