Embracing our neighbors: Matthew Hoffman champions connecting across religious and spiritual differences at UMBC
This fall, UMBC’s Division of Student Affairs launched the Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Pluralism (CRSP), expanding the work of The Gathering Space under the leadership of center director Matthew Hoffman. Hoffman’s roles outside UMBC range from serving as a member of the Maryland comptroller’s Faith Leaders Advisory Council to raising his children in an interfaith household. In this Q&A, he shares the center’s vision, his path to the role, and how students, staff, and faculty can engage with the center’s work.
Q: Can you describe the primary facets of your role as director of CRSP?
A: At the end of the day, the biggest responsibility of my work is to lift up religious, secular, and spiritual identities as an important part of student, staff, and faculty experiences on our campus—to be a champion, a thought partner, and to collaborate across campus. A lot of the day-to-day is not dissimilar to what a chaplain might do at a small liberal arts college: listening, offering guidance, supporting faith-based student organizations, and creating shared spaces for dialogue and reflection.
But I also think of myself as a storyteller—telling the story of who our students are, how their religious and spiritual identities shape the careers they choose, how they build friendships, and how they see the world. For me, the core of it is belonging: What does it mean to live into your authentic self on our campus?
Q: Why is it so important to be doing this work at UMBC, and at public institutions more generally?
A: On public campuses, where this work hasn’t historically been done very well—because of the fear of not respecting the separation of church and state—we’ve often ignored this piece of belonging. I’m really grateful that, instead, UMBC is leaning into who its students are and seeing religion and spirituality as an important part of our identities. As someone who went through public education, I didn’t realize how meaningful it would feel to return to a public institution.
When I talk with colleagues at other schools, this kind of religious diversity work is often being cut or stagnating. Here, we’re growing and building. My dream is for UMBC to be a national model for how public campuses take religious and spiritual diversity seriously—and we’re well on our way.
Participants in UMBC’s “Picturing Pluralism” cohort, organized by the CRSP, used photos they captured of campus life as departure points for discussion about how their religious, spiritual, and secular identities show up in their day-to-day experience and how we can build a more inclusive UMBC. (Top left and bottom right by Jaime Loza ’28, others by Summer Richmond ’28)
Q: With the launch of the new Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Pluralism, what is changing, and what is staying the same?
A: Our work with and for students is always going to remain the center of what we do. We’re supporting about 29 religious and belief student organizations and roughly 22 religious council members—rabbis, imams, pastors, Buddhist teachers, Hindu chaplains—who serve as liaisons and sponsors. We’re folding The Gathering Space into CRSP and opening a new space in Erickson Hall this spring. The name change signals a growth in the work—we’re shifting from talking about “interfaith” toward “pluralism” and deepening partnerships like our Bridge Builders cohort with the Center for Social Justice Dialogue and our CRSP Fellows leadership program.
The hope is that we’ll have a real impact on campus culture and climate. Students deserve to have their religious and spiritual practices not just accepted or tolerated, but celebrated and seen as an important part of who they are and the choices they make.
Q: Can you describe your sense of calling to interfaith work and how your background prepared you for this role?
A: I came to interfaith work wanting to organize faith communities around issues of access and justice. While living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I saw broken social systems and realized religious institutions were often the places meeting those needs. That experience ultimately led me to seminary. In the Christian tradition we talk about a “call,” and for me the Good Samaritan parable has always resonated: Jesus answering the question, “Who is my neighbor?” It’s not always the people we expect. I realized I couldn’t truly answer that question—or build relationships of love and respect—unless I actually knew people. So I started studying Islam and Judaism.
Later, as a Luce Fellow in Indonesia, I spent time during Ramadan in a Muslim-majority country and was embraced as a non-Muslim. That taught me what can happen when we hold space for difference and actually celebrate it. On a personal level, my wife is Jewish, and we raise our kids connected to both traditions. We joke that interfaith dialogue is just dinner at our house. That personal piece keeps me accountable every day: What kind of world am I helping create for the people I love most?
Matthew Hoffman’s family attended the launch of the Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Pluralism at UMBC on September 16. He and his wife are raising their children in both Christian and Jewish traditions. (Jaime Loza ’28)
Q: What do you see as some of the biggest benefits and challenges of engaging across religious differences?
A: When this work is done well, people are actually more likely to dive deeper into their own faith. Through mutually enriching relationships, I find myself reflecting back on my own Lutheran tradition and realizing it can hold more than I sometimes assume. These relationships shape us. You don’t have to agree on everything to come to the table and build community across difference. That’s the kind of pluralistic democracy we’re trying to nurture.
The challenges are real. Global conflicts—especially since October 7 and with ongoing violence elsewhere—deeply affect our students. We hold space for grief, mourning, and anger, while also creating opportunities for people to ask, “What’s next?” and to stay in relationship even when they disagree. Programs like Bridge Builders and Picturing Pluralism help students practice curiosity and dialogue skills so they can have hard conversations and still see each other as fully human.
Q: How does CRSP partner with other centers on campus, and what projects are you excited about?
A: I can’t imagine doing this work disconnected from The Mosaic, the Pride Center, the Women’s, Gender, and Equity Center, or our colleagues in the Division of Institutional Equity. Very few people show up with just one identity—intersectionality is real. Some important partnerships include “Hear Our Stories” with The Mosaic, Queerios with the Pride Center for people at the intersection of LGBTQ and religious identities, and Centering Wonder with the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. We’re also beginning conversations with Retriever Integrated Health about how religion and spirituality fit into holistic well-being. We do this work together.
Q: What do you wish UMBC community members knew about how they can engage with CRSP?
A: Belonging isn’t only for students—staff and faculty deserve to have their identities supported and seen, too. If they don’t feel they can show up as their full selves, retention and campus culture suffer. Don’t be afraid to talk about religion and spirituality. It’s okay to be curious, to build relationships, and to ask kind, thoughtful questions. We have multiple prayer and reflection spaces located across campus,—and we’re open to expanding further as needs arise. Ask for help. Partner with us. We do this work with students, staff, and faculty.
At the end of the two-day “Picturing Pluralism” retreat, the group selected photos to be included in an exhibition that will open on December 2 in the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery. (Summer Richmond ’28)