Rebekah J . Gordon | Florida State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Rebekah J . Gordon

The National Teaching and Learning Forum, 2022

Examining and confronting the rising influence of conspiracy theories. E-LEARNING EXPLAINED: Embr... more Examining and confronting the rising influence of conspiracy theories. E-LEARNING EXPLAINED: Embracing Kindness and Setting Boundaries in Online Teaching , Carly M. Lesoski, p. 3. Our columnist on building trust, presence, awareness and empathy in your online courses. CREATIVITY CAFE: Multiplicity as a Strategy for Teaching Creativity in Career-and Self-Development , Russell Carpenter and Kevin Dvorak, p. 4. Putting creativity to work for your professional development. BAD IDEAS ABOUT TEACHING: It's OK for Professors to go Back to Not Actively Improving Our Teaching , Rebecca Weaver, p. 6. Our newest regular columnist encourages us all to keep improving our pedagogy. CLASSROOM CLIMATE: Managing Conflict in Polarized Classrooms , by Rebekah Gordon, p. 8. How do we engage in difficult discussions when there is so much tension in the classroom? TEACHING INNOVATION: An Experiment in Student-Generated Writing Tutorials , Randy Laist, p. 9. Challenging students to learn how to help themselves. NEURODIVERGENT THOUGHTS: Get Moving , Lee Skallerup Bessette, p. 11. Our editor attends her first inperson conference since the pandemic began, and learns how to extend her brain.

Journal for the Anthropology of North America, 2020

Abolition is both a vision and a practice. As abolitionists, we envision a world without prisons.... more Abolition is both a vision and a practice. As abolitionists, we envision a world without prisons. We must also make that world together. Abolition is thus more than an ideological commitment to the absence of prisons. Abolition is presence, as Ruth Wilson Gilmore reminds us. It is the presence of life-giving institutions. It is our presence with one another, as we enact and explore in this article. As co-authors, we have been journeying together at Florida State University for nearly a year. Our work has shapeshifted through the COVID pandemic and in the wake of the Tallahassee Police Department murders of Mychael Johnson and Tony McDade. We open this article on these grounds, honoring the people have fought before us and all who fight in their legacy. We also stretch back into the violent histories that fill our present, and reflect in succession on the intimate work of building the world otherwise. Our prison nation may govern through erasure and abandonment, but the prison is in fact everywhere. That means that abolition must be everywhere, too. This ethnography is our work to create it. Through it, we hope to support you in making your own abolitionist futures in real time.

The Journal of Theta Alpha Kappa, 2021

The European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries was a time of great academic advancemen... more The European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries was a time of great academic advancement in which the disciplines of philosophy experienced exponential growth. Thinkers such as Rene' Descartes, Immanuel Kant, and Baruch Spinoza emphasized the rational aspect of human experience and thoroughly enmeshed it with the language used to discuss religiosity. Descartes argued that all human knowledge and rationality flows from God. Kant suggested that __________________________________________ Rebekah J. Gordon is a scholar of religion, ethics, and philosophy in the United States. Her work currently focuses on religious rhetoric in the public sphere and its subsequent impact on social movements and public policy. She has worked formerly for both the Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory (JCRT) and the Journal of Religious Ethics (JRE) and currently teaches at Florida State University. She has published articles in the JCRT and the Journal for the Anthropology of North America, and has a chapter in the upcoming Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology volume of the "Theology and Pop Culture" series published by Lexington Books/Fortress Academic.

Book Reviews by Rebekah J . Gordon

Sergeev, Mikhail. Theory of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity, and the Baha’i Faith. Amste... more Sergeev, Mikhail. Theory of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity, and the Baha’i Faith. Amsterdam: Brill Rodopi, 2015. ISBN-10:9004300031. Paperback. 176 pages.

Conference Presentations by Rebekah J . Gordon

Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion Annual Conference , 2021

In his essay Judging Others, Aaron Stalnaker asks how the preference for descriptive arguments ov... more In his essay Judging Others, Aaron Stalnaker asks how the preference for descriptive arguments over normative ones affects comparative religious ethics (CRE). His question prompts a different, albeit related, question: "How does the apparent preference for generalizable foundations over particularist groundings for ethics affect the practice of comparative religious ethics?" 1 This question differs from that of Stalnaker's in that it addresses not the method by which comparative religious ethicists argue their cases, though it applies to such conversations, but the basis upon which they perceive themselves to be building said arguments. In this way, the latter question goes "all the way down" in a way that the former does not. In this paper I will argue that comparative religious ethics ought to base itself not on generalist or particularist principles, but on both. While the consideration of cross-traditional data in religious ethical inquiry is nothing new, the modern study of CRE has its origins in discourses from the 1970's which attempt to clarify the concept of and best method for the study of religious ethics. 2 What has come to be known as "The First Wave" of CRE began in 1978 with David Little and Sumner Twiss's Comparative Religious Ethics: A New Method. 3 Together, this work and the conversations it generated are the foundations of modern CRE. Seeking to generate a social scientific account of religious and moral phenomena and philosophically address the processes of practical reason in order to arrive at a common morality 4 as well as respond to critiques that comparative work in the field of religion is liable to gross oversimplification, normative/apologetic comparative endeavors in the field of religion call the objectivity of their results into question, and that these results are "more speculative than scientific" because of the difficult nature of testing such things, Little and Twiss eschew the particularism of normative arguments in favor of descriptive ones. 5 They cite generalizability as necessary for the authority of moral action guides, and it is this conviction that generalizability is necessary for moral arguments to have weight that causes them to respond to instead of reject these criticisms. 6 To charge CRE with not being scientific enough or not producing objective results when one believes generalizability to be the necessary ground of moral authority is serious. These charges are less disconcerting for those who come to moral authority through other processes. Certain scholars, including but not limited to members of the "third wave" of CRE,

American Academy of Religion, 2020

In 2018, Palo Alto University psychology professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accused then supreme... more In 2018, Palo Alto University psychology professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accused then supreme court nominee Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. The accusation and subsequent hearing captured the attention not only of major media outlets, but women across America as they waited to see if Dr. Ford's testimony would result in disqualification from the supreme court bench. It did not. It did, however, spark a conversation about who we should believe in situations such as these and why, trackable on twitter via the hashtag "Believe Women". But what does it mean to "believe women"? Both the terms "believe" and "women" are fraught with historical contestation, and the combination of these two terms in relation to this specific moment increases the uncertainty. In a Western legal context, belief is irrevocably tied to rationality. Article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that an individual accused of a crime should be afforded a presumption of innocence. This presumption, officially established as legal precedent in America in the 1895 case of Coffin vs. U.S., is irrevocably intertwined with the notion of reasonable doubt as that is the threshold which must be surpassed in order to convict an individual of a crime. "A 'reasonable doubt,' as that term is employed in the administration of the criminal law, is an honest, substantial misgiving, generated by the proof, or the want of it. It is such a state of the proof as fails to convince your judgment and conscience and satisfy your reason of the guilt of the accused." Yet the notions of reasonable doubt and a presumption of innocence fail to account for the ways in which women are disproportionately considered "unreasonable" and disbelieved in courts of law. The West's robust notion of women as deficient traces all the way back to Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, who defined women as defective/lesser men, both bodily and intellectually inferior to men, which has in turn been institutionalized through law, historically denying women a say in their government and their homes. Western Christian theology has shaped the formation of gender identity in Western jurisprudence, and such prejudices can be traced through to the legality of the exclusion of women from the ability to avail themselves of the American judicial system, with cases such as Bradwell v. Illinois , Minor v. Happerset , In re 1 2

Stone-Campbell Journal Conference, 2020

exists to educate students for Christian ministries and other strategic vocations framed by the G... more exists to educate students for Christian ministries and other strategic vocations framed by the Great Commission in order to extend the kingdom of God among all nations." Other colleges and universities in the Stone-Campbell Movement have similar mission statements. "St. Louis Christian College pursues excellence in the Word and develops servant leaders for urban, suburban, rural, and global ministry." "The mission of Kentucky Christian University is to engage students in a transformative educational experience that equips them as effective Christian professionals providing servant leadership for the church and society." etc. etc. And these are noble aims. The curriculum of Bible Colleges and Christian Universities ought then to serve these ends. Unfortunately, the way in which this has been attempted leaves much to be desired. Each of these mission statements includes an element of the Great Commision, be it explicit or implicit. They state a desire to train their students for engagement with and leadership in explicitly non-Christian contexts. To be the light of the world. But something has gone wrong. The American Church is in decline. And people around the world are speaking out in resentment of the ways in which they have been evangelized to. While 1 Peter 3:15 says, "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence," we stand (rightly) accused by the world of irreverence. φόβου requires an acknowledgement of the other that is not being directly taught to or consistently acted upon by graduates from our schools. Fortunately, we have examples in scripture of this respect for the other. This paper will utilize Paul's Areopagus sermon in Acts 17 as a model for missionary/evangelizing endeavors. In this sermon, he began with a recognition of Athenian religion and its structure in lieu of beginning with the Gospel itself and it results in the conversion of Dionysius and Damaris as well as others. Modern missionary endeavors often answer questions they have not been asked, leaving the evangelized feeling disrespected and unheard. Many in the West report feeling more like projects than people to Christians, and this is certainly not our aim. Knowing the structures and roles of religions in the cultures in which we as Christians are sent (not merely their content) is essential in order to recognize the imago dei and fulfill the Great Commission, and therefore Religious Studies ought to be taught at institutions which function with that goal in mind.

a teenager. The accusation and subsequent trial captured the attention not only of major media ou... more a teenager. The accusation and subsequent trial captured the attention not only of major media outlets, but women across America as they waited to see if Dr. Ford's testimony would result in disqualification from the supreme court bench. It did not. It did, however, spark a conversation about who we should believe in situations such as these and why, trackable on twitter via the hashtag "Believe Women". Originating in California in the early 1980's, fear of satanic ritual abuse in which children were physically and sexually abused by their daycare workers and teachers permeated the American imagination. The moral panic at its pique culminated in the McMartin Preschool trial. After five years in jail and no conviction the accused, Raymond Buckey, was released on bail. Now several decades out it is apparent that the entire situation was mismanaged by the authorities, counselors, journalists, and parents involved. And the rallying cry of this movement? "We believe the children." Both of the above examples call for a belief of a particular group because of who they are. Believe women… because women are often victims. Believe the children… because they are innocent and in need of protection. Yet as demonstrated through the McMartin preschool trial or, even more tragically, the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, uncritical acceptance of claims to victimhood can have devastating effects on those accused. Those wrongly accused of a crime are also not the only ones at risk when we elect to accept a claim of victimhood without evidence. To call for unfettered, uncritical support of any group claiming victimhood is to do damage not only to the accused, but to the accusers themselves; as to free them from the obligation of proving their claims treats them as lesser agents, and additionally damages ourselves; as we weaken our ability to be credible allies to those in need. In her excellent article Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power, scholar Sandra Bartkey explains the ways in which femininity has been constructed and illuminates the ways in which deviating from this construction allows for women to be labeled "loose" and their credibility diminished. Indeed, the West's robust notion of women as morally deficient traces all the way back to Augustine, which has in turn been institutionalized through law, historically denying women a say in their government and their homes, hence the call to "believe women." Yet, running parallel to this dialogue is the contradictory notion of women as exemplars of moral perfection. When women have not been demonized, they have been painted as angelic. There is no logical reason to assume women are inherently either, though it has, at times, been politically expedient. Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford and Carolyn Bryant Donham (the woman who falsely accused Emmett Till) occupy two different social spaces. Where Ford accused a powerful white man and was disbelieved by many, Donham accused a young black boy and was instantly believed. To

Florida State University Graduate Student Symposium, 2020

17th Annual Graduate Student Symposium, FSU Religion Department, 2019

Human beings engage with religious ideas/texts/structures in a myriad of ways, one of the most co... more Human beings engage with religious ideas/texts/structures in a myriad of ways, one of the most common being through song. The earliest example we have of a religious song comes from 1400 BCE. For at least the last 3000 years human beings have been using music to venerate deities, but these songs accomplish so more than veneration. Religious songs, colloquially known as hymns, give congregations the unique opportunity to simultaneously praise their deities, disseminate their theological claims, and encourage one another. Religious people and institutions are not, however, the only ones to utilize the power of music for the transmission of ideas. Music aids in memorization, and as such, it is not uncommon to find the building blocks for knowledge systems laid out in song format, often marketed to children; think the abc's, the 50 states song, the School House Rock franchise, etc. Music also plays an influential role in marketing, hence the development of the jingle. Yet jingles and children's songs are not the same as hymns. There is something that sets a hymn apart. Many people identify this differentiating factor as the invocation of a deity, but such a definition is simultaneously restrictive and lacking. Instead, I offer the definition of a hymn as follows: a song dealing with religious themes, in which religious ideas are proclaimed and/or a religious community is engaged with. Using a Durkheimian understanding of religion, I argue that secular songs which criticize religion may also be classified as hymns, specifically prophetic hymns. From metal and punk to indie and classical and folk, music has a storied history of pushing back against religious norms; critical responses to theism via music is nothing new. This paper will examine the lyrics of the pop-punk band Panic! At The Disco as an intentional response to religion, and from this example suggesting the recognition of irreligious hymnography.

Teaching Documents by Rebekah J . Gordon

Rebel Dreams, 2020

https://bit.ly/RebelDreams This spoken-word poetry album was created in the spring/summer of 202... more https://bit.ly/RebelDreams

This spoken-word poetry album was created in the spring/summer of 2020 as a way to make abolitionist ideas more accessible to those eager to support Black communities in the fight for liberation but who found the available written materials prohibitively challenging to engage. The album features poems arranged by Rebekah J. Gordon, using excerpts from key abolitionist texts, including:

Dan Berger's The Struggle Within: Prisons, Political Prisoners, and Mass Movements in the United States (2014)
Angela Y. Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003)
Ruth Wilson Gilmore's Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California (2007)
Sarah Haley's No Mercy Here: Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity (2016)
Saidiya V. Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals (2019)
Kelly Lytle Hernandez’s City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965 (2017)
Jen Manion’s Liberty’s Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America (2019)
Emily L. Thuma’s All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence (2019)

The album also includes original contributions from Keith Rodgers, Author Lovely Banks, and Dennis Amadeus.

All poems were recorded by members of the poetry collective Black on Black Rhyme, and proceeds will be donated to the Tallahassee Bail Fund.