United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship
Interview a Religious Specialist
Casiana Pascariu M.A., Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona)
2021-2022
Introduction:
You are a part of a collegewide effort to increase access to education and empower students
through "open pedagogy." Open pedagogy is a "free access" educational practice that places you
- the student - at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative
learning environment. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in
our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community. This is a
renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your
community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Anthropology and Geography to
achieve SDG #3: Good Health and Well-Being with a focus on: Ensure healthy lives and promote
well-being for all at all ages.

Learning Objectives:
1. Students will learn about the 17 Sustainable Goals of the United Nations.
2. Students will identify ONE religious specialist they are interested to interview.
3. Students will analyze the interview with the ONE religious specialist they selected during week

Purpose/Rationale:
The purpose of this assignment is for students to learn anthropological research (Participantobservation and unstructured interview), compare-contrast between different religious specialist,
raise awareness of diversity in their own community, write an ethnography. Publish their work
and share it with the community.

Instructions:
This entire class is to challenge you, your belief system, and your worldview. This class should
also encourage you to think critically and analytically about the world and your upbringing. This
particular assignment might be a challenge for some of you, so I encourage you to keep an open
mind.
For this assignment, you will need to visit* (in-person or online) and interview* a religious
specialist.
Unstructured interviews (Links to an external site.) should be informal- prepare a set of 10
questions that could be of guidance but not limit you.
Here are some examples of unstructured interview questions. (Links to an external site.)
Please DO NOT pay for this service! Have a notebook with you. If you think it is appropriate,
write notes down. I encourage you to write your first draft the day when you visit the Religious
specialist.
Write an ethnography (Links to an external site.)about your interview.
The post should be a minimum of two pages AP format Times New Roman font, size 12, check
for guidance:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/gen
eral_format.html (Links to an external site.)
Use at least five anthropological terms/ concepts learned in class. Such as, but not limited to
ethnocentric, cultural-relativism, ethnography, fieldwork, participant-observation, any of the
approaches discussed in week 1, etc. Make sure you highlight and bulk the five terms of easy
identification.
Have the following questions in mind:
What is the difference between the religious specialist you interviewed compared with a shaman
(if you interview a shaman compare it to a different shaman from a different culture e.g.
yanomami shaman vs. the siberian shaman) or a priest ( e.g., if you choose a Hindu priest,
compare it to a catholic priest)?
What did you attend: a church, crystal shop, a medium's home, private reading, others.
Please talk about the religious specialist: who they were, what rituals did they did, describe your
observations on the medium.
How is the religious specialist creates space: political (decision making) and communal space
(relationships).
How they interact with the community (geography element)
What did you observe: the religious specialist reactions, people reactions, your reaction, your
behavior.

Before and after: behaviors, rituals, altered states of consciousness?
Conclusions: what did you learn/ compared it with other religious specialists you grew up or you
are familiar with.
This assignment does not have peer reviews. Please feel free to share as much or as little as you
want, especially if it was more personal. Do not forget your Anthropological hat, as this
assignment aims to analyze your experience anthropologically.
For this assignment to be long lived, we will create a website that you can share with anyone to
show your unique hard work. Submit your assignment under https://pressbooks.com/get-started/
(Links to an external site.)
Screenshoot the proof that you submit this assignment under https://pressbooks.com (Links to an
external site.)

Format Requirements:
Listed in instructions.

Interview a Religious Specialist is licensed by Casiana Pascariu M.A., Maricopa Community
Colleges (Arizona) under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC)