Harvey J. Sindima, professor of philosophy and religion, has been selected as the 2020 recipient of the Jerome Balmuth Award for Teaching and Student Engagement. This award, endowed by Mark Siegel ’73, is named for the late Jerry Balmuth, Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of philosophy and religion emeritus.
Professor Harvey Sindima received his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary and is the author of 14 books, some of which include Classical Theories in African Religion; The Gospel According to the Marginalized; Religious and Political Ethics in Africa; and Drums of Redemption: An Introduction to African Christianity. His research and scholarship reflect his areas of expertise in African philosophy and religions, philosophical hermeneutics, ethics, theology, and African Christianity.
Since 1989, Professor Sindima has contributed more than a dozen courses to the Colgate curriculum, some of which include African Traditional Religion; African American Religious Experience; African Philosophy; Hermeneutics: Text and Interpretation; in addition to thematic courses on Religion and Capitalism; Religion and the Enlightenment; and Religion, War, Peace, and Reconciliation; and Core 151: Legacies of the Ancient World.
In nominating him for the Balmuth Award, a former student wrote, “Dr. Sindima taught me how to dissect texts — to reach beyond their most immediate meanings and to locate them in wider intellectual lineages. He helped me to understand what theory, method, and methodology actually mean for the study of religion and demanded nothing less than excellent written summaries, syntheses, analyses, and comparisons of the materials we were studying.”
Another wrote, “Dr. Sindima didn’t just teach content. He taught schools of thought, debates, and the historical and intellectual horizons for those debates. He stimulated us to probe the foundations of the driving disciplinary questions we were given in the field of religion.” While another remarked, “Through his demanding and loving pedagogical style, Professor Sindima forced me to expand my mind and horizons, to think critically and to introspect. These skills and lessons have served me well throughout my life.”
A final nominee concluded, “He has sent so many of his students out into the world to demonstrate outstanding domestic and global citizenship in manifold arenas.”
Congratulations to Professor Sindima on receiving this prestigious award!