Session 8
The Transformation of Character through the Experience of Awe
Dr. Liz Gulliford, Associate Professor, Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK
In this virtual session the interconnectivity of faith and character development will be explored by means of examining the powerfully transformative emotion of awe. That people are changed by the experience of awe is very much in the ascendant in world religions. We might call to mind Saul’s life-changing experience on the road to Damascus, for example. In contrast, character education (and perhaps more specifically Aristotelian character education) does not currently ascribe a place to the role of awe and wonder in our moral transformation.
Aristotle regards human beings as characterized by a range of rational activities, specifically theoretical reflection, practical deliberation and the cultivation of virtuous emotions and good habits. For Aristotle, thinking, wisdom, and reflection do the heavy lifting in terms of becoming a virtuous person. While Aristotle’s view of human personhood is profoundly rational, he has little understanding of the human person as spiritual, and while he foregrounds the importance of cultivating virtuous emotions, he does not have the emotion of awe within his sights.
The aim of this session is to facilitate a learning experience that simulates reflection on character strengths that can be promoted through the experience of awe. For instance, people’s sense of responsibility, caring and stewardship of the planet could be enlarged through a sense of awe at the wonders of the world – whether they hold a religious view of creation or not.
The session will explore ways in which character education (and more specifically, the Aristotelian character education promoted by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues and others) could be enriched by incorporating the experience of awe in secular and faith contexts. Participants (faculty, students and members of the audience external to GCU) will learn more about what awe is and how it transforms us, discovering some research-supported recommendations about how to experience more awe in our lives and how we might use this as a catalyst for developing our character.
Dr. Liz Gulliford is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. Liz works for the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues and currently teaches on the University of Birmingham’s MA in Character Education. She is also an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Character Project.
Liz has an interdisciplinary background with an MA in Theology (Trinity College Oxford), MPhil in Theology and Religious Studies (Queens’ College, Cambridge), and a BPS-accredited BSc in Psychology from Anglia Ruskin University. Her PhD (Queens’ College, Cambridge, 2011) established a firm, critical foundation for theoretical and practical work in positive psychology, positive education, and character education, upon which she has progressively built an international reputation.
During her tenure as an Associate Professor in Positive Psychology at the University of Northampton (2018 – 2023), Liz was Co-Pi on a John Templeton Foundation funded research project on ‘The role of exemplar narratives in cultivating character’ (2019 – 2023), which was part of a larger network grant on moral exemplars.
Liz has carried out extensive conceptual and empirical work on gratitude, forgiveness, hope, optimism, courage, compassion, virtue ethics, moral development, positive psychology, positive education, character education and exemplarism. She has published in a wide range of journals in psychology, education, and philosophy. She has also given numerous invited presentations internationally to both academic and lay audiences.