The Johnson Center for Creative Teaching Information Literacy Grant

The Information Literacy Grant is awarded to faculty members who will (re)design a course to include an emphasis on library-related student research.  This year, the grant was awarded to Megan Sijapati.

Megan Sijapati received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, December 2007 and started teaching at Gettysburg College in January of 2008. She teaches courses on the religious traditions of South Asia, Islam, religious conflict and cooperation, and religion in modernity. Her ongoing research interests are in the intersections of religious experience, authority, and revival, and in violence and non-violence in religious discourse and praxis.

Megan used the grant to redesign Religion 358: Islam in South Asia, an advanced Religious Studies course, to include a major research paper that involves close work with library staff.  The goal of this project is to develop students’ advanced research skills, through their exploration of Islamic traditions in this region of the world.  This project gives students an opportunity to develop the skills necessary to navigate secondary and primary source materials, including audio-visual resources, and to develop advanced research skills that are applicable in other courses and other academic and professional contexts.  Through their individual research projects, students develop expertise in a theme or sub-area of study as well as a personal intellectual investment in the class-wide exploration of Islam in South Asia. As Professor Sijapati points out, the class will bridge her interests in research and teaching and cultivates in students an attention to the details and process of research that is unparalleled in her other courses. This experience will allow students to take advantage of the library’s superb resources while at the same time appreciating the complexity and richness of South Asia’s Islamic traditions.