Religion and Urban America: The Windy City Experience

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What is the role of religious congregations in urban communities? Do communities with more congregations mobilize collectively for issues of justice (e.g., to fight for immigrant rights or social inequality) at higher rates than those with fewer congregations? Are higher levels of social connectedness found in urban areas with a greater concentration of congregations, thus offering protective effects against loneliness and related mental health issues for immigrants and other residents? Essential to examining these and related questions is understanding the methodologies used to study congregations and their social consequences. As a result, in addition to examining theoretical arguments and conceptual frameworks, students will learn about and gain hands-on experience mapping via Geographic Information Systems (GIS), analyzing big data using computational methods, and conducting in-depth interviews, among other analytical techniques. Such methodologies will be put into action during field trips to Chicago during which students will meet with religious and civic leaders/groups to learn about the challenges and benefits of community-based research. Moreover, we will discuss how the empirical realities of what congregations are doing in urban communities around, for instance, immigrant rights and social inequality measure up to what they ought to be doing based on theological and other normative perspectives.