Dialogue Across Divides: Forming Agents of Reconciliation on Campus

Alison Boden, former Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel, Princeton University

Theresa Thames, Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel, Princeton University

In a context of deep polarization, how do we equip students to cross profound divides, encounter each other authentically, and create reconciling spaces on our campuses and beyond? During this one-hour interactive workshop, attendees will be introduced to the Rose Castle Foundation’s faith-informed approach to reconciliation on university campuses. Facilitators will share the Habits of a Reconciler: a framework for developing characteristics and practices – such as curiosity, hospitality, humility, lament and hope – required to cross society’s most challenging divides and to rehumanize those we no longer see and hear. Instead of seeking consensus or mere tolerance, our goal is to equip emerging reconciler leaders with the habits and tools needed to foster a better quality of disagreement: one in which differences still matter. 

We have seen these habits become a central focus for students as they facilitate conversations regarding conflicts such as Israel-Palestine, political polarization, abortion, and rights of the Queer community. As well as their relevance for students, our approach has been introduced to campus staff and contributed to healthier work-place cultures.   

During this interactive session, attendees will explore what the habits of reconcilers look like in their own contexts, how they might relate to the divides they are experiencing on campuses, and how they can resonate with their own approaches to college chaplaincy and spiritual life. They will leave the workshop with an accessible tool they can share with colleagues, students and staff as one approach to promoting a better quality of disagreement on campus.

Do You Know Who I Am: Defining Our Work While We do it

Rev. Dr. Hannah Adams Ingram, Director of Religious Life and College Chaplain, Franklin College

Have you ever felt like people on campus do not understand what you do? We are operating in a society where religious membership is a varied experience and increasingly, chaplaincy is recognized as many people’s primary introduction to religious leaders. Even if those on campus have relationships with religious leaders, those religious leaders are often community-specific and not operating as campus chaplains frequently do—as spiritual accompaniment for people of a variety of backgrounds. The misunderstanding or lack of understanding of our line of work can prevent meaningful encounters and partnerships on campus, so explaining what we do while we do it invites further opportunities for spiritual care and intercultural education. This workshop will include conversations about how we frame our work in networking, job interviews, professional supervision public engagements, 1:1 care moments, and other happenings on campus. We will also have an opportunity to collect and share examples of this happening in our own contexts.

Experiencing the Sacred through All Five Senses

Rev. Daniel Heath, Associate Chaplain and Director of the Davidson Forum, Davidson College

This workshop explores experiencing the sacred through all five senses and allows participants to workshop ideas on how to incorporate all five senses in their religious and spiritual life practices and gatherings. The idea emerged from my context of using all five senses in Christian worship services and I believe that the learnings from my experience can be used and adapted for other spiritual and religious life contexts, practices, and gatherings. I have learned that planning a multi-sensory experience can make for a more: 1. meaningful, 2. memorable, and 3. accessible religious and spiritual life gathering.

Honoring Our LGBTQ+ Religious Elders

Rabbi Camille Shira Angel, University of San Francisco

In Jewish tradition, honoring our elders is considered a mitzvah—a sacred obligation (Leviticus 19:32). This workshop introduces an intergenerational program that brings together LGBTQ elders (60+) and undergraduate students to learn and celebrate the stories of individuals, who came of age at the time of Stonewall. Rooted in Jewish values with influences from other spiritual traditions, this workshop aims to share my approach with colleagues who support LGBTQ-identified students and are looking for meaningful, adaptable programs. Campuses can tailor this initiative to meet their unique needs, partnering with LGBTQ elders and community members to create a vibrant and inclusive learning environment. By connecting generations through storytelling, we honor our elders while empowering the younger generation to carry their legacies forward. Over 14 weeks, undergraduates conducted meaningful interviews with their Elders, working collaboratively in small groups to create Ethical Will Legacy Videos—powerful tributes that capture and honor the lived experiences and wisdom of LGBTQ history makers. This process not only amplifies the voices of elders but also fosters intergenerational connection, addressing issues of social isolation and loneliness while providing students with valuable storytelling and ethnographic skills.

Interfaith Dialogue in Tender Times: A Dialogue Design Lab

Rev. Callista Isabelle, Director for Religious, Spiritual & Ethical Life, Washington University in St. Louis

Rev. David Dorsey, Multifaith Chaplain, Director of Sustained Dialogue, Lecturer, and Founding Director of Barefoot Dialogue, Oberlin College and Conservatory

In especially tense or tender times, how might we approach interfaith dialogue with our students? This session will invite participants to reflect on how interfaith dialogue is a powerful tool for building community, even in the most challenging times. We invite participants to share the rich tapestry of your experiences with dialogue, and gain inspiration for deepening dialogue practices on your campuses. This dialogue design lab will invite us to share stories from our diverse traditions and experiences on campuses, acknowledge the barriers to dialogue in difficult times, and share strategies for using dialogue as a key tool for bridge-building in tender times. We’ll consider how to support students in facilitating interfaith dialogue with their peers. We’ll experiment with crafting community agreements and dialogue questions. We hope you’ll leave encouraged to lean into interfaith dialogue even more fully in the months and years ahead.

Interfaith Dialogue in the Black College Experience: Building Bridges While Honoring Roots

Rev. Herbert A. Brisbon III

In an era of increasing religious diversity at HBCUs, chaplains face the unique challenge of creating inclusive spiritual spaces while honoring the rich Christian heritage that has historically shaped these institutions. This interactive workshop equips chaplains and spiritual life professionals with practical frameworks for fostering meaningful interfaith dialogue while preserving the cultural foundations that make HBCUs unique.

Through guided discussions and hands-on scenarios, participants will explore effective strategies for building bridges across faith traditions while maintaining institutional identity. The workshop draws upon both African American spiritual traditions and contemporary interfaith practices to address critical questions: How do we create multi-faith spaces that honor our historical roots? What does inclusive programming look like in an HBCU context? How can we navigate traditional campus religious events with an interfaith lens?

Participants will engage with real-world case studies, practice facilitation techniques for challenging conversations, and develop practical tools for implementing interfaith initiatives on their campuses. Special attention will be given to addressing common challenges such as creating inclusive prayer spaces, developing multi-faith programming, and fostering dialogue between traditional and emerging spiritual communities.

By the end of this workshop, participants will have concrete strategies for building vibrant interfaith communities that celebrate both the historical Christian foundations of HBCUs and the growing diversity of spiritual expression among today's students. This session is essential for chaplains seeking to create spaces where all students can thrive spiritually while maintaining the unique cultural heritage of HBCUs.

Multifaith Dialogue: A Tapestry of Roots

Ella Newcomb, Sustained Dialogue Coordinator, Oberlin College

Cendan Dillon, Sustained Dialogue Coordinator, Oberlin College

To listen fully and completely to another’s belief can only expand our understanding of ourselves, of one another, and the land we share. The various species of plants in one forest do not keep their roots separate, but instead weave themselves together creating a tapestry of living beings that benefit from sharing resources. This multifaith dialogue, using the Barefoot methods, provides conference attendees with an opportunity to be in actual dialogue, weaving together from diverse perspectives and experiences. Barefoot Dialogue, a model of dialogue now in its twelfth year, invites participants to choose vulnerability in a circle of their peers at all stages of their careers. Centering a current topic that affects each of us in higher education, participants agree to share from their own perspective and to listen to the experiences of their colleagues.

Navigating Christian Hegemony & Encouraging Religious Pluralism in Higher Education: The Many Roles of Religious & Spiritual Life Staff

Vanessa Gomez Brake, M.Div, M.S. Ed.D, Senior Associate Dean of Religious & Spiritual Life, University of Southern California

Rev. Nathan Albert, M.Div., D.Min., University Chaplain and Assistant Vice President for Belonging, University of Lynchburg

 

In this session, participants will learn about the legacy of Christian hegemony that continues to inform policies and practices at American institutions of higher education, and ways to disrupt it. Additionally, the presenters will explore ways to advocate for religious pluralism and interfaith spirituality on college campuses. The workshop will include two activities, focused on 1) mapping religious identity as a social identity and 2) identifying Christian privilege and normativity on your campus. Along the way, participants will be introduced to Critical Religious Pluralism theory and its applications.

Nurturing Meaningful Friendship on Campus

Venerable Vineetha Mahayaye, Buddhist Chaplain, Tufts University

Lynn Cooper, Associate Director and Catholic Chaplain, Tufts University

This workshop will focus on the vital role that chaplains can play in supporting meaningful friendships on campus–for students, faculty, and staff alike. Drawing from the context of Tufts University Chaplaincy, we will highlight key programmatic offerings that have created opportunities for our community members to get beneath the surface and talk about the things that matter. Key components of this workshop will highlight the rich wells of practical wisdom within our traditions. 

Participants at the workshop will experiment with the shared spiritual practice model of Be-Friend, our interfaith friendship program for students, faculty, and staff. This program spans our four campuses, bridging real geographic gaps for faculty/staff and offering undergraduates and graduate students a chance to connect deeply. The workshop will also highlight another thread of this work: drawing from our rich traditions and collaborating across departments. Kalyanamitta: A Good Friend was a partnership between the University Chaplaincy, Counseling Mental Health Services, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. In this project, student artists went deep into the tradition of the Jatāka stories, creating art inspired by the Buddha’s tales of unlikely friendships. This program offers us the opportunity to experience a meaningful friendship between a field education supervisor (Lynn Cooper) from the Catholic tradition and a field education student back then (Mahayaye, Vineetha) from the Buddhist tradition. We will discuss how much of our backgrounds were supportive in creating this program.

We will close our session by inviting participants to reflect on their own contexts, to begin dreaming about how they might engage the strengths and challenges of their school culture to build out this theme of meaningful friendship.

Publishing Higher Education Chaplaincy Work

Janet Fuller

More Chaplains in Higher Education need to be writing and publishing; your reflections and learnings need to be out there available to the rest of us, and to aspiring chaplains. This workshop is led by a retired Higher Education chaplain and recently published author, with tips for writing and publishing, as well as some ideas about what's hot in the field right now. Participants who attend this session will identify areas of personal interest or expertise, commit to making time to write, and identify publishers who may be interested in their desired topics.

Rooted: Cultivating Earth-Honoring Practices for Chaplaincy Programs

Dr. Robin Mitchell Stroud, Director of Student Engagement Programs in the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, University of Southern California

This workshop invites chaplains and spiritual leaders to explore earth-honoring practices as meaningful ways to engage students in deeper connections—with themselves, one another, and the natural world. Attendees will learn practical and adaptable ways to incorporate earth-focused activities into their chaplaincy programs, including such practices as tree breathing, nature journaling, earth mosaics, and sound surfing. After all, who doesn’t feel a sense of renewal after spending time in nature?

These activities create opportunities for students to reflect, engage with spirituality, and build meaningful connections that resonate across diverse spiritual and cultural backgrounds. By deepening our relationship with the earth, these practices reduce stress, cultivate mindfulness, support emotional well-being, and foster a sense of belonging, making them valuable additions to any chaplaincy offering.

This session will blend proven practices with creative visioning from attendees to offer a holistic and dynamic approach to integrating earth-honoring activities into campus programs. Participants will leave equipped with practical ideas to enhance their chaplaincy work, creating meaningful connections to nature within their campus communities.

So, you want to start a dialogue? Creating Space for Dialogue in your Context

Matt Hoffman, University of Maryland-Baltimore County

Maeba Jones, Goucher College

Feeling the desire to create a space for dialogue, but unsure where to begin?

In this tumultuous moment, our campuses can be difficult places for conversation and dialogue. Yet, we as chaplains and religious life professionals can offer off critical skills and opportunities for our campuses to build bridges of connection, spaces to listen, and communities committed to curiosity and understand. Join Maeba Jonas (Goucher College) and Matt Hoffman (UMBC) as we share what has worked in our contexts and some of the skills and tips that we have picked up through trial and error. 

This workshop is designed to help chaplains and religious life professionals seeking to engage in dialogue work on their campuses the opportunity to reflect, strategize, and plan for the shifting needs of their settings in 2025. By engaging with a series of reflections, group conversations, and basic strategic planning, you will leave this workshop with the tools to help you think about and plan spaces for dialogue in your context. Additionally, we will brainstorm resources together and you will gain colleagues and thought partners for the road.

Streamlining Religious Accommodations through a Digital Hub: A Centralized Approach

Robin Mitchell Stroud, PhD, Director of Student Engagement Programs in the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, University of Southern California

This workshop introduces USC’s Religious Accommodations Web Hub as a model resource to assist chaplains and spiritual leaders in higher education in fostering inclusivity and accessibility for people of diverse faiths and worldviews on their campuses. The hub brings all aspects of religious accommodations into one easy-to-use platform, centralizing resources, streamlining processes, answering questions, and simplifying access to support for students, faculty, and staff. By addressing key challenges such as scattered information, inconsistent or unclear communication, and difficulty navigating campus systems, the hub reduces barriers for students while promoting fairness and equity across the institution.

The session will also use real-world examples to encourage discussion about broader issues, including best practices for addressing students’ needs in areas such as academics, dining, and housing.

Through a live demo of the hub and interactive discussions, participants will explore the practical application of this evolving centralized resource. They will also engage in meaningful dialogue about how to create equitable and supportive systems for students from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. By the end of the session, attendees will leave with practical tools, strategies, and replicable models to build or enhance similar resources at their own institutions. These tools will help foster campus environments that meet the faith-based and cultural needs of all students while supporting their overall success and sense of belonging.

The Story of Religion

Rev. Leah Torrey, Director of Special Initiatives, Duke University Chapel

Religion does the important work of weaving our micro everyday stories into a larger macro story scaffolded by strong values. With fewer and fewer students enmeshed in a tradition, or students relinquishing their traditions once they arrive at university, we, as chaplains must be innovative, creative, and holistic in our program design as we help students identify their story and live out their part in a larger value-driven story.

One way we can ensure our offerings to students are holistic and vibrant is by evaluating the tethers that connect a student’s micro story to an overarching and compelling macro story. In other words, it is vital for us to identify the “work” religion does on a person and reverse engineer our programming to ensure each student feels the needs of their inner life being met and sees their story connecting to a broader spiritual and ethical framework whether that’s connected to an established tradition or not.

During this workshop, participants will walk through the six tethers I’ve identified that bind a person’s personal story to a larger story: worship, justice, community, The Sacred, Liturgical time, and wisdom. In order to make each of the tethers clear, participants will be asked to identify and describe for themselves how each of these tethers connects their own personal story to a bigger macro story or religious/spiritual tradition. Next, we’ll analyze together how these tethers do or do not show up in our own chaplaincy practice and programming. I’ll use my work at previous institutions and at Duke as a brief case study and demonstrate how the tethers can act as a rubric for analyzing the (in)sufficiency of our spiritual care offerings and finally, we’ll workshop together how the tethers can guide us into more holistic, robust, and creative chaplaincy practices.

Title IX’s Confounding Terrain

Dr. Nisa Muhammad, Assistant Dean of Religious Life, Howard University

Rev. Herbert A. Brisbon, III, Dillard University

Title IX, a landmark for gender equity in schooling, has been controversial from the beginning, particularly in the area of religion and race. This workshop will explore the challenges and possibilities Title IX has brought to these areas. We will examine case studies and best practices for institutions seeking to ensure that Title IX mandates, religious liberty, and racial justice are maintained. Participants will learn more about the legal and ethical implications of reconciling these competing interests, as well as practical ways to deal with conflicts. This workshop seeks to:

• Develop Title IX Awareness: To help participants acquire a better understanding of Title IX rules, such as its definitions of sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination.

• Investigate the Crossroads Between Faith and Law: To examine whether race, religion and the law might clash or complement each other when confronting sexual abuse.

• Develop Real-World Skills: To equip chaplains with tools to appropriately handle complaints of sexual misconduct, and provide appropriate support to survivors.

• Develop Ethical Decision-Making: To foster ethical decision-making in an evolving world while at the same time taking into account the law, institutional policies, and personal values.

Transforming Campus Practice Using the INSPIRES Index

Dr. Renee L. Bowling, Worldview Research Director, The Ohio State University

Anisha Morris-Gill, INSPIRES Project Lead, The Ohio State University

How welcoming is your campus for students of differing religious, secular, and spiritual backgrounds? What institutional practices contribute to a welcoming worldview climate? The INSPIRES Campus Climate Index is a free assessment tool to help chaplains establish a welcoming climate for students of diverse worldviews. 

This interactive session will be facilitated by members of the INSPIRES Index team, Dr. Renee L. Bowling, Worldview Research Director, and Ms. Anisha Gill-Morris, Project Lead, and welcomes both current partner campuses and chaplains new to the INSPIRES Index. We will provide access to a PDF version and discuss how to use the survey to communicate with stakeholders and guide institutional change. 

The objectives are (1) to introduce the INSPIRES Index, including updates from protest and presidential statement modules, (2) to provide a workshop space for strategizing about how to use assessment to spark change on campus, and (3) to strengthen the community of practice around using INSPIRES. We look forward to seeing you at our session!

VIA Character Assessment: Integrating Psychology and Spirit

Karissa Thacker, Program Associate, Columbia University

This workshop introduces the VIA Character Strengths Assessment (viacharacter.org) as a tool for individual counseling and group learning. The strength of the tool for chaplaincy is that it is inclusive of all religious traditions and particularly inclusive of students who do not identify as having a religious tradition. The instrument is free, easy to take online, and equips students to look at their personal values and strengths. The tool is an integration of the best of modern psychology and the wisdom of multiple traditions throughout the centuries regarding what it means to be a good person. Participants who attend this session will learn how to use the assessment to promote deeper conversation and reflect on new ways they can play to their strengths in their current role.