Grad's guide to graduate admissions essays - Colleen Reding 2015
University of Dayton - Department of history
General graduate studies
I hope to pursue a Master of Arts in theological studies at the University of Dayton so as to continue an educational journey that began in college. While an undergraduate at Georgetown, I double-majored in history and Arabic. My collegiate experience taught me the importance of “context” in terms of understanding the development of ideas that guide social, political, and religious movements. In a similar fashion, my young career as a teacher has highlighted the value of “connections” in celebrating both the commonalities and divergent characteristics of world cultures. As a graduate student, I hope to apply and develop both the skills of context and connection to my study of Christianity. Ultimately, I want to answer the questions of “What do Christians around the world believe, and how did they arrive at these beliefs?”
As I progressed through core and major requirements during college, I became increasingly fascinated with Islam and the development of Islamic movements. I enrolled in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean history survey and seminar courses, met with my professors frequently, and eventually, garnered a research assistant position in the Georgetown Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (GUROP). I researched modern Islamic political movements under the tutelage of Professor Yvonne Haddad. I found myself drawn to the contextual origins and religious foundations of these movements—in particular, Hizbollah. The following summer (2009), I applied for a GUROP Fellowship to examine Hizbollah’s history and guiding theological framework. As I continued my research during my senior year while composing my senior honors thesis in history, I focused on how historical events—the Israeli invasions in 1978 and 1982 and the Islamic Revolution in Iran—encouraged the formation of a Shi’ite political and paramilitary organization guided by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini and bent on expelling the Israeli occupation force. My thesis certainly reaffirmed the critical nature of understanding context with regard to religious movements.
As a social studies and English teacher, I have the privilege of teaching the area’s best and brightest. Perhaps the most difficult part of my position consists of challenging these students to think more deeply and broadly. In the early weeks of my World Civilizations course—a year-long requirement for all freshmen—I fervently push my students to make “connections.” These connections may appear as cause-and-effect relationships; for instance, how did increased iron-working technology impact the development of faith systems? Or, these connections may seem to be peculiar similarities that transcend boundaries of geography, time, and creed, such as the common railing against social injustices by Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad. I’ve come to appreciate this way of learning and seeing the world as an interconnected web rather than group of isolated continents. The way I teach underscores my intellectual curiosity and, in turn, my drive to learn the relationships connecting belief systems.
Both my development as a student and teacher reflect my emerging interest in religious studies. Although I have concentrated my energies on the realm of Islamic studies up to this point, I would like to branch out to Christian theological studies at the master’s level. Through UD”s “Foundation Courses,” I will develop a fuller understanding of Christianity’s contextual origins and widely held beliefs—in short, I will begin to arrive at answers to my aforementioned questions. With a combined background in Islam and Christianity, I plan on pursuing a Ph.D. in comparative religion with a specific emphasis Muslim-Christian relations. One look at the news has shown us the dire need for scholars who can build bridges of dialogue connecting the Muslim and Christian worlds. I hope to contribute to this conversation by discovering areas of common ground while also celebrating the differences that make these groups distinctive.
