OUR
PROGRAMS
RELIGIONS OF DES MOINES INITIATIVES
Our religions of Des Moines initiatives bring greater understanding of the diverse religious communities of Greater Des Moines through a student-written photo narrative about fifteen religious communities (A Spectrum of Faith), a monthly series of open houses in local places of worship (“Meet My Religious Neighbor”), online guides to area religious communities, student-facilitated digital stories about local practitioners’ faith experiences, and Drake classes about the “religions of Des Moines.
PHOTO-NARRATIVE PROJECTS
We engage in photo-narrative projects about lived religion with Drake’s International Partners. We are completing a bilingual, photo narrative on religion in Beijing with Minzu University of China to be published by Bloomsbury in summer 2020. We are hoping soon to begin a photo-narrative on religion in South Africa with University of KwaZulu-Natal.
INTERFAITH LITERACY & LEADERSHIP CAMPS
We cultivate interfaith literacy & leadership with college and high-school students though a yearly interfaith youth camp (in collaboration with DMARC), a Drake University student organization, and classes in interfaith understanding and engagement. Each student produces a video at the end of the camp, educating others about their community.
LECTURE & DIALOGUE SERIES
Our lecture & dialogue series in comparative philosophy of religion explores a different religious theme every two years through scholar lectures, practitioner dialogues, and comparative conclusions. Each series’ lectures and conclusions are published through a book-series publishing contract with the international publisher Springer.