This month, 25 teachers from public, private, and faith-based schools around the USA are gathering in New York City for the three-week summer institute “Religious Worlds of New York: Teaching the Everyday Life of American Religious Diversity.” The institute is a project of the Interfaith Center of New York and Union Theological Seminary, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This year, teachers are joining us from Illinois, Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, California, Tennessee, Colorado and more, to work with leading scholars of religion, meet with diverse religious leaders, visit local houses of worship, and conduct original field research. We’ll be traveling the city’s religious worlds, visiting houses of worship such as the Ganesh Temple in Flushing Queens, the Chogyesa Zen Temple on the Upper West Side, and Harlem’s historic Convent Avenue Baptist Church. This is an exciting opportunity for teachers to explore the religious diversity of New York City while contributing to the pressing debate over the study of religion in American public schools. For more information on the institute, see www.religiousworldsnyc.org.
