Prof. Courtney Goto Explores How to “Find Faith in a Deadly World”
December 2021 – During the fall 2021 semester, Associate Professor of Religious Education and 2020 Metcalf Award Winner Courtney Goto approached her Creative Pedagogy course in a unique way. While the world is still living with the COVID-19 pandemic, she took the opportunity to incorporate the pandemic into her lessons. Before the first day of classes, she built a “coronavirus piñata,” and themed this semester’s course “Finding Faith in a Deadly World,” inspired by the work of Mai-Anh Le Tran.
The class explored an important question for students: How do faith/spiritual leaders help community members creatively vent their rage during a pandemic? As Goto describes, students in her class were “inspired by the medieval practice of holy foolery, which is a prophetic tradition. Saints in Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions feigned madness in order to critique society.”
Watch Prof. Goto’s video below on how the experiment unfolded, and how her students learned pedagogically in the midst of this deadly pandemic.
“Students couldn’t wait to smash the coronavirus piñata on the last day of class, which we did in the law school courtyard,” said Goto. “Even a stranger couldn’t resist the invitation to join the fun. I think many of us found it cathartic!”