• Fly-fishing aside,

  Northway hooked on a career in religious studies.

• Eric Northway has lived in a variety of places, but he found his way back home to central Iowa. That's why his father called him a "boomerang" - he returned.
  
  Northway is a full-time lecturer in religious studies. The Iowa State alumnus began teaching in the department in 2002, subbing for a professor on sabbatical. Prior to landing back in Iowa he spent a couple years in Alaska as a fly-fishing guide, did some guiding in Colorado and Tennessee as well, earned a master's degree in Mississippi and started his Ph.D. program in England.
  
  "I bounced around a lot," said Northway, who is the 2008 recipient of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Excellence in Undergraduate Introductory Teaching Award.

  Outdoor fanatic
  The Runnells, Iowa, native started his undergraduate studies at Iowa State in fisheries and wildlife biology. Although he is a self-described "outdoor fanatic," he wasn't crazy about some of his courses. In the meantime he took a couple religious studies courses to meet his general education requirements.
  
  "I became interested in the historical and sociological aspects of it, and I became a major," he recalled. "I found it incredibly intriguing."
  
  His parents asked what he was going to do with a degree in religious studies. "I answered, ‘I don't know, but I'm going to be a fishing guide now, then I'll figure it out.'"
  
  Northway was on his way toward a master's degree in theological studies from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss., when he did some more soul searching.
  
  He debated whether fly fishing (an activity that was self-taught as a teen because he thought the pole looked "neat") was in his future, or whether he had what it took to earn a Ph.D. Northway chose the latter. He was faring well in his M.A. program and convinced himself he was capable of doing "high-level research," and decided to use the degree as a springboard to an academic career.
  
  He chose to go to England for the Ph.D. In the radically different British graduate education system, Northway's research proposal was accepted by a University of Durham professor. Thus began a fairly independent research journey. He attended a few seminars, "then they throw you in the deep end, and you sink or swim."
  
  Northway stayed afloat and studied a 16th century Protestant reformer, about whom essentially nothing was written in English and little in German. Doing research in Durham and Oxford, he had to translate information from German and Latin.
  
  "I had to work through these 16th century books - dozens and dozens and dozens of them," Northway explained.

  High scores
  As he wrote and defended his research project, Northway taught at Iowa State, consistently racking up high student evaluation scores.
  
  His academic experience both here in the U.S. and abroad, according to his colleagues, gives him an interesting insight for teaching his introductory courses, including "Introduction to World Religion" and "Religion in America."
  
  When teaching about a religion, Northway emphasizes its history, doctrines and socio-culture aspects. He wants his students to understand different faiths and to empathize with their believers even if they don't necessarily agree with the religion's viewpoints.
  
  "I want my students to become deep thinking, questioning individuals, but I don't want to be a preacher," Northway explained. "What they end up believing at the end of the day is none of my business. I'm not out to change religious views, but to get them to question their views on religion.
  
  "My goal is for students to not view people who practice other religions as ‘other.'"
  

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