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<\/a>Thomas Tracy is the Phillips Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and recipient of the 2014 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n
Tracy, the college’s Phillips Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, doesn\u2019t mean a fight necessarily, but rather the philosophical sense of argument that involves an exchange of views backed up by reasons.<\/p>\n
He describes himself as an agent provocateur in the classroom.<\/p>\n
When Tracy does \u201cstart something,\u201d he does it with humor and respect for how difficult it can be for students to analyze religious texts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey find themselves challenged in fairly deep ways,\u201d he says. \u201cI try to encourage students to recognize that their relationships to their own faith traditions can be deepened and enriched through this process of reflection.\u201d<\/p>\n
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NOTE TO READERS<\/em><\/strong>: Thomas Tracy’s Kroepsch Lecture,\u00a0<\/em>Creation, Evolution and The Problem of Suffering, takes place at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.<\/em><\/p>\n Tracy\u2019s deft skill at this task has been acknowledged with the college\u2019s 2014 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, established in 1985 by a gift from Robert Kroepsch \u201933. Nominated by students and alumni, recipients are selected by a committee of previous years’ winners.<\/p>\n Tracy will give his Kroepsch Lecture on the public debate between the Christian teachings of creationism and the scientific theory of evolution.<\/p>\n The lecture, Creation, Evolution and The Problem of Suffering<\/em>,\u00a0takes place at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave. For more information, please call 207-786-6066.<\/p>\n His lecture reflects the idea that \u201csomething about our particular culture keeps this endless controversy between evolution and creation going,\u201d says Tracy, who studies the relationship between religion and science. This debate tends to focus on the age and origins of the earth, but Tracy intends to show that such a framework fails to address the fundamental issues at stake.<\/p>\n John Smedley, professor of physics, teams with Tracy to teach \u201cCaring for Creation,\u201d an interdisciplinary course that looks at both science and religious thought to understand how people conceptualize the natural world and the origins of our universe.<\/p>\n For their students, they model the idea that it\u2019s OK not to know something.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething could come up that Tom brings in from his expertise that I don\u2019t really know about, and then we can have a conversation about it,\u201d says Smedley.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the thing that we demonstrate for students \u2014 conversations about interesting ideas and topics from different perspectives. Not being afraid to just say, \u2018Wow, I didn\u2019t think of that before.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the intrinsic value of what we do that makes for a richer and more interesting life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Alex Hamilton \u201914 of Truckee, Calif., conducted an independent study on environmental ethics with Tracy.<\/p>\n \u201cHe asks his students big questions, and he encourages them to respond with bigger ones,\u201d Hamilton says.<\/p>\n While the obvious results of studying philosophy are improved skills in critical thinking and communication, \u201cit\u2019s the intrinsic value of what we do,\u201d says Tracy, \u201cthat makes for a richer and more interesting life.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nThe classroom, says Tom Tracy, is where students’ worlds get “bigger, richer, more complex, more interesting.”<\/h3>\n