About the Religious Engagements of American Undergraduates

The Foundation's inquiry into the religious engagements of American undergraduates began in September 2005 with a Listening that explored the relationship between students' religious and spiritual concerns and their academic engagement. Two separate but parallel Teagle initiatives emerged from the Listening, one for a series of Fresh Thinking working groups on Big Questions, and the other for a single grant to the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) to put together a guide on what college teachers should know about the religious engagements of today's undergraduates. The latter, available on SSRC's website—with an accompanying web forum of essays and an annotated bibliography—examines important issues about students' religious engagements both inside and outside the classroom. To foster further discussion on this crucial topic, the Foundation has invited a diverse group of faculty and others in higher education to share their thoughts. Their comments have been collected in a new Teagle blog, The Religious Engagements of American Undergraduates. We hope you will join in on the conversation.