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Celebrating Creative Projects in Religious Studies

by Ellen Goldberg

Offering creative projects is a meaningful way for students to contribute to and advance their knowledge of south Asian religions. Creative projects provide an opportunity for students to engage in a hands-on exploration of the field and to demonstrate alternative ways to express their research experience. The creative projects shown here represent tangible evidence of how students bring creative elements together with a rigorous academic understanding. Since I launched this evaluative exercise in my classes over five years ago, it has become clear that creative projects can enhance the undergraduate learning process and thus contribute significantly to one’s overall educational experience.

By Emma Funnell-Kononuk, RELS student

“Enlightenment Through Asana” blends iconography from the classical understanding of Shiva as the Lord of Yoga with the modern understanding of postural yoga. When you zoom in, you can see the image is comprised of countless dots. The dots and the spaces between the dots represent Shiva’s saguna-nirguna state, which implies he is limitless and, therefore, manifest in all forms of yoga, modern and ancient. For Rels 322,  "Yoga in India and the West"

For the record, I do not assign topics nor are creative projects required. Rather, (some) students choose to do creative work, develop their own creative ideas, and then request permission from me based on their ideas prior to execution. Each creative project must be supplemented by a written essay or portfolio that contextualizes the artistic work. The written component, as I call it, typically documents the creative project by providing a rationale for the work and often includes background material, history, philosophy, explanation, interpretation, and so on depending on the topic. It could also include photographs, drawings, or a short video documenting the various stages of the student’s creative process. Students from a variety of disciplines at Queen’s have opted to do creative projects in my courses because, as they repeatedly tell me, the opportunity does not exist for them to engage in this way with the material elsewhere. I also forewarn students that in my experience creative projects can often take much longer to execute—in some cases many, many hours—as in the case of drawing mandalas. But this work clearly has its own rewards and benefits.

By Heather Leisk, RELS student
	Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion. Oil on canvas.  For RELS 223 "Buddhism"

I have received many exceptional projects by undergraduate students using a variety of media and methods, including video, sculpture, art, dance, musical performance, comics, digital design, drama/theatre, woodworking, and so on. The openness of this creative assignment encourages students to work in a media that best suits their talents. The creative projects seen here have been submitted in my courses (RELS 222, 223, 322, and 393) over the years. This is only a small sample of the extraordinary work that has been done. These examples celebrate the creative, vibrant, and diverse efforts of students at Queen’s and showcase their outstanding and passionate work.

By Veronica Ibarra, RELS student
	The Buddha. This is a word portrait of the Buddha demonstrating through art the the teachings of not-self (anatman). The image of the Buddha is actually created by the words on the skandhas (the 5 mental and physical aggregates) from the Pali Canon. Created for Rels 223, "Buddhism"

In my view, creative work also supports a broadly defined engaged curriculum experience within the study of south Asian religions at Queen’s.

By Casey Steimer, RELS student
	A sculpture of the Hindu god Shiva for Rels 222, "The Hindu World".       For more examples of student creative work, and other information about Religious Studies at Queen's, see the .