How do we pedagogically engage films in the ethics and religious studies classroom? How do our research interests shape or enrich our pedagogical practices? How is our scholarly engagement with film challenged by our teaching experiences? And how, in our pedagogy, do we take into account the particular logic of film, and especially the short film, as an audio-visual medium? Short films are useful teaching partners because their brevity allows to view and discuss them in one class session, and their form, characterized by focus and clarity while also allowing for openness and surprise, encourages the viewer’s engagement with the film and focused reflection. In the five contributions and the one response gathered in this issue, the authors reflect on their own experiences in the practice of teaching with short films in the ethics and religious studies classroom, engaging with theories of pedagogy and film, as well as the conditions of teaching religious studies and ethics in higher education in different cultural contexts.
Edited by: Stefanie Knauss and Marie-Therese Mäder