Religions Geek. Speaks on religious literacy & inclusion. Director Encounter World Religions Centre. PhD from UToronto.
Guelph, Ontario
Joined August 2013
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Join our immersive Discovery Week for a unique exploration of diverse #religions. Engage in talks, visit exclusive sites, and share meals with fellow participants. Transportation, meals, and donations are covered. worldreligions.ca/discovery-… #DiscoveryWeek
Thank you to Lauren Bernardi and Bernardi Law for sharing their expertise on religious holidays and the workplace. Recognizing diverse religious observances is an important step toward fostering respectful and inclusive workplaces. #ReligiousLiteracy
The Baha'is are planning a beautiful new Canadian national temple in Markham, Ontario, inspired by the natural beauty and Indigenous ideas of being in harmony with the land. The design looks marvellous.
news.bahai.org/story/1894/ho…
Rastafarianism is more than dreadlocks, marijuana, and Bob Marley. As Rastas celebrate Coronation Day, explore the movement’s origins, the theology behind Marley’s music, and the beliefs and practices that shape Rasta life.
Read more: mailchi.mp/worldreligions/un…
Brian Carwana retweeted
New in @washingtonpost: @TheFIREorg tracked 200+ deplatforming attempts in 2026—a record. For the second year, more came from the RIGHT of the targeted expression than the left.
But the constant? Administrators who were supposed to protect speech and instead policed it.
Thank you @TVDSB for welcoming conversations about Islam and religious literacy! Special thanks to Kimberley Crawford for making it possible and Sarah Mushtaq for being our conversation partner. Together, we can challenge assumptions and foster understanding.
#ReligiousLiteracy
Brian Carwana retweeted
When India reserves seats for members of scheduled castes -- the untouchables -- we can confidently show that it does not cause a large backlash against them. If anything, it reduces violence and conflict. 1/
Brian Carwana retweeted
I teared up when Kathy Bates watched the video gobsmacked at being wrong about not thanking her mom when she won the Oscar, and turned to the interviewer and said, "Thank you."
Kathy Bates says she was sure she never thanked her mother in her Misery Oscar speech, then the interviewer showed her the tape
"She gave up her retirement because I was born so late in life to them."
"When I won the Oscar for Misery, she said, I don't know what all the excitement about, you didn't discover the cure for cancer."
"Why did I think I didn't thank her?"
"Because she should have had my life."
"I wanted her spirit to come into me and enjoy everything I was enjoying because of what she'd given up."
Her mom's whole review of the Oscar was that she didn't cure cancer, and Kathy still believed she had shorted her that night. Then she watches herself thank her mom at home, right there in the speech. Some people never stop trying to pay their parents back. You can hear it in how quiet she gets at the end.
ft: @CBSSunday CBS Sunday Morning on youtube
Thank you @RoadScholarOrg for offering Brian Carwana’s talk on Santa Muerte & the Day of the Dead for free as part of your nonprofit mission! 1,400 participants joined to learn about these traditions.
Learn more: religionsgeek.com/santa-muer…
#ReligiousLiteracy
Brian Carwana retweeted
Bronwyn Eyre: How USask tried to ruin a man's career for questioning critical race theory
Tim Haggstrom has misconduct on his student record for defending the notion of treating people equally. He's still trying to clear his name
nationalpost.com/opinion/bro…
Brian Carwana retweeted
How bad is administrative bloat in higher ed?
At MIT, the “student body has grown by 8% and its faculty by 9% since the mid-1980s. By comparison, the tally of administrators jumped by 189%.”
Thank you to CMHA Durham and Candace Singh for a meaningful conversation about religious holidays and how religious literacy fosters understanding, challenges assumptions, and builds a stronger sense of belonging.
#EncounterWorldReligions #ReligiousLiteracy
Brian Carwana retweeted
I am going to say something that very few people want to hear, but I think it's true. The only way to "save the Humanities" is through serious gen ed reform that most universities don't want to undertake.
The hour is very late.
The number of people writing dissertations in the humanities has collapses, now the same thing is happening in the social sciences.
I'd wager that we will see a similar trend in psychology and other fields before long. Cuts in funding, the tight academic job market, and AI are rapidly changing the university and cratering graduate programs.
Wonderful to connect with @Ulteig and 200+ staff to discuss fall religious holidays and how recognizing them fosters inclusion and normalizes religious identities. Thanks to Nico Siniscalchi and Annie Rezac for making it happen!
#worldreligions #religionandworkplace
Brian Carwana retweeted
For 25 years at FIRE, I've watched universities demand endless evidence of problems they've known about for decades.
This summer, I revisited research and reports from Yale, Harvard, Vanderbilt, WashU, and Cornell.
I gave this familiar tactic a name: the Academic Filibuster.
Brian Carwana retweeted
This is one of the most important essays I have read. It offers direct guidance on how to rehabilitate social science and rebuild lost social trust. It was also incredible to watch how careful Tom and Jonathan were in preparing the manuscript. Read it now!
Recent prescriptions and policies would have us judge research by non-evidentiary standards, e.g. presumed political impact and scholar identity. In a new essay, Tom Clark and I argue empirical claims should instead be evaluated based on evidentiary strength. We outline a framework for judging evidence, and show its usefulness by revisiting high-profile scholarly disagreements spanning policing, political violence, election administration, and terrorism, before critiquing non-evidentiary approaches. We also argue social science needs a culture that is hospitable to critique—rather than one which condemns critics as “bullies”—if quality standards are to be upheld.
dropbox.com/scl/fi/fsgpflron…
Brian Carwana retweeted
Note this picture from Le Monde. A couple points: 1) people saying the protesters are Middle Eastern/African immigrants-- nope, despite the keffiyeh, as is typical of most French protesters, these people are WHITE (pale faces, red and light brown hair, etc). 2) This group of protesters is students, parents and teachers. French protests are nothing to sneeze at and they're also not what a lot of the usual suspects on this website want to make out. If dealing with French people taking to the streets and burning shit was as easy as "stop immigration and force more assimilation," that would be lovely, but the problem is actually much more complicated than that. And it's a very French problem, in the much more traditional sense.
Brian Carwana retweeted
It's striking how the AAUP has great patience for universities that use DEI statements for faculty hiring/promotion/tenure because there's nothing categorically incompatible between DEI and academic freedom, but all that patience evaporates when it's "viewpoint diversity." 1/
Brian Carwana retweeted
Recently a historian lauded the American Historical Association for resisting attacks on academia. But under its leadership, according to the AHA’s own figures, history majors have fallen 40% since 2012 and tenure-track openings have reached their lowest level since the 1970s. Evaluations of the AHA must account for its role in the forces responsible for these continuing trends.
Embracing identity politics and the agenda of the progressive left, the AHA has participated in history’s capture by identitarian activists. Rather than act as a moderating force to protect the discipline’s popularity among students and the perceived value of its content, it has chosen to promote woke activism.
Many excellent historians remain devoted to research. Most of them have gone along with their profession’s takeover solely to avoid career risk. They are intensely frustrated by the shrinking field. In private, they will say that the AHA is an impediment to reversing the trends that have produced the discipline’s present condition.