By Bri Brands 

When he was a master’s student, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty member Brandon Dean shared with his mentor that he was interested in rock and roll. He had no idea that conversation would put him down the path of studying popular culture and religion, leading to his work in CLAS today. 

“I was interested in these weird connections, but I didn’t think anyone would take them seriously,” Dean said, who is an assistant professor of instruction in the Department of Religious Studies. Teaching classes such as Gods and Superheroes: Myths for the Modern World,  and Religion and Contemporary Popular Culture, Dean said the ethos of his classes is interdisciplinary learning. 

Citing the late wrestler Hulk Hogan as an example, one such discussion Dean led was around the morality and ethics of professional wrestling.  

“Pop culture is the stories that we tell ourselves, and we can start to pick at them underneath the surface and between the lines to teach people how to read the stories they’re using to fuel their lives," Dean said. “A lot of those are pop culture stories—that’s how they’re framing their meaning and expressing their meaning.” 

To help his students further expand their interdisciplinary learning opportunities, Dean has come up with several public events that bring together the classroom and the community. 

“There’s this dominant cultural prejudice in American studies towards books and mental processes, and it forgets the fact that all of these things are happening in human bodies, in constructed spaces and physical spaces,” he said. 

The idea, Dean said, is to get students out of the classroom and into the spaces where events are happening, helping them achieve a different understanding than they would get from a textbook or in-class lecture. 

For example, during the last three Halloweens, Dean has led a tour group around Oakland Cemetery in the north side of Iowa City. During the tour, he gives a walking lecture of headstones, demonstrating how the names on them represent the history of Iowa City and its transition in immigrant populations.   

The tour ends with a visit to the Black Angel Monument, an eight-and-a-half-foot tall statue that is the subject of many local myths, stories, and legends. 

Dean is also the head of the Church Crawl, a lived learning experiment in which he invites his undergraduates to attend diverse religious services across Iowa City. 

“Some people have been interested in going to see different religious services their whole life, but they’re nervous about walking into a church they don’t want to become a member of,” Dean said. 

Most of the people attending these services with Dean don’t feel comfortable doing so by themselves, but Dean said he considers himself a barrier. 

“I’m there to explain, ‘We’re here to see what’s happening, not be a part. It’s an observation,’” he said. 

By bringing his students to these spaces and introducing them to local practitioners of the religion, he gets to watch them temporarily live in a world different to their own. Dean doesn’t just limit the learning to his students, however—he invites any community member who feels passionate about learning to join as well. 

“Having community members show up shows that what we’re doing is not limited to the classroom,” Dean said. “If we can pull in and show the overlap between learning here as an undergraduate and lifelong learning that community members are experiencing, it’s beneficial.”  

Dean draws a crowd of about 10 regulars to the biweekly Church Crawls, and the Oakland Cemetery tour averages about 100 participants per year. 

By offering students and the community a space to observe various religious institutions without feeling like an outsider, Dean said the experience fosters inclusivity. 

"Essentially what the intent of these events are that they increase awareness of diversity [of viewpoints], but at the same time it’s drawing relationships between individuals,” he said. 

As Dean continues to develop his work under CLAS, he hopes to continue expanding his community events, as well as adding new ones, and enhancing the undergraduate experience in the Department of Religious Studies. 

A full list of upcoming events can be found on the Department of Religious Studies website.