Survey: philosophical and religious studies ‘beyond boundaries’

Do you teach philosophical or religious studies (PRS) outside a dedicated PRS department?

The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies (PRS) are beginning a scoping study of PRS provision in non-PRS departments. (‘PRS’ subjects include philosophy; theology; religious studies; history and philosophy of science, technology and medicine. To find out more about the Subject Centre, visit: http//prs.heacademy.ac.uk.)

Just as there are learning and teaching issues that are specific to philosophical and religious studies, and which the Subject Centre for PRS aims to support, we feel there are similar specific issues involved in teaching courses with a PRS element to non-specialists, such as natural and social scientists, literature students, artists or historians. We would like to hear from you if you are teaching PRS subjects outside a philosophy or theology and religious studies department, to find out more about the courses you are teaching or contributing to, and how we might best support you in this.

We aim to produce a map of current provision, an analysis of key learning and teaching issues for this constituency, and, depending on responses received, to initiate special interest groups for PRS academics working outside PRS departments, to facilitate practice-sharing and networking.

If you are involved in the teaching of philosophical or religious studies in a non-PRS department, and would like to share your experiences and/or to suggest ways in which the Subject Centre for PRS could support you, please email clare@prs.heacademy.ac.uk. For the initial mapping exercise, we are particularly interested in the following:

• What are you teaching and in which department are you teaching it?
• Which academic subject(s) do you identify with?

We would be grateful if you could assist us by disseminating this call as widely as possible to PRS colleagues working outside core PRS departments.