UMBC and Matt Hoffman, Director of the Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Pluralism, Featured in Imagining America articles

Matt Hoffman, director of the Center for Religion, Spiritual, and Pluralism, was featured in two articles on the Imagining America website.

“Two Senior Campus Leaders on Faith, Identity, and Bridgebuilding,” published on July 10, focuses on a conversation between Hoffman and Dr. Fernie Rodriguez, associate vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as part of the StoryCorps program. Hoffman shares how his experiences have led to his involvement in this work. “I’ve been surrounded by the richness of religious diversity and complexity, which really shaped my own personal faith…I’m an ordained Lutheran pastor, and the reason that I do this work is because of those interfaith experiences.” He adds that he “hopes he can encourage others by sharing his own journey. “We teach resiliency by modeling it,” he said, “and I want to move forward reminding myself that my story matters.”

In “Senior Leaders Are Championing Pluralism Efforts to Bridge Divides,” published on July 13, 2026, writer Randy Craig states, “For the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), the biggest area of growth is in capacity building and revealing the ways civic pluralism principles are embedded in UMBC’s practice of inclusive excellence. Matt Hoffman, Director of the UMBC Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Pluralism, said that a cross-divisional university team (including Dr. Jasmine A. Lee and Dr. Renique Kersh) integrated pluralism into institutional frameworks to support students, faculty, and staff who want to talk about and across difference — and what practices, approaches, and skills exist across our campus communities. This resulted in a Dialogue Symposium, led by Dr. Lee and the UMBC Division of Institutional Equity, that brought together the 14 campuses in the University of Maryland system.”

Hoffman also discusses the role of chaplains in this work, sharing that “...that while many American universities were founded as religious institutions, student bodies today are becoming more religiously diverse. Chaplaincy’s role can provide moral and ethical guidance to those diverse communities as well as speak to tough questions faced by many on campus. “I think there’s an interesting role that chaplains can play—should play—in university settings,” he said. “And I feel really lucky to get to do this work at a public institution because public institutions have historically not done much to support religious and spiritual diversity on campus. I think one of the emerging trends is actually that this work is growing in public schools.”