Religious, Spiritual, and Secular Identities on Campus

This workshop focuses on the role of religious and spirituality identities as an important aspect of DEI work on campus. Participants in this workshop will develop an understanding the variety and complexity of religious, secular, and spiritual (R/S/S) identities on our campus; understand why support for religious pluralism and spiritual development is important on a public college campus; learn about key religious accommodations and resources and how to access them in their work to support faculty, staff, and students; and discover ways to get involved in DEI work around R/S/S identities.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Reflect on their own orientation to religion and spirituality.

2. Understand the importance of religious, secular, and spiritual identity in faculty, staff, and students’ lives and in DEI work on our campus;

3. Identify the main religious groups on our campus and how their proportions differ among faculty, staff, and stud;ents; understand the limitations of the way we collect data about religious background;

4. Name the key religious accommodations and resources available to faculty, staff, and students; identify areas in which they can influence religious accommodations and in which there is more work to be done;

5. Understand what is acceptable and what is unacceptable regarding religious expression on a public university campus and barriers you may encounter around R/S/S DEI

6. Name three concrete steps they can take in within their sphere of influence to create greater equity and inclusion for students, faculty, and staff who hold minoritized religious identities

7. Name ways to get more involved in DEI work around R/S/S identities on campus

Audience: This workshop is limited to LSA employees only, which includes staff, faculty, and graduate and undergraduate student employees. External to LSA University employees may be considered if space is allowed. If you are outside LSA, your registration may be removed without warning to accommodate LSA employees. Thank you for understanding. 

For questions or requests for accommodations, please contact our office (lsa-dei-office@umich.edu) as soon as possible. Accommodation requests are generally easy to provide, but may require some time to accomplish, so advance notice is appreciated.