Diversity, inclusion, and the curriculum

On December 7 2020, Pooyan Tamimi Arab, member of the Utrecht Young Academy, participated in one of Utrecht University College’s “Brown Bag Diversity Lunch” sessions, in which two teachers discuss a diversity and inclusion related topic in their teaching. 

Dr. Pooyan Tamimi Arab. Foto: Ed van Rijswijk
Dr. Pooyan Tamimi Arab (photo: Ed van Rijswijk)

The idea behind the series was to organize “low-threshold lunch meetings open to staff and students to spur conversations on topics related to diversity, from inclusive pedagogy to decolonizing the curriculum. The Brown Bag Diversity Lunch is also an opportunity for UCU’s community to get together, engage with discussants and exchange best practices.” The topics selected for discussion this year were: diverse epistemologies, the relation between decolonization and political economy, religious and secular diversities, and diversity and the medical curriculum. 

Pooyan spoke with UCU-colleague Markha Valenta. Markha teaches the course “Politics and Religion in the Modern World” and Pooyan teaches “Religion and Political Secularism.” They discussed the extent to which religious diversity played (and did not play) a role in their classrooms and how they organized their courses. For instance, Markha spoke about how she dealt with the fact that most of her students were not religious themselves. Pooyan explained that students are eager to learn about contexts that they are not familiar with, such as political secularism in post-Apartheid South-Africa and post-independence India. Both teachers agreed that such courses can foster a critical, inclusive mindset among students by teaching about the power dynamics and political ideals involved in religion, law, and politics.