Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D.

Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D. became Director of the Wabash Center in January of 2020. As a womanist scholar of Religious Education and artist, her work focuses upon issues of pedagogy, epistemologies of hope, and justice. She incorporates into her writing and teaching the cultural and spiritual values taught to her by her southern, Christian parents and grandparents. Nancy’s first book was a children’s book entitled All Quite Beautiful: Living in a Multicultural Society. Her book entitled Dear Sisters: A Womanist Practice of Hospitality was written for a scholarly as well as church audience. Her books written in collaboration include: Being Black/Teaching Black: Politics and Pedagogy in Religious Studies and Black Church Studies: An Introduction.

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In my family’s tradition, dreams, visons, symbols, and signs are part of our knowing, understanding, and meaning making apparatus. I grew up with nightly dinner table conversation which effortlessly included sharing dreams, seeking out interpretations, then the habit of reordering a decision based upon spiritual in-sight. Our “cloud of ...

(An audio version of this blog may be found here.) We were not gathered to analyze the problems facing systems of education, societal storms, weaponized misinformation, wars around the globe, or climate change. We were not convened to solve problems of organizational structures or craft new and much needed policies ...

(An audio version of this blog may be found here.)  My editor is one of my most ardent supporters and a beloved friend. We are working, together, on my next book. He has not, in many months, received any pages from me. At a recent gathering, he asked me if ...

(An audio recording of this blog may be found here.)  With people all around the globe, my attention was captured by the Paris 2024 Olympics. I tuned into the TV coverage as often as I could. Watching world class athletes perform their craft is spellbinding. Athletes performing at the highest level, ...

(An audio recording of this blog post may be found here.) One of the first requests I received in my new role as Director of the Wabash Center was to convene a group of “late-career” scholars. I said no. The friend requesting the workshop explained that they had participated in ...

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