Papers by J. Cody Nielsen
Journal of College and Character, Oct 2, 2022
In a recent volume of the Journal of College and Character, Matt Mayhew and Alyssa Rockenbach pre... more In a recent volume of the Journal of College and Character, Matt Mayhew and Alyssa Rockenbach presented their frameworks by which they have designed and utilized their IDEALS study over the past several years. In this present article, the authors contend that despite their rigorous research, the researchers and measurements oftentimes have lacked recognition and acknowledgement of Christian biases and hegemony and thus have limited their results. We propose several remediations for how the data can be helpful and effective and suggest future scholarship which evaluates more critical approaches to the subject of religious, secular, and spiritual identities (RSSIs).
Religion & Education
In this article, members of the Critical Religious Studies in Higher Education (CRSHE) network re... more In this article, members of the Critical Religious Studies in Higher Education (CRSHE) network respond to Glanzer’s Recognizing Christian Complexity and Secular Privilege in Higher Education. We aim for the following goals: making explicit our fundamental assumption about Christian privilege and Christian hegemony, and their relationship to secular privilege; detailing our thinking about definitions, historical influences, social phenomena, and higher education practices related to critical theories of religion; and welcoming scholars from outside the CRSHE network into conversation about the topics of Christian privilege and critical theories of religion, so that we may, in community, move the theories forward.
This dissertation study explored the campus climate of Penn State University for religious, secul... more This dissertation study explored the campus climate of Penn State University for religious, secular, and spiritual identities through use of Strange and Banning’s Educating by Design theoretical framework. Specifically, it employed use of case study methodology to qualitatively examine how the Pasquerilla Center, the largest Multifaith Center in North America, as well as the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Development, engaged in providing institutional policies and practices that supported all forms of religious and non-religious identities. The study considered how constructivism affected perceptions of campus climate by students from Muslim, Jewish, Catholic Christian, and Protestant and Evangelical Christian religious identification. Four dimensions of campus climate-physical environments, aggregated environments, constructed environments, and organizational environments provided the guiding framework from which the study was analyzed. The study revealed that while physical env...
Journal of College and Character, 2019
In an unpublished national research study, "Religious, Secular, and Spiritual Identities in Highe... more In an unpublished national research study, "Religious, Secular, and Spiritual Identities in Higher Education," which evaluated how universities addressed issues of religious diversity on campus, interviews with university professionals, students, and community members revealed that the institutions that were successfully engaging in religious, secular, and spiritual identity work were changing their policies and practices at the administrative level in order to support these worldviews. Institutions at which students and members of the campus community generally articulated a sense of belonging and could pinpoint specific policies and practices to support this belonging were deemed successful at addressing religious, secular, and spiritual identity. These institutions exhibited patterns of policy and practice that coalesced around four emerging themes. These "Four Pillars of Policy and Practice" combined to create institutional climates that were markedly different in comparison to other institutions. Since 1998's historic Education as Transformation Conference at Wellesley College (Kazanjian & Laurence, 2000), higher education has been on a trajectory toward incorporating religious, secular, and spiritual identities into student development theory and practice. Efforts over the past 20 years have shown significant advancement in research-based understandings. For instance, the UCLA Spirituality and Higher Education Study (Astin, Astin, & Lindholm, 2011) highlighted significant opportunities that can exist for students when a university supports spiritual exploration. Other literature has suggested that spiritual expression and involvement in campus religious groups decrease the number of students' mental health issues (Small & Bowman, 2012), while also increasing their resilience, persistence, and overall satisfaction with the college experience (Kuh & Gonyea, 2005; Means & Jaeger, 2016). These important contributions to research highlight the transformative work that can take place on college campuses when religious and spiritual identities, as well as secular forms of meaning-making, are supported.
Journal of College and Character
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Papers by J. Cody Nielsen