Diversity and Social Justice

Proposal abstract :
This workshop explores the use of bi-cultural/bi-literate pedagogy in the teaching of theology. This approach to education heightens a teacher’s awareness of the importance of language structures, skills, or functions that are characteristic of different content areas. Awareness of these structures, skills and functions can then be used to enhance the academic progress of students coming from other cultures, as well as helping non-cultural students learn in a second language setting. This is particularly important in a seminary setting where the student population is culturally very diverse. We hope that the insights generated from this workshop can then be adopted by other theological schools.

Learning Abstract :
The grant funded a project to explore the use of techniques in bi-lingual/bi-cultural education in the teaching of theology. A workshop on this subject was led by Dr. Howard Smith from the Department of Bi-literate/Bi-cultural education at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His presentation sparked interaction among faculty from Oblate School of Theology, Assumption Seminary and the Mexican American Catholic College. Together these institutions provide training for ministry to populations which are between 60-80% Hispanic. The content of the workshop addressed the following questions: 1) What do we mean by bi-cultural/bi-literate education? Is it enough just to speak two languages in order to teach in this style? 2) What are some of the methods and techniques that can be used in the classroom for people who are second language learners? 3) What are some of the results or outcomes from teaching in a bi-cultural/bi-literate style? Participants will have the opportunity to work some of the concepts taught at the workshop into course syllabi at a second workshop projected for the spring of 2009.

Proposal abstract :
James Evans, Rita Nakashima Brock and Orlando Espin are being asked to explore the discourses of our various disciplines with an eye to exposing the use of common categories and modes of argumentation that function as a cover for encoding Eurowestern culture, values, ideologies, and worldviews in subtle ways that ensure the dominance in discourse of those would-be normative voices. From discourses in the academic study of comparative religions to theology to ethics, there is a persistent tendency, usually fairly naively and with little forethought, to teach, think and write as if there were a normative modality that speaks to and for every intellectual endeavor. White academic scholars claim implicitly to engage a value-neutral discourse analysis that has somehow surfaced as a refined (and reified) modality across the whole academic waterfront. Sometimes the act is deeply encoded in a subtle choice of words that slant the whole argument in a particular direction—without being overly obvious in stating a bias. Insofar as we scholars of color find ourselves all too often adopting the same cognitional categories that have seemed to dominate discourse generally in the academy, our own discourses run the same risk of racialization. How can we scholars of color help each other and particularly help our White colleagues to identify this racialization of discourse? To that end, each invited speaker will give an hour presentation followed by small group discussions that will explore, based on what was said, how the racialization of their discipline impacts their teaching and scholarship.

Learning Abstract :
Presenters at this conference were asked to explore the discourses of our various disciplines with an eye to exposing the use of common categories and modes of argumentation that function as a cover for encoding eurowestern culture, values, ideologies, and worldview in subtle ways that ensure the dominance in discourse of those would-be normative voices. From discourses in the academic study of comparative religions to theology to ethics, there is a persistent tendency, usually fairly naively and with little forethought, to think and write as if there were a normative modality that speaks to and for every intellectual endeavor. White academic scholars claim implicitly to engage a value-neutral discourse analysis that has somehow surfaced as a refined (and reified) modality across the whole academic waterfront. Sometimes the act is deeply encoded in a subtle choice of words that slant the whole argument in a particular direction—without being overly obvious in stating a bias. Insofar as we scholars of color find ourselves all too often adopting the same cognitional categories that have seemed to dominate discourse generally in the academy, our own discourses run the same risk of racialization.

Proposal abstract :
During my twenty years of teaching at a small liberal arts college for women I have built various community partnerships through short-term field trips and long-term programs. These partnerships range from campus (departmental process; living wage campaign; teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) to Atlanta (local human rights organizations; a homeless shelter for women and children; a teen parenting program with a local high school; a seminary teaching intern program) I believe that the long-term relationships with community partners provide the sites for transformative learning. In this sabbatical project I want to investigate more deeply the scholarship of teaching social justice and religion, analyze the connections between the partners and transformative learning by students (and teacher), and identify ways to expand the academic experiences both theoretically and practically. I am planning a book project tentatively entitled, “Provoking Justice: Community Engagement and Teaching Religion,” based on these experiences as they are in conversation with pedagogical theories.

Learning Abstract :
From my reading in pedagogies and theatre of the oppressed and other critical, feminist, and popular education theories and practices, I learned the importance of dreaming big, of pushing the impossible. What this means more concretely is developing questions about faculty power in relation to democratic ideals. Our departmental model is about offering an alternative in higher education - one that is committed to living out more radical pedagogical practices in my classroom and my department. One outcome is the current movement in our department's student leadership group out of our department and into the larger institutional system. The witness of grassroots teachers in various social movements and alternative models for social transformation offer important hints about movement building in unjust systems. There are failures and successes in the journey that are always centered in ethical relationship - in the classroom, with community partners, in a web of relationships.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a project with the following aims: 1. Re-education of faculty about wholistic assessment practices; 2. Creation of outcome-based learning objectives; 3. Creation of an assessment process and resources to assess curriculum, student learning, faculty effectiveness and institutional well-being; 4. Construction of an assessment process that adequately reflects a multiracial-multicultural theological educational institution.

Learning Abstract :
Through a process of reeducation around evaluation and assessment of the seminary MDiv curriculum, the faculty members of ABSW have come to understand that the measure of a student's learning is in essence an evaluation of pedagogical effectiveness. The tables have been turned. We, the faculty of ABSW, no longer understand our role primarily as one of assessing student performance; rather, we have knowingly created a process that will measure our effectiveness as educators. And, we hope to get high marks!

Proposal abstract :
Support for a study leave project to extend methods and agendas developed by biblical scholars for the study of ethnicity to the teaching and learning of the Bible. Specifically, this project aims at accomplishing the following goals: 1) to study how ethnicity is incorporated in introductory courses to the Bible both as a method of interpreting the biblical text and as a pedagogical instrument to involve students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. This is to be accomplished by means of a survey of Bible courses that stress the importance of ethnicity; 2) to learn from scholars who are most successful in incorporating issues of race and ethnicity into their teaching of the Bible through team-teaching with them; 3) to pool together resources developed by others to help scholars better handle the issue of race and ethnicity in Bible courses.

Learning Abstract :
Insofar as teaching and learning the Bible occupies center stage in a theological curriculum, how to do it will continue to be contested. This project convinces me that the most effective pedagogy is one that begins by engaging the students' construction of self and ends with the students' bringing their identities into dialogue with the biblical text. The text is not conveyed merely as a value-free object but filtered through the students' own identities. By the same token, the students' self-understanding is not simply affirmed but is brought into a dialogue with the text. An enduring question is how to reconcile this dialogical model of learning with the current orthodoxy of objective learning. These two sets of ideal are not inherently contradictory, but to bridge them requires creative and sustained collaboration with other teachers. What is true with teaching and learning the Bible is eminently true in other theological and religious disciplines as well.

Proposal abstract :
Funding for two symposiums for African-American faculty to explore androgogy from the perspective of black faculty who teach majority students and/or teach courses from a minority perspective in majority institutions.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to gather together African American professors of the Christian College Coalition Graduate Fellows program to address their experiences and frustrations as minority faculty, with the goal of developing positive responses to their location in majority white institutions. Participants hoped to develop andragogy from the perspective of black faculty who teach majority students from a minority perspective within these institutions.
Participants report that the symposium successfully gathered together African American instructor of Christian Colleges. In their meetings they were able to share insights and techniques they had gained which made it easier to survive their minority status in their respective institutions.

Proposal abstract :
Support for 15 non-Hispanic faculty of theological seminaries to attend a Faculty Seminar on teaching Latinos/as in the various fields of theology and ministry.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought funds to support a group of non-Hispanic faculty from theological seminaries to attend a faculty seminar on teaching Latinos/as in the various fields of theology and ministry. This seminar of the Hispanic Summer Program would be held at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.
The group included a total of 22 participants from many areas of the theological curriculum. The largest number of participants was from the areas of Biblical studies, ethics and practical theology. Participants reported their desire to take steps so that similar seminars can take place in their own institutions for their faculty. Others reported their plans to rewrite their course syllabi with Hispanic perspectives included more intentionally. Several felt that through the experience they had found new ways to support and encourage Hispanic students and colleagues.

Proposal abstract :
Project Purpose. This project will provide non-Latino professors in the various fields of theology and ministry with insights, techniques, and resources in their own specific fields that they may employ in the process of teaching Latinas and Latinos in those various fields. Project Goals. During the two years of duration of the project, it will: (1) Provide opportunities for Lation/a professors in at least five different fields of study to gather and reflect on specific Latino issues and resources in each of these fields , and on how to communicate these matters to their non-Latino colleagues. (2) Provide at least five seminars for non-Latino professors, each seminar on a different field of study, in which Latina/o professors will guide their counterparts in reflection and learning regarding Latino issues and resources in that particular field. (3) Have at least fifty non-Latino/a professors participate in these seminars. (4) Produce five written pieces, one the result of each seminar to be published as articles in journals or as chapters in a book. (5) Follow up on these seminars by providing participants with bibliographical and other updates.

Learning Abstract :
Our greatest surprise was how little the academic community knows about the Latino community, and particularly its church life. Participants in our seminars repeatedly expressed astonishment and even disbelief when told of the thousands of Spanish-speaking churches in their own cities, or of the number of Latinas and Latinos involved in alternative theological education programs, both Catholic and Protestant. This would seem to indicate that channels and programs need to be developed which will allow and encourage faculty in theological seminaries to seek direct experience of the Latino community.

Secondly, we have found that there is great interest among non-Latino faculty to respond to the needs of the growing number of Latinos and Latinas coming to their schools, and a sense of frustration at the lack of resources - human and bibliographical - that could help them in this endeavor.

Finally, and probably most importantly, we have learned that when the previous two points are combined, there are a number of institutions - or at least a number of faculty within those institutions - who feel that in order to deal responsibly with the changing demographics of the nation and the church, a radical change is needed in theological curriculum, and particularly in methods of delivery - including programs for those who are now excluded from the mainstream of the educational system.

Proposal abstract :
Two year support for 20 non-Hispanic faculty of theological seminaries to attend the faculty seminars of the Hispanic Summer Program on teaching Latinos/as in the various fields of theology and ministry.

Learning Abstract :
The project director and various members of the Hispanic Summer Program Governing Board were convinced that the seminar "Through Hispanic Eyes" helped develop non-Hispanic faculty that were more aware of Latina/o issues, who were more ready to support Hispanic colleagues, and who were generally enthusiastic over the challenges and opportunities that the current demographic shifts in the nation bring. Given the paucity of Latino/a professors in our various institutions of theological education, such allies are of fundamental importance.

While the small number of participants in 2003 was unplanned,they noted that the smaller number of Seminar participants had less of a disruptive effect on the HSP, and secondly had positive pedagogical impact on the participating non-Hispanic faculty. The governing board was persuaded of the value of a smaller cohort for any future Seminar.

The interaction between non-Hispanic Seminar participants and the HSP faculty generated fruitful reflection on issues of pedagogy that both groups wish to pursue further. In fact, this project was instrumental in helping the Governing Board of the HSP to establish a priority to investigate formally the issues of pedagogy in an ecumenical theological education.

They also observed unplanned benefits when institutions sent two or more persons as Seminar participants and when administrators were present.

Proposal abstract :
Increasingly, theological schools are training religious leaders to serve in a religiously diverse context. Most seminary faculty have moved beyond the framework of ‘world religions’ courses and are exploring various pedagogies to teach other faiths, such as interfaith dialogue, team teaching, mixed-student classrooms, clinical pastoral education (CPE), experiential site visits, travel learning programs, and field placements. Yet among seminary educators, there is little shared understanding about exactly how such pedagogies impact the formation of a religious leader. This project will survey 100 faculty involved in multifaith education at seminaries, then create a “brain trust” of seminary educators to explore and write about pedagogies of multifaith education. Participating faculty will prepare written reflections for publication and identify best practices in their context. The results of the survey, “brain trust,” and reflections (both written and streaming video) will form the content of a new web-based faculty resource.

Learning Abstract :
As multifaith education grows at seminaries across America, more attention should be paid to pedagogy. A wide variety of teaching methods are in use to teach other faiths to future religious leaders, and educators do not have shared understanding about their impact. From a diverse array of factors that affect learning, the theological and religious backgrounds of the learner appear to have a particularly strong impact on the learning process. American seminary faculty are engaging in a creative array of pedagogies, often with little knowledge of their colleagues' work. Favorite teaching methods may be linked to the passions and skills of the teacher more than the needs of the learner. Multifaith educators generally agree that studying another tradition ultimately sharpens and strengthens one's relationship with one's own tradition, except in the tiny minority of cases where such learning eventually leads to conversion or departure from the home faith.

Proposal abstract :
In the fall of 2016, with a vision for a CPE-inspired faith-rooted justice learning program, Auburn launched the Justice Ministry Education (JME) program. The model employed a pedagogy that integrates field-based action with guided theological reflection in small groups. In the summer of 2017, Auburn will bring five group supervisors together for a three-day strategic learning and evaluation session to design the core curriculum for the national Justice Ministry Education program. Supervisors will engage in evaluative learning before the gathering, work together to creatively design the curriculum at the convening, and Auburn will disseminate the curriculum to all new JME groups going forward.

Learning Abstract :
The Justice Ministry Education (JME) program, an intensive leadership learning program for religious leaders, seminary students, organizers, activists and nonprofit staff, is transitioning from pilot program to a growing national educational network. The original vision for the program, inspired by CPE's dual commitment to field work combined with small group theological reflection, was successful and has been refined to better match the needs of JME supervisors, participants and field sites. Five educational outcome areas were devised to guide every aspect of the 300-hour learning experience: faith-rootedness; justice practices; role discernment and knowledge of self; self- and communal-care; and accountability and relationships. The exact activities to be used to reach the educational outcomes need additional experimentation, reflection and evaluation over two or more years. JME supervisors need both in-real-life and virtual tools and moments to build relationships and share ideas and learning with each other.

Proposal abstract :
This project seeks to explore how questions like these may be effectively raised in the classroom. What successful pedagogical strategies have we used to decenter dominant narratives, and what others might we consider? What are the challenges and risks that we face in the classroom when we decenter dominant narratives? And how are we to assess our decentering strategies? These are some of the core questions of this project. For this grant, we propose a three-day retreat where we can discuss these issues as well as lay the groundwork for a possible larger conversation with other Latino/a scholars of religion. Given our various disciplinary backgrounds and our varied institutional settings, we believe we are well poised to undertake this task.

Learning Abstract :
Central to this project was identifying specific learning strategies that help our students decenter meta-narratives in disciplines like biblical studies, ritual studies, Jewish studies, Latino/a studies, and American religious studies. We learned that as individuals of Latin American descent, we know from personal experience what it means to be on the margins of the "American" norm. Yet, as scholars, we have made commitments to decenter the structures underlining the normative discourses. Toward this end, we collectively utilize a range of critical methods that problematize dominant narratives, including postmodern theory, postcolonial and de-colonial thought, critical social theory, and feminist critics.

At the same time, integrated into this theoretical process is giving currency to our own lived experiences as Latinoas/as with oppressive meta-narratives. Conversely, deploying these decentering strategies in our teaching can provoke increased cultural tensions in the classroom. For minoritized faculty, this can often have an adverse effect on professional advancement. Hence, valuable to ensuring a healthy learning environment, while at the same time decentering dominant narratives, is to maintain a posture of humble diplomacy and set forth early on in the course an ethics of engagement.

Proposal abstract :
Many students come to seminary with a normalized sense of identity and worldview from their home communities. While seminary tends to destabilize these sensibilities, rarely are students challenged to appreciate the differences of other racial/ethnic groups. Because Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, like much of the contemporary United States, exists at the intersection of multiple ethnic cultures which congregations must navigate in light of Christian faith, it therefore seems imperative to recontextualize theological education in relation to diverse ethnicities/cultures. Thus, APTS intends to inaugurate a program to enhance diversity in theological education which will include faculty roundtable discussions, campus workshops and roundtable discussions, and consultations in course development. These programs will draw on the local expertise and experience of Dr. Michelle Guzman and the University of Texas’ department of diversity education. This grant proposal represents the first of a three stage, six-year initiative. These phases will be elaborated below, but for the purposes of this grant we are only requesting funding for the first phase. Other phases are elaborated to provide context for the requests of this first phase.

Learning Abstract :
In 2007 the faculty of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary requested and received a grant to help the institution more faithfully navigate issues of race and diversity. We recognized that if diversity was to be an integral part of our curriculum, then we needed a more diverse faculty and staff. President Wardlaw convened a Commission on Diversity to oversee all matters of diversity across the life of the institution. We are close to achieving the commission's recommendation that the next 4 of 5 faculty hires be members of racial/ethnic minority groups and that 3 of these 5 should be women. The commission has also recommended targets for diversity on the board of trustees. We have instituted yearly staff training events and are strategizing about recruiting staff personnel from among minority communities. We are also learning how important it is to build for conversations rather than simply jumping into controversial topics. It may be frustrating for students to delay the satisfaction of combat, but in the long run it makes better conversations. When we conceived this project, we imagined designing interventions that would be immediately transformative. In reality, faculties are constantly juggling so many urgent issues that another project, even a very important one, is just one of many demands. However, it is not fair to say that diversity is not already deeply ingrained in their consciousness, since most have long embraced such commitments. I believe we may be learning that our faculty, and perhaps others, simply need concrete practical suggestions.

Proposal abstract :
This grant is designed to fund a pilot program to promote racial-ethnic diversity at Belmont University. The primary aim is to facilitate an interdisciplinary, cross-departmental conversation for 350 full-time Belmont faculty in response to two questions: (1) As an explicitly Christian university, Belmont University requires its faculty to be members of a Christian church. Yet it openly welcomes students from all religious backgrounds and simultaneously promotes racial-ethnic diversity. How is it possible to value diversity in a university context where, historically and traditionally, its Christian mission has been exclusionary? (2) How can Belmont faculty create new initiatives that promote a culture of diversity and inclusivity—particularly, in the teaching of religion and theology, a significant feature of the BELL Core—in a manner that is consistent with the university’s Christian identity in order to meet the changing demographics of the institution and the greater Nashville metropolitan area?

Learning Abstract :
This grant funded a four part Diversity Lunch Series with guest speakers Sarah Shin (Intervarsity), Larycia Hawkins (University of Virginia), David I. Smith (Calvin College), and Emilie Townes (Vanderbilt Divinity School). The lunches provided a forum for faculty from different colleges to gather, share a meal, and have conversations around diversity at Belmont University with 190 total participants. The grant funded a faculty book discussion in the College of Theology and Christian Ministry on Christianity and Race in the American South by Paul Harvey. According to the surveys collected, a majority of respondents were moderately satisfied with the university's definition but were under-satisfied with the present culture of diversity at Belmont University. Other key findings are that faculty have power and agency to redefine the culture of the institution and that appealing to the Christian identity of the university is compelling way to approach and engage with matters of diversity.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a study to examine how teachers at Christian colleges and seminaries educate men and women about multicultural issues within youth ministry programs.

Learning Abstract :
The teachers in this study intended for these courses to be moments of awakening for students, satisfied that students may depart the course without "answers," but with new awareness and critical principles for how to minister in diverse situations. Conscious that the course curriculum intentionally created dissonance and confronted ingrained perspectives, the instructors functioned as spiritual directors or pastors, assisting students in their understanding of self, racism and related subjects, and the implications for their futures as ministry leaders and citizens. The manner in which they led students through discussions was an integral part of the curriculum, a conscious modeling of how Christians should be addressing these subjects, and in a manner that reflected God's forgiveness and desire for reconciliation. This study has begun an ongoing conversation regarding the need for multicultural subjects to be integral parts of ministry degree programs in Christian colleges and seminaries.

Proposal abstract :
A major interest of this grant project is to help us discover or diagnose important areas in our institution and teaching that compromise learning from diversity and therefore create impediments to diversity in our resources and pedagogy. Currently Boston University – School of Theology seeks to address a lack in domestic racial/ethnic diversity among faculty and students alike, which is a considerable departure from its historical legacy in theological education for African American and women alumni-ae with graduate degrees. Considering this departure from our institutions’ legacy in theological education for multi-ethnic student body, this project will examine our current pedagogy and seek to develop critically new pedagogical strategies to teaching and create more inclusive multicultural and multiethnic global environment. The workshops will provide opportunities for faculty and administrators to engage in conversations of dismantling racism, sexism, and (neo-) colonialism. With several consultants and alumni/ae, faculty will investigate the dynamics of teaching international and domestic marginalized racial/ethnic students and will seek to develop multicultural pedagogy and curricular resources, which will include efforts at institutional reform in the School of Theology.

Learning Abstract :
This project designed workshops to address international and domestic, marginalized racial/ethnic diversity in theological education, but more specifically in our classrooms. These training and dialogical workshops underscored the convergence or overlapping nature of racism, sexism, and (neo)colonialism within our institutional life and our teaching culture. As our project progressed through these workshops, faculty and administrators explicitly pressed for more attention to teaching strategies for the classroom. We discovered a critical need to have workshop leaders devise exercises for this desired work that did not dismiss or sweep past the necessary critical reflection on systemic and cultural marginalization and how we might learn from diversity itself. This discovery involved institutional life and teaching practices that passively and sometimes actively privilege some voices and fail to bridge the gaps of resourcing and learning caused by dominance, neglect, or marginalization. In the end, we formed a new faculty leadership committee, which expands the previous work of the faculty's recent Cultural Competency Committee, to devise a long-term project (possibly three to five years) to continue our work on teaching and diversity.

Proposal abstract :
Support for project to introduce faculty and students to the historic and contemporary encounter between Plains Cree and non-aboriginal peoples, identifying and discussing pedagogical and theological models and methods to enhance intercultural communication.

Learning Abstract :
By hosting conferences, for both faculty and the public, we have raised awareness and the profile of 1st nation's issues in our community and we have gained new access to information and human resources. As a learning community we built new relationships with aboriginal people and gained a greater sense of their worldview and needs. We discovered the value of interactive and experiential learning as an essential component to cross cultural education. We learned that education needs to encompass, in some way, the whole person: mind, body, and soul; and, that teachers need to model this wholeness to the students. We must listen to students, so as to understand their inner and social worlds, so that we can be relevant educators and teach students based on their prior social, cultural, and intellectual knowledge. Cultural discovery and curiosity must be ongoing to be effective in First Nations and cross-cultural education.

Proposal abstract :
This proposal describes a process for enhancing the capacity of the faculty and administrative staff for nurturing effective teaching and learning in culturally and racially diverse classrooms. The project will involve shared reading and expert leadership in 3 faculty seminars during the spring 2006 fall 2006 semesters to develop competencies in pedagogical resources and practices that support effective teaching and learning in diverse settings.

Learning Abstract :
The Faculty and administrators directly related to degree programs committed to a combination of reading and workshop participation led by an expert educator in the area of diversity and pedagogy, Dr. Christine Stanley. We were able to purchase and read selectively from a recent edited volume, Teaching Inclusively: Resources for Course, Department, and Institutional Change in Higher Education, Edited by Dr. Mathew Ouellett. We focused on two areas: effective pedagogical strategies in diverse classrooms and constructing multicultural syllabi. In the first workshop we addressed issues such as attention to the racial and cultural social locations of faculty as well as students, familiarity with different learning preferences across and within various racial and cultural groups, and inclusion of clear and diverse assessment strategies.

Proposal abstract :
This project proposes a process for critical assessment of Brite Divinity School’s operative Signature Pedagogy, consultation, faculty-led research, and intentional conversation to develop proposals based on current literature and best practices in pedagogies of Formation, Interpretation, Contextualization, and Performance. Such engagement and exploration will lead to the construction of a revised, effective, and visionary Signature Pedagogy for Brite.

Learning Abstract :
This grant explored the usefulness of Educating Clergy and particularly the four interdependent pedagogies for deepening and enriching conversations surrounding curricular revision and the identification of an institution's Signature Pedagogy. Results are quite positive and include prompting a new appreciation for the integration of the four pedagogies across curricular categories. The concept of Signature Pedagogy proved useful in reconsidering and revising the institution's previously implicit Signature Pedagogy so that it is better aligned with its ethos and assessment of contemporary and future needs for theological education. Important secondary gains included improved appreciation for degree program assessment. In addition, there is new appreciation for and resources for supporting the integration of learning across the curriculum. Vertical and horizontal integration will be mapped and assessed in the new curriculum.

Proposal abstract :
Brite Divinity School has identified the importance of exploring the way in which we construe and address diversity in our curricular and programmatic strategies. Currently we have created a curricular program that addresses racial, ethnic, and global issues. However, we are not giving the same institutional attention to other challenging forms of diversity presently difficult for church and culture such as gender and sexual orientation. We are seeking strategies that will assure both rich attention to the accrued force of the complex intersections of a range of stigmatized forms of diversity in church and culture as well as ongoing attention to the particular experience and needs of the marginalized communities represented by these various forms of diversity. We propose inviting a panel of distinguished colleagues in theological education to lead the faculty in a colloquy and students in a community conversation about these concerns.

Proposal abstract :
At a time when the lines between global and local are fast disappearing, Candler School of Theology is committed to developing a fresh model for transnational theological education. In the past several years, Candler has evaluated the programs and services it offers to its international students, and is committed to a strategy of internationalizing across the curriculum. To achieve that goal, Candler seeks grant support over the next three years to further its understanding of the effectiveness of current pedagogy and course curricula, reflect upon the pedagogical challenges and opportunities of the transnational context of theological education, and develop a new repertoire of courses that fully integrate into the Candler curriculum transnational perspectives on theological education and ministerial formation. After Candler measures the impact that the revised curriculum is having on both domestic and international students, it will share with other theological educators a fresh model for transnational theological education.

Learning Abstract :
Faculty began this project with different conceptions of transnational pedagogy. Some wanted to improve the way they teach courses about topics that are transnational in nature. Others intended to diversify course material to include more perspectives from around the globe. Some preferred to focus on pedagogical skills that improve learning in ethnically and culturally diverse classrooms. Clarifying the import and implications of these different conceptions was essential to faculty dialogue, just as integrating them was essential to the successful revision of courses. In addition to diversifying assigned readings, transnational pedagogy requires considerable reflection about how best to frame, order, and approach them. It requires pedagogical practices that help students engage actively with material that seems remote or other. It requires skillful facilitation to foster respectful listening, honest expression, and constructive critique. Finally, transnational pedagogy requires faculty colleagues willing to debate the important issues that accompany this kind of teaching.

Proposal abstract :
Catholic Theological Union accepted an invitation from ATS to participate in the initiative of the Committee on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) in 2010-2012. From the topics proposed by CORE, CTU chose reframing teaching and learning in an ethnically, racially and culturally diverse school. The CTU faculty team that is organizing and facilitating this process, which includes the Academic Dean, has identified a need for a consultant/ facilitator to help engage the faculty in a structured conversation on this topic and dedicated the spring faculty study-day for this purpose. The main goal of the study-day would be to focus the conversation on analyzing the current philosophy/ies of teaching and learning, and develop a vision for the future that would take into consideration the issues of diversity mentioned above. Benny Liew, one of the Wabash Center consultants, agreed to be the facilitator for the day. The grant is intended to cover the facilitator's travel cost, honorarium, and other expenses for the day.

Learning Abstract :
Participants shared that diversity in its various forms is a gift that presents opportunities and challenges, not a problem to be solved. Student from different cultures bring a wealth of experience that needs to be honored, valued and brought into conversation with the content and goals of our courses and curriculum. The universal can only be encountered in and through mutual self-reflexive exchange of particularities, and that we all read, interpret, learn and teach from particular locations of knowledge. Power, privilege and colonial consciousness should be acknowledged in the classroom and the curriculum, and persons from the dominant U.S. culture have a great deal of privilege they take for granted. Teaching and learning from an intercultural perspective is not an option; it's the future of theological education. True intercultural perspectives require reflexivity and an ongoing process of transformation in thinking, being, and acting.

Proposal abstract :
The identification of a spectrum of characteristics that can be categorized as distinctive to the doing of theology latinamente invites critical reflection with respect to pedagogy. The privileging of context, relationality, and the daily in a communal construction of knowledge is worth exploring in a teaching/learning media that require flexibility, creativity and interactivity. The content and methods of Latin@ theologies suggest pedagogical approaches that can also inform such areas as distance education, field education and professional ministerial development.

Learning Abstract :
Among the many insights of Latino/a scholars is the privileging of the daily/lo cotidiano as source and ground of our theologies. This embrace of context also implies an awareness of the fluidity of nuestra vida cotidiana and an openness to the complexities, ambiguities, particularities and surprises that accompany serious engagement with daily living. So imagine my surprise to discover that my ambitious pedagogical agenda as outlined in my fellowship application would become a victim of the particularity of my daily reality.

During the grant period a trip to Puerto Rico allowed for a block of time for research and reading to create an upper level graduate course on sources and methods in Latin@' theologies. The choice of Puerto Rico was intentional because San Juan marks the beginning of the Catholic Church in what becomes the USA and its constellations of states and territories. This primal See is often neglected in Catholic histories of the US church. The venue provided access to historic churches as well as visual evidence of the impacts of hybridity and colonization, two prevalent themes in Latin@' theologies. Furthermore, a Caribbean focus illustrated the rich diversity of Latin@' roots, peoples, and perspectives, a necessary consideration since too often Latin@' experiences are conflated into Mexican and Mexican American categories. This trip also presented an opportunity to catch up with some of the more recent scholarship by Latin@' theologians with an eye toward how these resources might fit into a syllabus exploring sources and methods. Because of the online aspect of the proposed course and the Latin@' characteristics imagined for it, some time was spent digitally photographing a variety of images.

There were several unexpected outcomes that included opportunities to speak at the biennial consultation of the Association of Theological Field Educators and at the Center for Ministry Development utilizing some of these images in a manner that drew specific appreciation for their pedagogical value from participants at both meetings. In addition to developing two new proposed courses for doctoral students, I was able to integrate scholarship from Latin@' contexts and underscore the value and contribution of this theologizing for the greater academic and ecclesial contexts.

Proposal abstract :
This project seeks to prepare lay and ordained ministers in the Roman Catholic Church to better serve Latin@s, the new demographic plurality, by resourcing faculty across the curriculum at a Roman Catholic school of theology and ministry. The design is grounded in an organic approach that recognizes that the development of intercultural ministerial competencies in students calls for teaching/learning strategies built on the interconnectedness of cultural, theological and practical knowledges as well as particular ways of being community. This project intentionally includes the theological component because it is often ignored in ministerial competency development programs. The project utilizes accompaniment as a means of resourcing faculty. By inviting an interdisciplinary team of Latin@ theological educators, the project establishes within the school faculty community a teaching/learning network of Latin@ colleagues who form a critical mass--for the duration of the project--of those who are usually underrepresented on theological faculties.

Learning Abstract :
The challenge of resourcing graduate school faculty to prepare students as ministers, teachers, and theologians for service in a church that has rapidly become plurality Latin@ is magnified by the reality that the majority of theological educators are not Latin@ let alone familiar with the distinctive theologizing that arises from Latin@ theologians and contexts. This educating of a faculty is best achieved in settings where typically underrepresented Latin@ faculty establish a critical mass and are viewed as expert peers. The cultivation of relationships of peer accompaniment reduces tensions and establishes networks for collegial engagement within the project parameters and beyond. In this project, the commitments, sources and methods of Latin@ theologies offered strategies for teaching/learning, informed pedagogical trajectories and program design.

Proposal abstract :
The main goal of the seminar would be to bring together a group of faculty of color to share about their personal work experience, develop a better analysis and understanding of the systemic issues of race, racism, and cultural diversity, dream about a vision of an anti-racist theological curriculum, classroom and institution, and build mutual, collegial relationships.

Learning Abstract :
The collegiality and sense of new solidarity that developed among group members was a transformative and empowering experience that we all needed, both personally and professionally. The seminar was an opportunity for discovering the potential we had as a group of faculty of color for supporting each other and promoting institutional change. A significant outcome on the institutional level is the formation by the Dean and the Faculty Assembly of a faculty committee on anti-racism and diversity that will insure the institutional continuity of the work of the seminar. Most challenging in the process was organizing the schedule of the meetings for a group of eight busy members of the faculty over almost two years.

Proposal abstract :
3-day meeting of women professional theologians to expand and develop a conversation about theological vocation, including mentors and mentoring, identity of the theologian, and the scholar’s relation to Christian tradition.

Learning Abstract :
Project sought to explore issues that face women who are dedicated to a life of faith within the Christian church yet who also work within an academic theological context. The conversation would be developed through a three-day conference. They hope to generate a vocabulary to make such discussions easier, as well as to discover and share resources for the integration of voice and vocation.
From the conference, the group discovered several "middles ways" that they need to negotiate. One involved the role of their personal spiritual lives in relation to their academic professional lives, particularly represented in the religious studies discourse. Another negotiated middle involved radical and conservative ideologies in regards to feminist sensibilities. Other issues involved generational distinctions, social location, and secular contexts.

Proposal abstract :
The dominant traditional image for theological education is the white steeple church which affirms white privilege and white ideological concerns as central to the formation of American religious ideals and principles. This image is counter-intuitive for teaching theology and ministry for the 21st century where racial and ethnic margins will become the center of American life. Crossing the tipping point on diversity while maintaining a curriculum and pedagogy that is guided by a steeple church theology of the 19th and 20th centuries is a funeral approach to theological education. This project seeks to effect a change within theological educators that will better prepare them to teach an intercultural, contextually relevant theology to learners who are racially and ethnically diverse, spiritual and religious, marginally spiritual yet interreligious, and spiritual but not religious. Through a process of critical engagement and reflection on provocative case study material, the faculty will explore pedagogical strategies that will create a new image for teaching theological studies from the center of diversity.

Learning Abstract :
The dominant traditional image for theological education is the white steeple church which affirms white privilege and white ideological concerns as central to the formation of American religious ideals and principles. This image is counter-intuitive for teaching theology and ministry for the 21st century where racial and ethnic margins will become the center of American life. Crossing the tipping point on diversity while maintaining a curriculum and pedagogy that is guided by a steeple church theology of the 19th and 20th centuries is a funeral approach to theological education. This project seeks to effect a change within theological educators that will better prepare them to teach an intercultural, contextually relevant theology to learners who are racially and ethnically diverse, spiritual and religious, marginally spiritual yet interreligious, and spiritual but not religious. Leaders at the forefront of advocating for diversity within theological education will facilitate reimagining conversations with the faculty. Through a process of critical engagement and reflection on provocative case study material, the faculty will explore pedagogical strategies that will create a new image for teaching theological studies from the center of diversity.

Proposal abstract :
In this historical moment of postmodernity, religious plurality, methodological diversity and shift from a politics of identity to those of ideology, there is an emerging “third wave” within womanist religious scholarship. Here religious scholars maintain womanist heritage and terminology while challenging the assumptions of a previous generation and exploring new areas of inquiry. This project invites a discussion on learning and teaching among established and emerging religious scholars who identify their scholarship as being part of this “third wave” in womanist religious thought. Participants will discuss personal educational experiences of learning womanist religious thought, and share strategies, techniques and syllabi for teaching womanist religious thought. This will take place during a two and one-half day conference on “Third Wave Womanist Religious Thought” at the Claremont School of Theology in February 2010.

Learning Abstract :
We gathered fifteen scholars who identified all of or part of their work as
"third wave" womanist religious thought. In seeking data about how this new
wave is forming, we learned: 1) Context matters: how the information and
discourse is learned, transmitted, and mediated affects assumptions,
connections, and conclusions about the nature and meaning of womanist
religious thought (WRT). Most scholars learned WRT through written resources
in formal graduate education settings. 2) Mode of Transmission: paying
particular attention to the influences of WRT affects the impact that WRT
had on the formation of participants' own intellectual production. Most
scholars referenced the impact of the writings of Delores Williams and Alice
Walker, while expressing variations about the role of womanist mentors. 3)
Naming: feelings of exclusion in larger descriptions of womanist (around
race, gender and sexual identity) affect identification of one's work as
womanist. All scholars expressed respect for the tradition from whence the
third wave emerges while maintaining an eager passion to advance the field
in new and exciting ways. Participants shared syllabi and felt it helpful
for expanding their reading lists in terms of their own research and future
syllabus construction. Many of these syllabi will be posted online.

Proposal abstract :
This consultation will gather fifteen Asian and Asian North American scholars drawn from diverse religious studies and theological subfields for a five-day retreat in Southern California to address concerns that are particular for Asian North American faculty in mid-career and to attempt a longitudinal mentoring plan for Asian North American faculty in different stages of their career.

Learning Abstract :
The Mid-Career Asian and Asian North American Religion and Theology Faculty Colloquy gathered 13 participants at Claremont School of Theology in the summers of 2016 and 2017 for reflection on mid-career challenges and issues, including teaching, research, career development, mentoring, and the balance of life and work. Participants took field trips to Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple and the Jain Center of Southern California to understand Asian religious communities' contribution to society. The colloquy helped participants to reflect on their past experiences as teachers, articulate visions and vocations as teachers and scholars, develop long-term career plans, identify issues in their institutional contexts, and recognize new strategies and resources in their work. It provided a supportive environment for participants to share their vulnerabilities and discuss intricate racial politics in religious studies departments and seminaries. Participants will use various Asian North American networks to strengthen communication and collaborative work. We hope to disseminate findings from the colloquy through publications, blogs, and podcasts.

Proposal abstract :
This grant supports and advances efforts underway in the Pastoral Care and Counseling Program at Claremont School of Theology to develop faculty resources for the provision of education that is culturally responsive.

Learning Abstract :
In the effort to increase effective pedagogy in racially and culturally diverse contexts, there is no substitute for a teaching staff that is culturally and racially diverse. Students learn from the particular identities and perspectives of the instructors and also from observing and participating in the instructors' teamwork. Our capacity to provide pedagogy responsive to the cultural and racial diversity of our students and the communities they serve was greatly enhanced when we reached beyond the academic community to persons and agencies providing direct service to diverse communities in need of assistance. The grant writers were aware that building professional relationships that will yield cultural and racial diversity within an organization is accomplished very slowly. Even knowing this, we overestimated what we would be able to accomplish during the period of the grant.

Proposal abstract :
Our department will enhance and institutionalize engaged learning practices focused on interfaith encounter. We aim to establish an expectation that every graduating Religious Studies major will have experienced at least one interfaith engaged learning practice. This Wabash grant will support us in our efforts to create the conditions that would make this expectation feasible and sustainable. This grant will fund three types of programs: 1) Specific events designed to generate interest for and facilitate reflection on the project, including a foray dinner, mid-point meetings for evaluation and correction, and a final summative conference bringing together all stakeholders. 2) Faculty enrichment to design and implement engaged learning practices in the classroom and abroad or away. 3) The institutional infrastructure to sustain these practices long-term by providing course releases and stipends for faculty who will take the role Student Engagement Coordinator.

Learning Abstract :
Our goal that every Religious Studies major would have experienced at least one interfaith HILE by the time they graduate was more or less met, as was the expectation that majors would highly value these experiences—that was the easy part! What was harder to measure, we learned, was whether our changes would be recognized by the upper administration. So publicity needs to be a factor in any teaching project, especially in light of the crisis in the humanities on most college campuses. Some of our most successful events were interfaith activities that cost very little in funding (and indeed were not a line item in our original budget) but generated a lot of positive media! Finally we learned that changing our department's culture takes food, robust conversation, reading common texts, but it also will take hiring new faculty when our senior colleagues retire, and not losing tenure-track lines!

Proposal abstract :
Support for creation of a virtual Indian village on the World Wide Web to engage students in the exploration of issues of religious and cultural difference through the specificity of North Indian rural life.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to engage students in the exploration of religious and cultural differences through a website designed to be a virtual tour of a North Indian rural village. As a teaching aide it sought to introduce students to religious life in rural North India, to engage students in the examination of the relationship between religion and society and to provide instructional support for courses considering South Asian civilization and issues of cross-cultural understanding.
The Virtual Village website was developed and can be found at: http://virtualvillage.wesleyan.edu/
The researchers found the experience formative for themselves as teacher-scholars. Their research showed how their investigative techniques developed, and showed them their ability to work collaboratively with each other and with the residents of the village upon whom the site is based. The website design required awareness of the diverse learning styles of students and the pedagogies needed to match those styles. The open structure of the website reflects for them their commitment to develop their teaching further.

Proposal abstract :
The aim of this grant is to provide ongoing learning for the members of the College Theology Society (CTS), an academic society comprised of more than 900 members from colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, in relationship to addressing race specifically, and diversity in general in the classroom. We seek to provide resources and support that extend beyond those offered in our respective institutions to a cohort of 15-20 faculty who have expressed a desire to deepen the “gifts” of diversity and to tackle its challenges. We propose doing so through two 1.5 day workshops in June 2010 and June 2011--”Making Visible the Invisible” and “Unlearning Privilege: The Classroom as Spiritually and Socially Transformative Space.” Both will immediately proceed our annual convention and be facilitated by experts in this area of scholarship and pedagogy. The workshops will be linked by a year-long on-line colloquium through the CTS website.

Learning Abstract :
The aim of this grant was to provide ongoing learning experiences for the members of College Theology Society, an academic society comprised of members from colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, in relationship to addressing race specifically, and diversity in general in the theology/religious studies classroom. Three questions oriented our inquiry: 1) What are the gifts and opportunities of having difference in the classroom? This objective of exploring the gift and challenge of race and diversity is easy to say but very difficult to enact. The struggle of this learning does not involve an inability to understand concepts at arms length and on an intellectual level, something we as academics are well equipped to do. Rather it involves the far more demanding capacity to reflect on affective learning in the here and now, not only in the context of our classrooms but also in the context of our relationships among each other as fellow members of an academic enterprise. The skills we acquire in intentionally engaging the diversity among ourselves will translate into ways of being in the classroom that do the same. 2) What are the challenges of having difference in the classroom? Issues of power within a group intensify the struggling to explore issues of diversity. The vulnerability of untenured faculty and various roles in the academy must be accounted for in order for all members to engage constructively issues of diversity. Addressing the power dynamics at work among group members will shed light on dynamics that undoubtedly shape interactions in our classrooms as well. 3) What can CTS do to promote the gifts and help with the challenges of teaching in a diverse classroom? Throughout the workshop the need became clear for a multi-dimensional approach to identity (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, status within the academy) in order to adequately account for the reality of oppression. To engage in this work it is necessary to have a community of scholars committed to this inquiry to critically explore white privilege, racism, sexism, and homophobia.

Proposal abstract :
Ten seminary colleagues of differing race, ethnicity, and gender will be invited to join in a process of reflection and analysis of their character and practice as teachers by participating in two workshops based upon the pedagogical model of transformative mediation.

Learning Abstract :
This project was designed as a collaborative investigation of the applicability of the theory of transformative mediation to teaching in the seminary classroom. To that end, the project director invited nine colleagues to participate in two workshops during the fall and spring semesters of the 2003-2004 academic year and to complete weekly exercises for self-reflection and self-assessment during the fall semester.

Participants expressed appreciation for the opportunity to reflect on their teaching both individually and with a small group of colleagues. The single consistent criticism was difficulty with finding time every week to write out responses to the weekly exercises on-line. If this project were undertaken in the future, the participants might be organized in dialogue dyads or triads bi-weekly to discuss the impact of the theory's insights on their teaching.

Proposal abstract :
There is no suitable undergraduate textbook for professors who want to teach courses in globally inclusive and critically engaged philosophy of religion. Nearly every English-language, undergraduate textbook in philosophy of religion limits itself to the philosophical issues of theistic religion (Christianity, really); those that include “non-western” religious philosophies simply tack them on to the categories and issues of theistic philosophy of religion. We propose a summer pedagogy workshop on “global-critical” philosophy of religion. The workshop would bring together ten scholars whose areas of specialization collectively cover four fields: religious philosophies of the world, comparative religion, traditional philosophy of religion, and method and theory in the study of religion. For two full days, we will work together to create a syllabus, collect course readings, and address the underlying pedagogical issues related to teaching philosophy of religion globally and critically.

Learning Abstract :
Our project was a two-day workshop in "global-critical philosophy of religion" (GCPR) that aimed to produce a syllabus for an undergraduate course in philosophy of religion (PR) that is religiously inclusive and critically engaged. Fifteen scholars, representing a variety of area specializations and philosophical styles, discussed the structure, content, and objectives of the course, but failed to complete the syllabus. One thing that we learned is that our project is only a modest, first step toward reforming PR at the undergraduate level; what is really needed is an undergraduate textbook in GCPR. Another thing that we learned is that there is considerable difference about how to do GCPR, especially with respect to raising questions of truth and value about a global diversity of religious philosophies. Nevertheless, we hope that when our syllabus is completed, it will provide others with a different model for teaching PR at the undergraduate level.

Proposal abstract :
Two weekend faculty retreats that will enhance teaching theory and skills specifically for a racially/culturally diverse seminary population.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to engage the theological faculty in two retreats to enhance their teaching theory and skills specifically for their racially/culturally diverse seminary population. They hoped to be able to become more aware of and responsive to the complexity of their current and future student body and their diverse learning style needs due to their cultural and racial diversity. In addition, they hoped to reflect deeply on their teaching practices in such a diverse context.
The project director reports that the project goals were met. The faculty expressed appreciation of the uninterrupted time in consultation together. They also felt that the consultant proved to be "invaluable" to the process of learning. They report that their conversation raised their level of awareness and demonstrated to them the complexity of teaching in diversity. One outcome of the retreats was the creation of a "peer development system," a voluntary system of pairing faculty peers together for ongoing conversation and mentoring on issues of teaching and learning, as well as classroom visitations with constructive feedback.

Proposal abstract :
The grant will support the writing of a book proposal and manuscript created from the many blogs I have written for Wabash. Like the blogs, the book will focus on issues of teaching, learning, identity politics, race and racism. Thinking through and creating a cohesive manuscript from my blogs will require fresh editing, rewriting, as well as original writing. Pulling from the ideas in my blogs to create an integrated manuscript will require focused time and a space to do the writing. It also will require the hire of a freelance editor and the conversation of colleagues. I will use the funds to: (a) rent spaces to use as a personal writing retreat during seminary break times, (b) hire a freelance editor, and (c) provide hospitality for colleagues who are willing to provide conversation and feedback (my 2017-18 Peer Cluster Group).

Learning Abstract :
My project was designed to strengthen my writing. Specially, the goal of this project was to write a book proposal which included several sample chapters. The burgeoning book was about issues of racism, oppression and alienation. Fodder for the book was from teaching Introduction to Educational Ministries courses from an anti-racism pedagogy. Equally important to the book were my blogs for Wabash Center. Writing well requires time, solitude, and conversation partners and the grant offered me these things. In conversation with colleagues and friends about the book, I was challenged to pitch the book, rather than to a scholarly audience, to a national audience in need of critical conversation about social hatred and racism in the 21st century. What would it mean to take my own learning from my classroom teaching to teach a wider audience? My editor asked me if I could write as if I was talking to parents about issues of bigotry and oppression. Intrigued by this challenge, I have begun to learn to shift my writing voice and proposal outline. I am now targeting an audience beyond the seminary classroom who has a hunger for conversations which can heal the actions and wounds of racism. My project morphed into a public theology project where ideas of teaching and learning are invaluable.

Proposal abstract :
Support for an African-American cohort group to engage the central question of how our embodiment of Black Church/Black Theology/Black culture influences our teaching in theological and religious studies. Goals include: charting the impact that Black presence has had on theological pedagogy; consideration of the liminality of Black theological education at this critical time in its history; and to write an anthology concerning the influence and embodiment of Blackness on theological education.

Learning Abstract :
In our research about the presence, influence, role and contribution of African-American professors on the classrooms of religion and theological education, it was our hunch that white supremacy and patriarchy are still a major obstacle and genuine threat that demands critical strategy both in the identity politic with colleagues and also in the classrooms with our students. We suspected that the presence of race is a critical aspect to the curriculum in general and the teaching practices, specifically. We wanted to analyze the teaching practices that Black professors have developed and have come to rely upon that will push-through or thwart some of the racism, classism, and sexism involved in teaching and learning. During our research, we rehearsed a multiplicity of issues and strategies which a Black professor negotiates daily and which White colleagues are not burdened by. We were fascinated at the amount of attention the presence of our Black bodies, our literal physicality, received in the classroom and have written about these issues of body. A major thread of our work had to do with the role and strategies we use to educate others about their own racist behaviors that keep them from a critical understanding necessary in our disciplines and subject matter. And significant time has been spent by our group advising, discussing and strategizing on ways of maintaining health, sanity, creativity, and faith.

Proposal abstract :
This grant will provide seminars for Duke Divinity junior faculty and Ph.D. students in religion to aid in their development of “pedagogies of empowerment” for racially and ethnically diverse classrooms. It will fund an education expert who will consult with the seminars on issues of teaching and diversity, provide feedback on participants’ own teaching styles, and offer the opportunity for participants to work together developing new strategies and testing their adequacy with racially and ethnically diverse student populations.

Learning Abstract :
The project consisted of four workshops over the course of the academic year, 2005-2006. Two different groups -- eight PhD students and four pre-tenure faculty from the Divinity School -- participated in the workshops. Dr. Mathew Ouellet led the first and third workshops with the project director's help, and the project director led the second and fourth workshops. The workshops included: resources for understanding participants' social location and its effect on teaching; conversations about how pedagogies empower or disempower diverse students; and ways for each participant to identify and develop educational strategies for her/his own courses to enhance the learning of students from different racial and ethnic contexts. The groups generated particular concerns and issues that have also been the focus of subsequent workshops.

Proposal abstract :
A faculty retreat to examine the vocation of teaching as it relates to racial identity, an outside consultant to help faculty address issues of racial identity in the classroom and in the seminary, and a faculty-led retreat for students to help future church leaders and teachers think critically about what it means to teach as it relates to racial identity.

Learning Abstract :
Several strengths of this project can be identified. First, the project engaged various constituents within the seminary, by focusing all on issues of teaching and learning. The resources put into faculty development are paying off as faculty continue to struggle with the impact of racial identity in their teaching and in their courses. Similarly, students are more aware of the need to become effective pastor teachers in the context of the church. The ability to draw persons from the larger community for the workshops and the roundtables engaged others outside the seminary in ways that were helpful to all.

The largest weakness of this initiative came in the need to extend the time period beyond the life of the grant and to shift some of the resources from an original part into faculty development. Although extending the life of the grant had incredible advantages, there might have been a better way to imagine the whole of the initiative were it to have been considered in a larger time frame from the beginning.

A few observations about the learning that has occurred in the midst of this grant follow. 1) It can be very difficult to maintain intentional and meaningful conversations about teaching and learning in the midst of institutional chaos or crisis. The years this grant covered coincide with some important institutional years of struggle. 2) Involving faculty in the design and assessment of a grant such as this was extremely important. While the Academic Dean or other administrative leaders can provide some of the initial impetus for a particular initiative, the results will have a greater impact if faculty are involved in every step of the process from the vision to the assessment. 3) Shaping an institutional ethos and an agenda takes more than one academic year. The extension provided the institution - its faculty and students, in particular - greater opportunity to deepen their conversations and their implementation of actual programs.

Proposal abstract :
A project to develop teaching materials and strategies to meet the special needs of Asian, Asian American, and Asian Canadian women students of religion. These funds will enable three university faculty to join the ATS funded project.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to develop teaching materials and instructional strategies for teaching Asian and Asian American/ Canadian women's theologies in North America. The integrated project team would gather in Cambridge Mass. to create a text for use in the academy.
The report was created, including three sample syllabi. The report included the following topics: 1. the teaching of Asian and Asian North American theologies in the U.S. and Canada; 2. teaching materials and instructional strategies for teaching Asian and Asian North American theologies; 3. Asian and Asian North American women as faculty and students; and recommendations to institution.

Proposal abstract :
This grant aims to build an Interdisciplinary Faculty Diversity Group to develop and deepen capacities to engage diversity in teaching and learning. It aims for institutional change that welcomes and negotiates complex diversity. This project, with the support of the Principal, will involve six (half) of the Faculty in a three stage process, concluding junior and mid-career faculty in co-operative and individual work on diversity and “whiteness” dynamics in Canada, in the United Church, and in our classrooms. Professors of Christian Education, Christian Ethics, History of Christianity, Old Testament, Theology, and Worship will undertake this project in six sessions plus interim work from Fall 2005 to Fall 2006.

Learning Abstract :
Overall, the project contributed to fostering the agenda of Emmanuel College to be "contextual" and integrative in its theological education outcomes. A workshop on diversity was conducted with outside consultant, Dr. Matt Ouellett. The project was a starting point to build upon for future groups and constituencies which include the United Church of Canada, Aboriginal Christians/communities, Curriculum Review folks, Lexington Seminar participants, and more members of the faculty.
A list of resources by consultant Professor Wenh-In Ng (expert in racial justice and education for contextual ministries) was created for the group. The group did not get as much reading done as they had hoped in the original plan but new knowledge about themselves and their students was generated. Discussions were held regularly on content and methods from their different disciplines and experiences and syllabi were shared and discussed. All participants said the project was personally and institutionally worthwhile.
Many faculty members are committed to exploring and implementing the value and practices of "diversity" in some concrete ways. The faculty has been energized by talking about what it loves to do - teach! The Wabash grant made possible space and resources for gathering, reflecting, engaging and connecting to consider some tough issues relating to "diversity." In the process, the faculty involved became a trusting and collegial team who want to teach and learn in their various classrooms and institutional arrangements with diversity and justice as a living, connective tissue.

Proposal abstract :
Support for the conversion of interviews and oral history materials to accessible and enduring formats for purposes of teaching with future generations. Goals include: conversion of oral history materials to digital, audio-visual, and print formats; preservation of stories of women who have composed strong lives through their moral authority; and development of a pedagogy for engaging with oral history resources in classroom teaching and independent research.

Learning Abstract :
The primary learning is that the inclusion of teaching resources in the Oral History Project has made it more far-reaching and long-lasting than it would otherwise be. The power points are effective in classroom teaching, as are the DVD's. Finally, the project director is grateful for the opportunity to contribute a large collection of permanent teaching resources to the Pitts Theology Library archives.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a project to engage students with women who have potential to inspire and guide, to uncover realities of Christian tradition as embodied in diverse lives and contexts. Specific pedagogical goals include: teaching the art of oral history; teaching the art of hermeneutics with living texts; teaching the art of discerning dynamics and patterns of religious life; creating a collection of teaching resources; and teaching through oral history in extra-curricular and public venues.

Learning Abstract :
The project director and associates learned the power of teaching through oral history, especially the inspiration and wisdom that emanates from people's lives when others listen with care. In particular, they learned the many different ways by which oral history can contribute to teaching and learning. It can be especially effective in the following forms: 1) Central focus of pedagogical content and method, as in the Prophetic Pioneers course that draws heavily upon biography and life story; 2) Case studies that reveal how human lives interact with a particular subject or issue in religion and theology; 3) Source for contextual or theological analysis, revealing complexities in social and theological movements in different times and places; 4) Enrichment of textual analysis, especially when combining textual interpretation with an author interview; 5) Methodological tool for developing skills, especially skills in significant conversation, active listening, and interpreting human lives.

Proposal abstract :
For over a decade Episcopal Divinity School has explicitly and actively engaged in antiracism work across the curriculum and to some degree in institutional structures. This project seeks to further EDS’s work to establish contours of change toward an antiracist, institutional culture at EDS and strengthen and broaden practical ways to sustain commitments and foster community building skills across differences with students, faculty staff, administration. When appropriate, alums and trustees will be included.

Learning Abstract :
The "Sustaining Change" Project was an evaluative project focused on organic institutional change undergone over more than a decade. A major component of the twelve years of work was required training in antiracism, diversity, and multicultural skills by each constituency of the school - faculty, students, staff/administration, and trustees. The project evaluation included review of written student evaluations on the required course in antiracism/anti-oppression/diversity/multiculturalsim, "Foundations for Theological Praxis," and the ways in which faculty furthers such knowledge and skills for change throughout the curriculum. The project also sought to solicit from staff and administrators their experience of the anti-racism/anti-oppression training and its impact on a variety of institutional behaviors. Finally, the project evaluated how faculty had advanced and enlarged antiracism and anti-oppression learning into new areas. In addition to evaluative materials, the project encompassed meetings with each constituency, community meetings, and evaluation with the consulting organization of its work with the school over the long period of institutional change. Major results of this process indicated the following: (1) that students found the antiracism/anti-oppression education significant to their degree programs and ministry; (2) that this emphasis was a critical recruitment tool and reason for students to choose EDS; (3) that faculty doing this work together at the personal and cultural level for teaching enhancement, became a cohesive body that more effectively dealt with issues of ‘difference' even during institutional change and crises; (4) that through economic and institutional crisis the basic level of anti-racism/anti-oppression teaching and learning remained intact; (5) that when institutional economic resources become scarce, the critical priorities take precedent over antiracism and diversity training for staff/administration, and trustees; and thus (6) the institutional change for diversity and multiculturalism must be fortified and continually renewed to demonstrate the absolute need to address antiracism, diversity, and multiculturalism as a critical teaching/learning and institutional dimension of the theological education enterprise in the 21st century.

Proposal abstract :
This grant will assist in educating the faculty at EDS on the latest theoretical research and pedagogical praxis on issues of economic and social class as it intersects with race, gender, and religion. The grant will support hiring an expert consultant on class issues who will direct a workshop retreat for EDS faculty, securing books and other resources on class, and focus group follow-up which will evaluate the success of faculty members in incorporating class issues in their courses.

Learning Abstract :
A workshop on economic class, classism and anti-racism education was held in the fall and a faculty colloquium in the spring. The "Next Steps" hand-out from the fall meeting helped to shape the discussion in the spring and also helped participants report on what they had been doing since the fall on two levels - the "personal" level (reading from an extensive bibliography and being more aware of class intersections with race and gender); and the "institutional" level (incorporating class into teaching, dealing with the invisible wedges between the faculty and the staff, particularly in terms of benefits, and working more intentionally with their board of trustees). The conclusion of the workshop yielded the evaluation that it was clear that the work on class had only begun. There needs to be an ongoing effort to learn more about the power of dynamics of class and alliances need to be built across class lines in the EDS community.

Proposal abstract :
A faculty retreat and focus groups will seek to evaluate and consolidate the work on antiracism and multi cultural education at EDS by engaging faculty, students and alumni in critical dialogues.

Learning Abstract :
The project enabled EDS to evaluate and consolidate the work on antiracism and multicultural education at EDS by engaging faculty in critical dialogues through a retreat and faculty colloquia. A consultant was invited to lead a faculty discussion in the spring, and resources on multicultural pedagogy and theological education were gathered and provided to faculty.

Proposal abstract :
Freire’s pedagogy has been used as a theoretical basis for education among minority communities. However, on the practical level a practical design of an institution has not been seen at an institution in the United States. Creating a course that seeks to exemplify a few aspects of a liberative pedagogy does not truly represent a liberative pedagogy because it demands an entire institutional design. This project seeks to explore and begin the implementation of a liberative institutional design. The student population at the school is over 90% Latin@ and 60% of the professors are Latin@. The staff is 80% Latin@. A liberative pedagogy in this setting will begin with a definition of a Latin@ pedagogy specific for this educational setting. This project will facilitate a way for faculty, students and staff to discuss the development of a libertive institutional design and to create a plan for implementation over the next 5 years. The information will then be discussed with the provost and with the collegium of deans with the purpose of stimulating a discussion that will inform the curriculum on the main campus.

Learning Abstract :
The project helped us to identify our educational philosophy and to determine the type of context that is necessary for establishing a Freirian teaching learning environment. We were also able to identify our Latinidad in the teaching learning process. Mostly, the project gave us an opportunity to begin to document and determine the reasons for our success with non-traditional, first generation to college minority students. This is important as we continue to evaluate it. One example of this is our graduation rate is 64% while the other major community colleges in the city have graduation rates that range from 6% to 23%. The project helped us begin to determine the reasons for the success and to discuss ways that we might improve this.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a project to focus on the following goals: 1) Develop an enhanced model of teaching religion that includes rhetorical training, providing Fairfield undergraduates with the experience and the tools to engage in religious dialogue focused on different social issues; 2) Research and evaluate the teaching methodology used for the designated classes and adapt the system for other courses that deal with difficult issues; and 3) Guide and engage students in discovering relationships between academic disciplines that have different methods of inquiry and different bodies of knowledge essential to the holistic Jesuit approach to humanistic-based higher education.

Learning Abstract :
Fairfield University set out to understand how a Jesuit university, rooted in a specific Christian tradition, could teach students how to enter into difficult conversations with Islamic believers, while maintaining their own core beliefs. Fairfield's Center for Faith and Public Life took the lead on facilitating this work engaging broadly with students, faculty, Campus Ministry, and Student Services.

Their efforts to engage participants in inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue took shape through various formats and in different settings. Cluster courses, guest speakers, the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, and the Interfaith Youth Core student/faculty workshops all provided an array of learning experiences for members of the campus community. Additionally, a student learning outcomes rubric was developed for the cluster course and the workshop which provided important data on these learning experiences.

An unanticipated outcome of this project was the formation of two student led programs including a Fairfield University Chapter of the Muslim Student Association and the Student Living and Learning Community on Interfaith Religious Literacy. They were especially enthusiastic about this development because it provides tangible evidence that students have taken ownership of the topic and are working in creative ways to continue to realize an enhanced interfaith dialogue on campus.

Proposal abstract :
The Franciscan School of Theology, aims to prepare students for full participation in a global church. Our theological tradition and educational pedagogy underscore the importance of intercultural learning and formation in relationships of mutuality, respect and justice. The Global Theological Initiative aims to heighten our ability to prepare globally conscious leaders by engaging the faculty in a series of intercultural and contextual teaching and learning experiments - local encounters, national and international immersions - that enable faculty and students to experience first-hand the interconnectedness of peoples, cultures, and issues in our global society and church. Phase I of the initiative enabled faculty to identify the pedagogical issues and formulate a preliminary plan for the program. Phase II moves conversation to experimentation, engaging faculty in the design, implementation, and assessment of several immersion experiences that relate directly to the pedagogical and formational goals of our curriculum.

Learning Abstract :
The Franciscan School of Theology, aims to prepare students for full participation in a global church. Our theological tradition and educational pedagogy underscore the importance of intercultural learning and formation in relationships of mutuality, respect and justice. The Global Theological Initiative heightened our ability to prepare globally conscious leaders by engaging the faculty in a series of intercultural and contextual teaching and learning experiments - local encounters, national and international immersions. Students experienced ministry in a variety of contexts in the US, Mexico, and Vietnam. Further, faculty discussed and reflected on how to adapt pedagogies in the light of these experiential learning experiences. We more sensitive to bringing in multi-cultural dimensions of the global Church into our classroom and there is a strong consensus to continue and expand these ‘immersion' experiences.

Proposal abstract :
The purpose of this grant would be to enable a committee of Franciscan School faculty to spearhead the Global Theological Education Initiative by: 1) exploring the pedagogical structure and design of the program and how the new initiative would be integrated into the goals and mission of the Franciscan School; 2) framing the underlying pedagogical questions/issues that need to be wrestled with; 3) engaging the larger faculty in formulating how this initiative would affect the pedagogical formation of students to be globally conscious leaders; and 4) determining what a larger teaching-learning grant would look like.

Learning Abstract :
The Global Theological Education Initiative has engaged the Franciscan School faculty in valuable conversation about pedagogical strategies for accomplishing key aspects of our mission - to prepare students for full participation in a global church; to engage them in intercultural learning, and to form them in relationships of mutuality, respect and justice. We recognize that stretching our curriculum to include local, national, and international immersion experiences creates a whole new configuration of places, players, perspectives, and processes by which our theological education and ministerial formation take place. Based on the work this Wabash Grant has supported, we move now to a phase of experimentation during which faculty will be directly involved in planning/executing/evaluating specific immersion courses and reflecting together on the teaching-learning experiences that unfold.

Proposal abstract :
Pedagogical strategies that have proven effective in North America are not always optimally suited for international students with significantly different educational backgrounds and cultural contexts. Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary has trained many international scholars who now teach and lead in seminaries around the world. Our goal is to learn from them how best to train international leaders for the next generation. This project brings to our campus as consultants three such international scholars (likely from Switzerland, Paraguay and India). Through public lectures and extensive dialog with us, they will help us devise strategies that maximize our effectiveness in training current and future international students. The entire faculty of Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary will be interacting with the three international scholars over a period of 7 - 10 days, examining case studies together, sharing best practices, reflecting on the pedagogical implications of diverse educational contexts, and formulating plans for improved educational strategies and outcomes.

Learning Abstract :
The "Consultation on Cross-Cultural Education" featured three international speakers who engaged in conversation regarding the way in which their engagement in international theological education was shaped by the cultures in which they ministered. Through lectures, case studies, and seminar presentations the learning community explored the challenges of the way in which differing learning styles, expectations, and values shaped the pedagogical process. Careful budgeting allowed for a second-stage of learning and for application of consultation outcomes through a gathering of scholars serving the Seminary's sponsoring denomination in Angola, Colombia, Congo, French- and English-speaking Canada, Germany, India, Paraguay, Switzerland, and US to write curriculum for online courses. While the curriculum project continues, the reinforcement of the notion of different learning styles and the significance of requiring assignments that involve not only such academic tasks as reading and writing but also practical ministry has been a significant pedagogical learning outcome.

Proposal abstract :
The Joint Faculty Multiethnic Concerns Committee of Fuller Theological Seminary proposes a four-stage evaluation of student perceptions of classroom practices. The proposal is conceived as the first part of a larger planning initiative to further policymaking and pedagogy which will support the culturally diverse ministries of our student body. Stage 1 uses focus group methods to elicit from ethnically representative student groups their perceptions of how well current classroom practices empower them to minister in their intended cultural settings. Stage 2 utilizes this data to construct a quantitative survey instrument to be distributed to the entire student body. In Stage 3, an initial report of the foregoing results will be submitted to outside consultants for their feedback and response. In the final stage, the report and the consultants’ responses will be distributed to faculty, staff, and students campus-wide, as an empirical base for planning and evaluation discussions.

Learning Abstract :
An empirical study of full-time students at Fuller Seminary was begun in 2005 to address issues of pedagogy and climate related to empowering a culturally diverse body of students. Initial qualitative data were used to construct a questionnaire that was completed by 298 students. A preliminary report of the findings was then circulated to external consultants and student focus groups for comment. Survey results indicated that pedagogical concerns were secondary to those of campus climate. Student focus groups responses raised significant concerns with implicit and explicit racism in the classroom. Overall, the study suggests that the empowerment of an increasingly diverse population of seminary students requires specific attention to the ways in which the classroom and campus environment may be experienced as unsafe and disempowering.

Proposal abstract :
Through a combination of workshop, forums and surveys, this project engages the faculty of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in their ongoing effort to consider the issue of racial and cultural diversity as a pedagogical issue. The focus of this project centers on the selection of teaching resources, specifically textbooks. It builds on work that the faculty began in 2007 and is aimed ultimately at influencing the ethos of the community in the area of diversity. The specific purpose of the project is to help move the seminary more closely in line with its stated identity of openness to racial and cultural diversity in all aspects of seminary life. The project is directed to faculty, a key center of influence in the seminary community. The intention is to enable faculty members to identify multi-cultural gaps in their teaching resources in a non-threatening and supportive way and move them to be intentionally inclusive both racially and culturally as they select curricular resources. Their active commitment to diversity in this area can be a catalyst to moving the seminary to achieve its goal of racial and cultural diversity.

Learning Abstract :
This project was directed at the faculty to alert them to the necessity of being proactive in meeting the requirements of multiculturalism that is intrinsic to the culture of the Garrett-Evangelical community. The project succeeded to the extent that the faculty conversations around the pedagogical implications of making racial and cultural diversity and inclusiveness a lived reality were rich and elicited renewed commitment on the part of the majority. The project succeeded in part because it was part of a larger, ongoing conversation and that the issue has been recognized as integral to the life and health of the seminary community. Thus, the conversation continues beyond the completion of this project. Sadly, a few faculty members dismissed the need for conversation but the faculty as a body recognized their responsibility to and influence on the racial and cultural ethos of the seminary and pledged to keep the conversation alive.

Proposal abstract :
This project will explore how New Testament scholars of Latin American descent in the United States teach New Testament Introduction or Survey classes. What kinds of resources do they use - a traditional introductory textbook or materials that explore more critical approaches to New Testament from diverse cultural, racial and ethnic perspectives? How do they teach New Testament Introduction in the classroom - do they explore traditional historical-critical questions about each New Testament book, or are there more political, historical, literary and ethnic issues that inform the critical analysis of these ancient documents such that one can see a discernible difference because this or that professor is Latino or Latina? Do they use resources from Hispanic/Latino/a realities in the United States, be they biblical, theological, cultural, or historical? At the end we hope to know something more about what it means to teach, not just New Testament Studies in general, but the core or foundational experience that students in colleges or seminaries encounter when they take an introductory course in New Testament with a Latino or Latina professor. What are the discernible aspects of teaching New Testament Introduction Latinamente?

Proposal abstract :
This project seeks to build allies from among the Hartford Seminary faculty in order to better integrate Latino/a issues into the theological curriculum of the school. They will do so by introducing the large and diverse Latino/a community in the city of Hartford to a group of Hartford Seminary faculty. El Programa de Ministerios Hispanos (the Hispanic Ministries Program) of Hartford Seminary is a Saturday certificate program that up to now has not significantly impacted Hartford Seminary teaching, research or curriculum. Its director, Professor Efrain Agosto, is the only Latino and Spanish-speaking member of the faculty, and thus since the program is offered in Spanish, the only core faculty member of Hartford Seminary that works closely with the students of this program. This project seeks to explore the large Latino reality in the midst of the capital city of Hartford in ways that will have larger impact in the teaching and research agendas of the Seminary.

Learning Abstract :
This project taught us that building allies for a particular pedagogical aspect of theological education, in this case the Latino/a exemplum, is not an easy task in hard economic times when all programs and priorities are under close scrutiny, energies are taxed and nerves are frayed. Nonetheless, every little bit helps. In the case of this project, three faculty members out of a faculty of fifteen were exposed for the first time to a local Latino/a community, both its demographics and religious reality. In addition, several more faculty members engaged a Latino theologian from outside our community on the current state of Latino/a theological reflection, another new experience for many. Finally, most of the faculty experienced a workshop on multicultural theological pedagogy with a Latina religious educator, another rare experience at Hartford Seminary. Together these small experiences prepared the way for further exploration of Latino/a theology, religion and pedagogy at Hartford Seminary for years to come.

Proposal abstract :
Given the increased necessity for and everyday practice of interfaith engagement, the typically “informational” nature of seminary courses in interreligious relations is inadequate. As a corrective, we propose to create and share a collection of six critical case studies of courses in interfaith dialogue that optimize the full range of dialogical practices and purposes, including the advancement of mutual understanding and appreciative relationships. Case studies will be written by a working group of three Hartford Seminary and three external faculties. Case writers will be assisted by critical engagement with consultants in educational pedagogy and interfaith relations, by funding to hire evaluators for their case courses, and by dialogue among themselves, with Hartford Seminary faculty, and with peers responding to draft cases during a conference for theological educators. The conference will serve as an initial vehicle for sharing the cases. Subsequently, revised cases will be published both electronically and in paper.

Learning Abstract :
The project's case studies and an integrative essay are available at: http://www.hartsem.edu/ All courses emphasized dialogue as a practice, therefore requiring a practicum experience. In the absence of multi-faith student bodies, creating the practicum experience requires extra-curricular connections to non-Christian constituencies and can be labor intensive. A wide variety of approaches are demonstrated in the cases. Practicum participants need to understand that dialogue is a mutual conversation, not a forum for promoting one's tradition. Teaching interfaith dialogue also demands a significant substantive component along at least two dimensions: 1) basic knowledge of faith traditions other than Christianity, and 2) a firm grounding in the theology of religions. Individual students will be challenged, a few inevitably to the point of discomfort, in their knowledge of their own tradition, beliefs and practices. Among the wide variety of pedagogical techniques employed in the cases, all six cases include spiritual disciplines.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a three-year faculty seminar on intercultural pedagogies for all members of the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy at Holy Names University. The seminary will reformulate the pedagogical dimensions of the entire program in terms of intercultural pedagogies. All members of the seminar will: a) read provided essays in this field; enter into dialogue with leading experts; develop, utilize and evaluate at least one course on intercultural pedagogical strategy for teaching and learning in this program, b) critically evaluate and revise these strategies as part of a two year process of self-examination and dialogue with other North American universities regarding intercultural approaches to teaching religion and philosophy, c) meet each year for one day with students representing all three levels of the program in order to solicit feedback and to carry on a dialogue about the effectiveness of the specific intercultural approaches to teaching and learning students have encountered, and d) make three faculty retreats to address how the faculty's new commitment to intercultural teaching and learning can work to pass on and embody the Holy Names Sisters' historic commitment to multicultural education.

Learning Abstract :
The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning provided support for a three-year faculty seminar on intercultural pedagogies, and a series of retreats, speakers, and faculty-student interactions designed to shape and enhance the pedagogical dimensions of larger groundbreaking collaboration between the Pastoral Ministries Program of Holy Names University and Catholic dioceses in Northern California working to prepare lay ecclesial ministers for service in a diverse church. This collaboration was designed to support lay ministers who, after completing diocesan sponsored certificate programs of pastoral formation, wish to study for undergraduate degrees in a ministry-related field, and/or for an M.A. in Pastoral Ministries. We learned that there is an important role for Catholic universities who are willing to collaborate with Catholic dioceses in training the next generation of lay ecclesial ministers, and that current church leadership places great value on the formation of culturally competent ministers. We also learned that it is critically important for leaders in both institutions to understand the institutional constraints of the other. Going forward, we believe there is much room for expanded cooperation between Catholic universities and dioceses in leveraging existing resources to support and expand programs of study and formation preparing lay ecclesial ministers for service in a diverse church.

Proposal abstract :
Support for the faculty of Iliff School of Theology to engage in sustained reflection on the ecology of their teaching practices, with an eye towards shifting that ecology towards the desired outcome of increased theological fluency among graduating students. "Theological Fluency" will serve as a generative metaphor to broadly identify the imaginative capacity to draw on interdisciplinary forms of theological wisdom in professional practice. Faculty participants will work to identify their characteristic pedagogical approaches, their intended student learning outcomes, and the ecology of approaches across the faculty. After careful reflection on the relationship of various pedagogical approaches to the learning outcome of theological fluency, the faculty will work to shift their pedagogical ecology to better support this kind of student learning. Faculty will pay special attention to the role of cultural background, age, and learning styles of students as they reflect on their pedagogical approaches.

Learning Abstract :
We learned that enormous diversity characterizes our teaching methods, subject matter, and desired outcomes. While sharing various general commitments to specific subject content, critical thinking, personal integrity, social relevance, and functional skills, we learned that there is considerable difference in how these are understood, embodied, and communicated. We also learned that having sustained conversations about our pedagogy created a sense of cohesiveness among the faculty. We were able to devise new strategies to help various forms of knowledge travel throughout the curriculum and between our disciplines, and to gain a better sense of what theological fluency might be for our students and alums. Finally, we learned that in addition to specific knowledge and skills traveling with more or less degree of fluency in our students, that Iliff's central message travels in a variety of formal and informal ways throughout all of our more structured and formal pedagogical practices.

Proposal abstract :
Recognizing the significant change in the contemporary context for worship in a global and pluralistic culture, this project aims to develop a new paradigm for teaching worship as a way to help liturgics faculty become better equipped in their teaching. Two liturgics professors will be invited from different institutions and will work with me to construct new approaches to teaching liturgics courses by reconfiguring the nature and function of worship in a global world, the image and role of worship leaders in a pluralistic culture of congregations, and an effective pedagogy that can help students stretch and broaden their knowledge and experience of worship. A one-day workshop will include three conversation sessions and demonstrations of teaching in an actual class setting. The project will be evaluated based on the students’ class evaluations and the participants’ self-reflection and feedback. Funding will support the participants’ travel and accommodation, reception, honoraria, stipend for the project director, and miscellaneous expenses for the event.

Learning Abstract :
The project seminar was useful for the participants. It helped us improve our teaching in many ways. By sharing and evaluating our course syllabi, we gained some insights into improving our courses from global perspectives; through the preparation and delivery of our lectures, we could challenge students to think about worship out of the box. The entire process of the project went well, as I had planned, and our lectures turned out to be invaluable resources to teach worship from global perspectives. However, offering three lectures for three-and-a-half hours did not allow sufficient time for discussing crucial issues emerging from the lectures at a deeper level. Perhaps, a panel discussion with one or two presentations in relation to multicultural worship in a global world might have been a more effective pedagogical strategy than giving three lectures to have enough conversation with students within the limited time.

Proposal abstract :
The proposal is an effort to improve the instruction of faculty members in the six HBTS through the appropriation of disciplines of theological education and the skillful use of its signature practices. The end result of improving the instruction of faculty members is to improve the learning outcomes of students in a comprehensive range of pastoral responsibilities and skills outline by the Master of Divinity degree standards of the Association of Theological schools (ATS).

Learning Abstract :
The most significant result of the Wabash HBTS conference is that each HBTS institution has come to the conclusion that institutional planning and evaluation are not impositions from external authorities designed to undermine and thwart the efforts of HBTS to survive. Rather, the emerging message being internalized and which undergirds the planning and evaluation processes is that the accrediting expectations not only facilitate survival, they also enable institutional thriving far into the future. In fact, the Wabash HBTS conference has helped to initiate in some cases and continue in other cases a new institutional ethos which fosters best practices for carrying out the institutions' mission and objectives.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a two-year consultation of a selected group of Asian, Black, and Latino/a teachers of biblical studies in the U.S. on how the Bible is read within these racial/ethnic communities and taught as an Asian, Black, or Latino/a faculty, as well as how these findings can be incorporated into the teaching of biblical studies by faculty members not of these groups.

Learning Abstract :
The main goal of providing a forum for careful and critical discussion on how to read and teach the Bible from the perspectives of Black/Asian and Latino/a communities was met. The various sessions gave the participants a unique experience of inter-racial/ethnic communication and great strides were made in the group's ability to communicate effectively. It was very helpful to use the first of three sessions to give autobiographical introductions and deliberations on racial/ethnic studies before tackling the goal in the second session of sharing drafts of papers on race/ethnicity/nation and biblical studies. By discussing syllabi, lesson plans and choices for student assignments, the group engaged pedagogical issues involved with race and ethnicity course offerings across the curriculum from undergraduate courses through seminary courses to doctoral courses. Presentations at an international conference and at a national conference, along with a book and plans for future meetings of these some of the alums helped to disseminate some of the groups' work as well as gave opportunities for feedback from others outside the group.

Proposal abstract :
The Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia is planning a Retreat for representatives from area seminaries. This will be the first major gathering of the Center's Philadelphia Area Inter-Seminary Initiative. "Encounters in Learning: Preparing Tomorrow's Religious Leaders for Interfaith Engagement" will be held on June 9th and 10th at Cranaleith Spiritual Center in Philadelphia. This is an opportunity to share research on the current state of interfaith education; to explore themes of common interest and concern; and to build relationships across institutions. The all-day session is open to as many members of seminaries' faculty, administration and staff who are interested. Specific evening and morning sessions will be for individuals selected by each institution to represent their interests in planning the Initiative going forward.

Learning Abstract :
The Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia is engaged in the formation of a regional Inter-Seminary Initiative to promote interfaith learning among seminary faculties, administrators and students, preparing them to live and lead faithfully in a religiously diverse world. The Wabash Center provided pivotal funding for a two-day retreat for representatives of area seminaries. Entitled Encounters in Learning: Preparing Tomorrow's Religious Leaders for Interfaith Engagement, this retreat was attended by 33 representatives of 11 schools. Participants on day one included Presidents, Deans, Faculty, Librarians and others, with a cross section of leaders from these seminaries remaining for a second day, forming an oversight group that continues to work on future planning and implementation of the full initiative.

Proposal abstract :
The purpose of this grant is to enable 4 faculty members of the JSTB to attend a week’s workshop to be held from January 2-6th, 2006 in the Los Angeles area, designed to train people in intercultural teaching and ministry.

Learning Abstract :
Among the most valuable things we learned in this project is that personal input and stories are indispensable to achieve this type of learning. Culture is much too complex to be studied at only the level of theory or presented in lectures. Since all the participants have worked interculturally with groups of various kinds, they brought that experience with them to the overall process. Another factor which surfaced was the need to distribute power at the level of leadership. Composition of planning and leadership groups, therefore, is key to greater involvement at all levels. Several of the fruits of this project which will contribute to our expanding conversation on teaching and learning are 1) the fact that ALL people have and act out of a culture and an awareness of that culture is essential for teaching, research, and ministry; 2) that if they are to respond to the needs of those they serve, institutions which are trying to become more diverse must make some changes and not expect that it is only the students who have to "get with the program"; and 3) interactive, dialogical, process-centered, socio-constructivist approaches to intercultural training, judging from our experience, seem to be the best method available to date.

Proposal abstract :
The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (JFSR), Inc., on the occasion of its 20th anniversary of publication, received a grant to bring feminist scholars and teachers together for a four-day conference. The goal is to critically assess the history and development of the teaching of feminist studies in religion in departments of religion and theological schools, explore different theoretical approaches in the field with the attention to their effects on course and program design and criteria of evaluation, discuss diverse models of feminist pedagogies, and envision strategies for transforming classroom teaching and institutions. Because the JFSR, Inc. is committed to nurturing the next generation of scholars and teachers in the field, one half of the participants will be graduate students and junior faculty. The JFSR, Inc., is in a unique position to convene such a gathering because of the broad network it has established with scholars and teachers across religious disciplines for twenty years.

Learning Abstract :
The grant provided for 73 participants and 7 student volunteers to engage in 4-day conference around issues related to feminist studies in religion. The conference had three main foci: Taking Stock, a critical survey of the teaching and learning of feminist studies in religion in diverse contexts; Theoretical Analysis, a review of diverse theoretical frameworks of feminist studies in religion and how they affect classroom teaching, course design, choice of pedagogy, evaluation of students, and impact on the academy and wider public; and Strategies and Commitment, a creative envisioning of how to strengthen ongoing feminist networking and mentoring, nurture a new generation, learn across racial and disciplinary boundaries and differences, and reach out to readers not in the academy. Papers generated for the panel discussion at the conference were published in the fall 2005 issue of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. An additional special issue of papers generated for and emerging from the conference is planned for a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion.

Proposal abstract :
This grant will assist individual Lancaster Theological Seminary faculty members to develop resources and skills for teaching more effectively in their diverse classrooms and in their collaboration with one another. The grant includes an introductory workshop with an expert facilitator/consultant, periodic consultation between that consultant and individual faculty members, and a concluding workshop. Faculty participants will report and evaluate their experience in terms of what they have learned and the degree to which this experience has affected their pedagogy.

Proposal abstract :
This grant will fund a workshop for Lancaster Theological Seminary faculty to identify white privilege in their teaching and evaluation of student learning and to take the next steps to dismantle it. In a week-long intensive to be held May 19-24, 2014, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright will instruct faculty in African-American history, African theologies, cultural differences, and diverse learning styles and epistemologies. On this basis of this learning, the faculty then will review the “Student Learning Outcomes and Rubrics” for our three degree programs and the “Course Overviews” for the required courses required for the M.Div. program, two sets of documents that guide our educational offerings, assessment strategies, and pedagogies. In two afternoon workshops, a consultant will guide faculty toward the theory and practice of teaching and assessing students with diverse learning styles. Guided by this education, faculty will develop new measures of student success for the M.Div. degree and draft a revision of the “Student Learning Outcomes and Rubrics” of the M.Div. program.

Learning Abstract :
"Identifying and Dismantling White Privilege in Pedagogy: A workshop for Faculty at Lancaster Theological Seminary" accomplished two primary goals. From participating in 20 hours of master class sessions with the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, faculty and key adjuncts gained a deeper knowledge of Afrocentric approaches to epistemology and learning. In 15 hours of discussion and activities with Wabash Consultants, Dr. Carolyn Medine and Dr. Benny Liew, faculty were encouraged to situate white privilege in teaching and learning within the larger framework of the diverse learning styles and competencies of all students. Many of the practices that we developed during this week (reading and discussing books together, intentionally planning times to discuss race apart from moments of crisis, etc.) continued into the 2014-2015 academic year, convincing us of the importance for sustained conversations about race, teaching and learning.

Proposal abstract :
The faculty of Lancaster Theological Seminary will continue its work in engaging race, privilege, and cultural competency at a retreat devoted to exploring the spiritual dimensions of anti-racism work. A small project grant will help support the funding of this retreat. We have contracted with Dr. Melanie Harris and Dr. Jennifer Harvey to lead the faculty retreat, which will include an overnight stay for regular faculty and key adjunct faculty. Both consultants have documented experience with the inner work connected to dismantling racism and white privilege.

Learning Abstract :
By hosting a two day retreat for all regular and the majority of adjunct faculty, the educational team of Lancaster Theological Seminary took another step in educating themselves about the soul work need to continue dismantling white privilege in the classroom. After years of working with the reconciliation model, Dr. Melanie Harris and Dr. Jennifer Harvey invited the professors to consider a reparations paradigm for their work of ending racism in the classroom. Over the next twelve months the faculty will be exploring what it would mean to shift paradigms. "How would it change what we teach and how we teach it?"

Proposal abstract :
Funding will provide a 2-3 day meeting for four faculty members from different institutions to meet and plan a week-long seminar on the use of slave narratives as pedagogical tools in theology and religion classes. These discussions will have a direct effect on the classroom experience by exposing students to 19th century marginalized persons who found creative strategies for their spiritual and political well-being through their own engagement with biblical stories.

Learning Abstract :
We do not think, after our preliminary conversations, that a one-week seminar would be sufficient, so we are in the process of developing a proposal for a 3-year endeavor with yearly symposia involving a small, select group of conversation partners and culminating in a final formal conference on the pedagogical use of the slave narrative across the theological curricula. We would like to assist the UNC research staff in updating their excellent resources, especially in the areas of "religious themes" (within the slave narrative tradition) and pedagogy. Their website resource can be a revolutionary pedagogical tool in any classroom at any level of the educational journey.

Proposal abstract :
This project hopes to develop a one year (6 months of the academic year) program for seminary students in their second (”middler”) year that would help them identify the different aspects of privilege and how these influence one’s interpretation of others and the world. This program would be implemented during the 2007-2008 academic year.

Proposal abstract :
Study leave grant to support development of theological teaching resources and strategies for stimulating and supporting proactive commitment to an anti-racist, inclusive vision for community for seminarians and others in theological education.

Learning Abstract :
The study leave project sought to develop teaching resources and strategies to assist white theological faculty and seminarians to deconstruct unreflective racist assumptions underlying white racial identity and to develop teaching practices and resources that stimulate and support a mutually relational learning community. The project hoped to assess operative distortions shaping race relations in North American mainline Protestantism, critically assess anti-racism programs, and identify resources that might contribute to deconstructing white racism.
Her hypothesis that white religious leaders hold inadequate tools for analyzing and responding to racism proved true. She was struck by the pervasive difficulty of white religious leaders to adequately understand the scope and depth of racism. Anti-racism training experiences and resources proved helpful in developing new teaching strategies. She was able to engage a wide variety of works on race from many disciplinary perspectives that proved invaluable for her revision of her courses.

Proposal abstract :
Support for the faculty of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (LPTS) to engage in a series of consultations with expert educators in order to prepare the faculty to construct more effective teaching and learning environments with racially and culturally diverse students.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to develop an antiracist and multicultural environment for teaching and learning at Louisville Seminary. This project actively involved the board of trustees, faculty and students in antiracism training in order to aid the seminary in becoming a racially and culturally inclusive learning environment. The trustees engaged in a day-long workshop and the faculty and students engaged in a day-long "teach-in" experience oriented toward the aims of the project.

Proposal abstract :
The goals of this project are as follows: 1) A review of the literature produced by contemporary Latino/a biblical scholars to assess the commonalities and differences within them; 2) An analysis of the shared hermeneutic textures and points of differentiation among those scholars; 3) An ethnographic assessment of how these shared and opposing textures play out in the institutions in which we teach; 4) The project will also ask the question if Latino/a storytelling differs in the academy as pertains to tenure status; 5) The composition of a chapter for an edited book.

Learning Abstract :
"Making Menudo in a Stone Soup World: A Latino/a Reading of Christian Scripture" explored the history of biblical hermeneutics, progressive hermeneutical models, and histories of North American cultural experience. The project surfaced shared and non-shared perspectives about hermeneutics in biblical scholarship among Latino/a scholars. The project paid close attention to the role of Latino/a story telling in the classroom and examined how privilege works in the story telling process.

Proposal abstract :
A one-day consultation involving two parallel core groups of faculty (Chicago- area faculty and ELCA denominational faculty and staff) who will discuss and plan a comprehensive program of guest lectures, evening lectures, brown bag discussions and workshops, to educate seminarians on Judaism and Jewish Christian relations.

Learning Abstract :
Learning and teaching about subjects vital for Christian leadership today such as Jewish-Christian relations can take place in and around the existing seminary curriculum, if one identifies faculty partners and takes creative measures. Activities proven to be especially effective at highlighting Jewish-Christian relations include public lectures by Jewish guest speakers scheduled during core course meetings, events such as Shabbat experiences at a local synagogue that fulfill existing institutional requirements, and lunch-hour discussions about current events related to Jewish-Christian relations. Strong connections with other seminaries, synagogues, and local institutions can generate enthusiasm and build momentum, especially when funds are limited. Persistence and tailoring offerings to reflect the strengths of local Christian faculty and Jewish scholars and leaders are keys to success. Collaboration among seminaries in planning a conference on Jewish Christian relations can draw attention to the subject and establish working relationships that promise to bear additional fruit in the future.

Proposal abstract :
This project will create a dialogue among African-American scholars around the problems of alienation and presumed epistemic privilege as impediments to learning for African-American students. Specifically, the dialogue will focus on the common classroom experience for many African-American theological teachers of teaching courses in Black religion in predominantly white institutions and finding the learning of their African-American students’ hampered by the students’ presumption that, in a curriculum from which many feel alienated, these courses are “theirs” and consequently spaces of affirmation and not of serious intellectual exploration and learning. The questions framing this dialogue are: In what ways do students expectations shape/misshape students’ experience of learning?; What obstacles are presented when students wrongly presume that church “culture” will be the culture of the theological classroom?; What tools and strategies for African-American faculty teaching African-American students about the Black Christian tradition are available to make sure that learning happens?

Learning Abstract :
The major learning from the project was that the ecology of the institution created not only barriers to learning but also opportunities. With the idea of epistemic opportunity arising in our second meeting a major shift in our conversations happened. During the early parts of our conversations we focused largely on pedagogical strategies that might overcome barriers which our students brought to the class. However, when we happened upon this idea of epistemic opportunity as a goal for not our pedagogy but, also as a basis for creating mini-ecosystems in the larger ecology of our institutions, this was a breakthrough. For this changed the question for us to how is it that we can create space for students to bring themselves into the classroom (a broader idea than their stuff, e.g., culture). As we processed the case studies we began to grapple with the various questions of what it means for the students to not only bring the brokenness and alienation which arises in the general institutional ecology into the classroom but also the strength and creativity which empowered them to be in front of us, as teachers, in spite of that ecology. The shift was then from an investigation of the layers of barriers to learning to include substantial reflection on creativity that emerges precisely from navigating those barriers. This is the primary learning which all participants took away from our conversations and the one which may be helpful to others.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a study leave grant to research institutions that train students in rural contexts in order to develop strategies for teaching that would equip seminarians and clergy for ministry in increasingly stressed rural communities.

Learning Abstract :
I rediscovered the value of a Trinitarian theology for congregational mission focused on community development. I found several excellent community-building tools (appreciative inquiry, asset-mapping and intergenerational dialogue) that I am training my students to use with their congregations on internship and after graduation. I have become convinced of the urgent necessity, fruitfulness and potential difficulties of doing interdisciplinary training for clergy. And from the last segment of the project I have learned the value of a well designed and maintained website as a way of networking with folks who, in Canadian rural settings, are often far distant from one another.

Proposal abstract :
This proposal seeks to enhance and deepen an ongoing discussion of the pedagogical implications of new work on the origins of race as a category within theological inquiry. We propose to bring the author of the signally important new book, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, to Luther’s campus for a discussion with a faculty book group which has been reading the book together, and for a faculty seminar in which we want to catalyze a deeper discussion of the pedagogical implications of this work for our curriculum.

Learning Abstract :
This grant helped faculty to explore the pedagogical implications of theological work which traces the social construction of race in the North American context. We identified three threads of discussion for our pedagogical work: 1) ideas vs. bodies: attention to "ideas" vs. "bodies" in Christian thought continues to have a huge impact on how Christian thought evolves and Christian faith is practiced; 2) desire vs. control: we need to cultivate desire to be in relationship as an intimate part of our knowledge of God, using "inquiry-driven" pedagogical models: and 3) violence: Christian intellectuals, even if they don't intend violence to happen, have a very high tolerance for a certain kind of violence in the name of protecting their theological narratives. Theological curricula should lead away from such a high tolerance for violence in the name of protecting orthodoxy, and lead towards humility and grace as a base for learning.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a planning group to further develop some related initiatives for making theological education more responsive to the changing pedagogical needs of multiculturally diverse student populations, and the increasingly globalized contexts in which the future students will minister.

Learning Abstract :
The project proposed a follow-up to a Wabash center workshop for pre-tenured theological faculty. The purpose of the grant was to enable 4 members of the group to plan, write, and propose a larger grant to the Wabash Center related to issues and concrete strategies of institutional transformation that the group identified as being crucial for theological education in the 21st century.
Project director reports that the group met at October 2003 to work on the grant proposal. A draft was authored later in the fall, was critically reviewed by group members and outside contacts, and submitted to the Wabash Center in January 2004.

Proposal abstract :
The central question of the proposed project is, how can students cultivate and demonstrate enhanced awareness of the possible influence of social location on what they and others believe? The main goals of the project are: (1) to propose answers to that question at the theoretical level, by gathering a small group of colleagues aiming to acquaint ourselves with some key literature on pedagogies of community engagement; (2) to develop pedagogical resources for a semester-long course that will test our answers and, hopefully, succeed in fact in enabling students to enhance their awareness of interactions between social location and religious belief.

Learning Abstract :
How might students coming from a diverse range of social locations be spurred to understand themselves as constituted in part by communities of particular privilege and/or privation? And how might those communal ties constitute resources for and/or resistances to learning something new together, creating new learning community? This project took the preparation of an undergraduate introduction to liberation theology as an occasion to study scholarship of teaching and learning in the area of civic/community engagement, and to develop tools and tactics for the class that would implement and test the "CLEA" model for teaching engagement, proposed in Clingerman and Locklin (eds.), Teaching Civic Engagement. The initial intention to focus especially on students' awareness of their social location(s) and its influence on their knowledge proved hard to sustain. However, the project eventuated in renewed appreciation of "complexity of thinking" as a basic capability to nurture for and through potentially liberative engagement.

Proposal abstract :
Most theological schools have recognized the urgency of preparing graduates able to lead in culturally and racially diverse settings, to minister with specific racial and cultural groups, and to work against systemic racism. This grant will fund a series of conversations with colleagues from the Association of Chicago Theological Schools on the related issues of cross-cultural theological education. Participants will respond to questions like the following: How are African American students prepared for ministry in the Black church in your (predominantly white) seminary? How are all students formed for ministry in the racialized North American context? What form does anti-racist theological education take in your seminary? What are the student learning outcomes you have set for these issues? These conversations will result in enhanced awareness of alternative approaches to teaching and assessment of learning, awareness that will lead to concrete changes/improvements in our classrooms and the learning of our students.

Learning Abstract :
Many seminaries approach theological education from a cross-cultural perspective and recognize the urgency of preparing graduates able to lead in culturally and racially diverse settings, to minister with specific groups, and to work against systemic racism. This project has provided a way for the theological schools in Chicago to share their experiences and learning in cross-cultural and anti-racist education. "De-linking Eurocentrism" provided a conceptual framework for conversations that ranged through curriculum, pedagogy, institutional climate, and regularly returned to the need for strategic alliances between faculty and administration. The benefit of the project was at least as much in the discovery of allies in nearby schools, colleagues with similar commitments and concerns, as in the shared resources, experiments in pedagogy, and experience of the way values are reflected in institutional patterns.

Proposal abstract :
Develop a team-taught course as a pilot program for an institutional alliance in the Mississippi Delta region to appropriate the rich and diverse religious, educational and cultural options in the region. The course will identify and share speakers, artistic, historic, and cultural resources and multimedia products with the seminary and wider community.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to develop a course that would identify and incorporate wider issues of cultural diversity through an infusion educational model that emphasized experiential learning at the local level. This pilot project sought to create institutional alliances with the diverse religious, educational and cultural options in the region
The experiential learning of the course enriched urban and cross-cultural ministry training. Students discovered ways to become pastors who exegete the diversity of their local communities well. Also, the course helped the students and faculty to build community relationships that may endure. Finally, they looked for ways to develop a track in the M.Div. and D.Min. programs that attended to diversity issues in ministry. Overall, the course helped both students and faculty "to discover and reflect upon the changing face of diversity at the local community level."

Proposal abstract :
By advancing educational ecologies that are designed to build cultural competency, advocacy, and education in areas that further racial/ethnic justice and equity, Methodist Theological School in Ohio hopes to design intentional pedagogical strategies that form persons who work to dismantle racism and advocate for human dignity and hospitality for all racial/ethnic groups.

Learning Abstract :
"Developing Pedagogies for Dismantling Racism" has allowed Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO), over the course of two years, to develop institution-wide attention to implicit racism and the dire need for intercultural competency learning and formation. Faculty, staff, and students now are in the process of delving into an institutional commitment that focuses on diverse perspectives and socio-cultural locations in order to form interculturally-astute leaders. Teaching and learning how to be in conversation across difference is not easy. A variety of pedagogical approaches and shifts in teaching content based on varied, sometimes conflicting, perspectives have made a significant impact on the seminary. Learning how to field resistance to difference, celebrate diversity, and encounter various forms of dehumanizing thinking has presented both challenge and opportunity for a forward-thinking theological education program. The Wabash grant has opened surprising doors for teaching and learning that we did not predict, bringing transformation in unexpected places throughout the campus.

Proposal abstract :
MTSO seeks to continue our growth in exploration of educational ecologies, building on previous work in cultural competency, advocacy, and education in areas that further racial/ethnic justice and equity. Through a small grant request, MTSO plans on exploring the possibilities our campus ecological initiatives offer for deepening the faculty’s teaching and student learning. Our ecological initiatives have opened possibilities for pedagogy that is intentional about our place while deepening our commitment to sustainable ecological, economic, and social justice throughout the Midwest.

Learning Abstract :
"Formation in Place" successfully grounded faculty teaching in MTSO's commitments to ecology and sustainable justice, with focus on our living laboratory—Seminary Hill Farm. We gathered best practices from other theological schools through visits and discussions, establishing networks of innovative teaching centered in food, land, place, climate change, ecology and theology. Conversations moved beyond these subjects to a deeper desire for anti-racist and decolonizing pedagogies elevating ecological concerns beyond dominant discourse and populations. The work of this seed grant has successfully initiated faculty discussion that will continue to shape our ideas about creating learning movements for sustainable ecological justice. The grant also has allowed MTSO to develop partnerships with a variety of institutions working toward joint degrees and educational programming. The work completed has extended our vision and mission into the next decade by creating an imagination for a sustainable and just ecological future based in robust, meaningful education.

Proposal abstract :
The project will advance the development of Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO) as a multicultural educational institution and increase its capacity for engaging race and privilege in relation to student learning through initial assessment, equipping, and planning. Critical incident narratives will be created based upon MTSO learning situations where issues of race and privilege are evident. These will function as a resource for assessment, transformative reflection on pedagogy, and preparation of students for diversity in their seminary experience. Engagement with the narratives will be coupled with resources that provide frameworks and strategies for inclusive classrooms. A pilot anti-racism team will lead initial assessment work, creation of narratives, faculty and campus events, and planning the next phase of MTSO’s initiative. Success of the project will be evaluated through pre and post project surveys of faculty and review of syllabi.

Learning Abstract :
Good intentions about addressing race also require good skills, dialogue, and commitment. Faculty members need to be equipped for their leadership roles in creating inclusive classrooms. Students may want to talk about race but need to know how to do that safely. It is important to understand what students experience in the classroom and to recognize that students are willing to share their experiences in an environment that fosters truth-telling and respectful listening. Faculty members need to have open conversations about race among themselves as well. Raising consciousness and opening conversations about race also raises expectations for change, which if not met can lead to disillusionment and disengagement. When addressing an issue that is as systemic and broad as race it is easy to attempt too much and lose focus.

Proposal abstract :
Mount Mary University theology and philosophy faculty will engage in sustained and comprehensive faculty development with a goal of fully re-conceptualizing "Search for Meaning," a team-taught theology and philosophy course that serves as the center of our core curriculum. As an urban, Catholic, women’s university with an increasingly diverse student population and a comparatively non-diverse faculty, we are keenly aware of the need for faculty development to connect our pedagogical approaches more directly to our students’ lives, experiences, and perspectives. We seek to reconceive the "Search for Meaning" course for our diverse population of students by engaging in faculty development regarding pedagogical methods that promote openness to diversity and a trauma-sensitive learning environment; acquiring new pedagogical skills for helping our students learn to listen attentively and speak empathetically; and creating a forum to promote sustained conversation and collaboration between faculty regarding pedagogical and experiences.

Learning Abstract :
Mount Mary University theology and philosophy faculty engaged in sustained and comprehensive faculty development with a goal of fully re-conceptualizing "Search for Meaning," a team-taught theology and philosophy course that serves as the center of our core curriculum. Within a two-year span, the Search for Meaning faculty convened for a three-semester bi-weekly reading group, two intensive retreats, and two workshops. During the final semester, in-depth workshops were offered to University faculty to share the insights gained from the efforts to integrate what faculty learned from the grant activities. The sustained conversation centered on promoting diverse perspectives in the classroom, clarifying the assessment goals for the course, and creating a joint theology and philosophy syllabus that clearly states the purpose and goals of the Search for Meaning.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a study on the impact of the culture of the seminary on theological education and ministry formation. Particular attention will be given to the increasingly culturally diverse student population's impact on theological education and ministry formation.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought funds to convene a task force to plan a study of the impact of the culture of the seminary on theological education and ministry formation. This study would be part of a larger effort by the NCEA Seminary Department to develop resources for Roman Catholic theological schools and college seminaries to effectively address issues of cultural diversity that impact the institutional aspects of the seminary program, classroom teaching, pedagogy and interpersonal relationships.
The planning meeting was held successfully in June, 2004, with a proposal developed as an outcome. The project director reports: "The planning grant was essential for the preparation of the proposal. Without it the Seminary Department would not have been able to convene the planning meetings … These conversations underscored both the potential value and the complexity of the proposal initiative."

Proposal abstract :
Support for a project to collect and reflect on data from seminaries and dioceses related to international enrollments and implications for Roman Catholic seminaries, theological education and ministry formation. The project will also include roundtables of scholars and seminary leaders to examine the implications of this trend for theological education and seminary life as a whole. The project will provide opportunities for Catholic theological educators to consider this issue from all perspectives and to collectively develop practical resources to respond to the challenge.

Learning Abstract :
In 2004, approximately 30% of the candidates for the priesthood in Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States were born outside this country. In response to this trend of increasing international enrollments, the Seminary Department of the National Catholic Educational Association initiated a study to consider the implications of this increasing cultural diversity on theological education and pastoral formation. The project was based on the following assumptions: that culture is all-encompassing; that effective seminary formation is the complex web of systemic relationships, and that shifts in the cultural mix of a seminary will impact theological learning and pastoral formation program. The project was under the direction of Bernard F. Stratman, SM, director of the NCEA Seminary Department. The project team included Father James Schuerman, director of Spiritual Formation at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, WI, and Dr. Bryan Froehle, Ph.D., director of the Siena Center of Dominican University, River Forest, IL.

The results have been published in the Fall 2005 Seminary Journal and the Winter 2005 Seminary Journal.

Proposal abstract :
Support for the exploration of the use of the Creative Writing Workshop as a pedagogical practice for teaching Biblical Studies in a multi-cultural, postmodern environment.

Learning Abstract :
The primary success of this project was in the ways that it opened up students to their own creative possibilities. The primary disappointments related to the discovery of how much the academic process of seminary (and, undoubtedly, earlier schooling) had instilled a certain "fear" in the students about getting things "right." They were very afraid of doing the "wrong" thing. The course also demonstrated how difficult it is for students to deal with questions of point of view. This is especially crucial in a multi-cultural context where cross-cultural perception and conversation is valued. Wider conversation with faculty in relation to this grant project indicated that much more conversation and exploration is needed in the areas of how one can incorporate associational thinking into a seminary curriculum and how we can better communicate our differing teaching methodologies across disciplines so that students have a more coherent educational experience.

Proposal abstract :
We propose a 2-day workshop to bring together scholars of late antique history to discuss how politics in general, and the contentious topics of our current political climate in particular, can appropriately inform our pedagogical approach. We are particularly interested in understanding how our courses can and should be shaped by our institutions’ mission statements, our disciplines’ learning objectives, and the skills and content students need to possess in order to address issues of current political significance. On the first day of the workshop (for which we are seeking Wabash funding), we will focus exclusively on a series of pedagogical questions that will orient us to our goals in the classroom, guide us to define our student learning outcomes, and help us envision our identity and role as a teacher. On the second day of the workshop, participants will work collaboratively to create a set of syllabi shaped by the prior day’s work.

Learning Abstract :
This grant project convened over fifty faculty to reflect on the role of politics in the classroom. Specifically, through a 2-day workshop, two conference sessions, and a series of pedagogical articles and blog posts, scholars of late ancient religion discerned intellectually responsible ways to teach subjects that have become politicized in recent years (including immigration, race and ethnicity, the climate, and marginalized peoples such as slaves, foreigners, and refugees) and collected a set of teaching materials for these topics.

Proposal abstract :
As a result of an audit on racial inclusiveness in 2004, the recommendations of the audit will be implemented to better prepare students to lead churches in diverse cultural contexts. One of the key tasks is to design new curricula and educational programs, including a required course on dismantling racism and developing cultural competency.

Learning Abstract :
The project of dismantling racism and creating cross-cultural competence is carried out at present in several venues. 1) The Roundtable program of the Center of Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry, the African American Roundtable, and the Asian American Roundtable discussions each concerns the intersection of race, gender identity and sexual orientation. 2) The work of the Dismantling Racism Committee provides forums and other educational venues for the discussion of race issues at PSR. 3) A course has been developed for all students to learn about the issues of color prejudice, systemic racism, and strategies for creating racial justice, particularly in the churches, but in the larger community as well. 4) Students engage in short and long term contextual educational opportunities and at the end of their courses they engage in days of theological reflection with faculty.

Looking forward to the fall of 2009, the PSR faculty will hold a semester-long seminar to learn more about how to teach toward building racial justice at PSR and in the larger community.

Proposal abstract :
This one-day workshop aims to strengthen the capacity of the Pacific School of Religion Board of Trustees to govern the institution’s stated strategic goal, “to act boldly in equipping leaders with the values, skills, and commitment to cross-cultural competency necessary to build anti-racist institutions and dismantle systemic racism in society, and to model this commitment and work at PSR.” Education at the board level will assist in Dismantling Racism and Building Cross Cultural Competency at the institutional level and increase PSR’s capacity to implement the comprehensive action plan developed to meet this strategic plan goal. We need to help members of the Board of Trustees to increase their sensitization on cross-racial/cultural issues and communication, informing both their committee and board work.

Learning Abstract :
The initial intention was to conduct a one-day workshop on anti-racism training for our seminary's board of trustees. We have learned, however, that it is more effective to engage trustees in dialogue and reflection over a series of three meetings. It is also more effective to focus less on "training" but more on engaging the board in self-reflection and interaction with one another about issues of racism, white privilege, and their impacts on PSR as an institution. Involving trustees in learning activities and exercises that mirror what has been done with students, staff, and faculty also allow trustees to gain a greater understanding of what students and other members of the PSR community are learning even as they themselves are building up their individual and collective capacity for the work of dismantling racism.

Proposal abstract :
The purpose of this project is to address the question of “Latin@ pedagogy.” Is there a distinctive set of pedagogies that can, in fact, be identified as Latin@? Are these pedagogical approaches influenced by religious culture; in other words, is there a distinctive Protestant/ evangélica pedagogy? If there is, can awareness and implementation of such pedagogies transcend the cultural/ ethnic/ racial background of theological educators; that is to say, can non-Latin@s learn such pedagogical practices such that they, along with their Latin@ colleagues, can create a learning environment that adequately responds to the needs of Latin@ students? It is the contention of this project that identifying such pedagogical approaches can begin to develop a curriculum that is culturally and religiously appropriate for Protestant Latin@s that will prepare them adequately for their work among Latin@ communities in the Unites States and abroad.

Learning Abstract :
This project was a two-fold event that sought to identify specific "Latina evangélica/o" pedagogical approaches. As a result of a morning roundtable conversation with core scholars and their subsequent afternoon gathering with grassroots evangélico/a (Protestant) leaders, preliminary findings were identified. For example, the group noted that: 1) Latina/o evangélicas bring to the classroom a multicontextual approach that seeks the intentional inclusion of nontraditional and marginalized voices. 2) They respect non-modern worldviews in an academic culture that privileges post-Enlightenment approaches to learning. 3) Latino/a evangélicas integrally link a spirituality that is part of the "everyday" (lo cotidiano) praxis with a profound sense of vocation (llamamiento). Spirituality and llamamiento, in turn, provide social capital and impact how evangélicas/os learn and teach. The group agreed that this project was only a preliminary step towards a larger conversation that needs to take place, which would entail historical and structural analyses of Latinas/os in the academy.

Proposal abstract :
This project entails the formation of a core group that will examine pedagogical approaches that foster multicultural, multiracial and multiethnic diversity at Palmer Theological Seminary. This core group will, at the end of the year, become a standing committee that will aid other faculty in assessing their own pedagogical strategies as well as providing newer resources such as bibliographies and assessment tools. During the year of training, the core group will further their insights and pedagogical abilities regarding approaches and resources that intentionally foster multicultural and multiethnic sensibilities. Specifically, the group will examine their syllabi, curriculum, bibliographies, and assessment tools to see how these take into consideration “difference” and how their classrooms aid the student in becoming aware of “difference” in their own learning and future ministries. An important aspect of this teaching self-evaluation is to factor in the reality of “embodiment”: how we assess and are assessed by others based on our physicality.

Learning Abstract :
The Diversity Colloquy at Palmer Theological Seminary provided me with the opportunity to dialogue with a group of exceptional and dedicated colleagues whose collective wisdom and experiences I have come to appreciate. Collectively, the experience allowed us to affirm the creative pedagogies we already practice in the classroom and to learn new strategies from each other. It gave us the courage to be more creative. It also heightened our awareness that to be a truly diverse institution is a complex and difficult enterprise. Everyone must be involved. I now teach students the skills I learned as the project's director about writing grants and their implementation. The single most important insight I gained was from a colleague who shared that the immigrant experience meant that one was "always careful of one's geography." Teaching in classrooms that foster diversity implies being respectful of others' geographies and appreciative of their gifts.

Proposal abstract :
Support for three meetings of seventeen faculty to develop and distribute materials that explore methods for teaching about African American religious traditions.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to gather a group to develop and distribute materials that explore methods of teaching and learning about African American religious traditions. They hoped to discuss issues related to teaching and learning, and to examine innovative ways to engage African American students, in particular, and all students, in general, in the study of African American religious traditions. The result of their gathering and work together would be a book on the topic. The group members were all participants of the 1999-2000 AAR Teaching and Learning Workshop, "Mining the Mother Load of African American Religious Life."
The project directors report that the group met three times between November, 2001 and October, 2002. The manuscript was written through a collaborative process of dialogue and engagement which the formal gatherings made possible. The completed work was accepted for publication at Oxford University Press.

Proposal abstract :
A series of luncheon meetings for faculty to discuss recent literature in multi-cultural pedagogy, to share ways of improving syllabi, and to plan dissemination of the information through featured lectures workshop.

Proposal abstract :
Repositioning issues of community, diversity, and social justice from peripheral to central is a proactive step in the seminary’s attempt to respond to the challenges of multiculturalism. Specifically, the usual reactive stance and crisis-like response to subtle yet debilitating experiences of exclusion and injustice will be addressed using the theoretical framework of Multicultural Organization Development or MCOD (Jackson 1988). The principles and practices of MCOD offer an alternative route to a more welcoming, inclusive, and just system of structural and human relations. As well, the ensuing conversations and change initiatives this project champions gives the systemically transformed seminary a competitive advantage and a renewed commitment to heed the call of God (Micah 6:8).

Learning Abstract :
One of the most significant accomplishments that emerged from this endeavor is in the area of consciousness raising surrounding issues of social diversity and social justice in theological education. This proactive step exemplifies the seminary's continuing attempt to respond to the challenges of multiculturalism. Changes in attitudes, knowledge, and skills are beginning to take shape, albeit gradually.

Proposal abstract :
This project seeks to provide a comparative analysis of how different faculty members in the Department of Theological Studies (DTS) at Saint Louis University (SLU) incorporate service-learning into their Theology courses. As a Latino faculty member, and participant in the 2008-2009 Colloquy on Teaching for Latino/a Faculty, I am particularly interested in exploring whether or not I can identify a distinctly latinamente approach to employing service-learning as a teaching strategy.

Proposal abstract :
Saint Paul School of Theology proposes a three-year project to attend to three distinct pedagogical challenges for the future of theological education. First, instead of fitting new technologies into old pedagogies, how are teaching and learning transformed by shifting needs of students who are “digital natives” or “digital immigrants” and/or distance learners? Second, instead of relying on note-takers and extended deadlines, what pedagogies virtually eliminate the need for “accommodations” for students with learning disabilities because courses are designed flexibly with resources and opportunities open to diverse learning styles and needs? Third, instead of engaging student diversity with the tools of the 1960s, what new teaching and learning strategies anticipate future student racial/ethnic demographics and interracial educational experiences? Proleptic pedagogical strategies reflect the praxis and prophetic goals expressed in the seminary’s mission and values, which challenge faculty to make theological education accessible and transformative for the next generations of seminarians.

Learning Abstract :
Saint Paul School of Theology developed a grant project entitled "Pedagogy: Teaching from the Future to Distance, Disability, and Race." The faculty learned that diversifying our teaching/learning resources makes us more agile in responding to diverse students, classroom contexts, educational opportunities, as well as the needs of the church. We have learned to be more astute observers of students and their contexts, which compels us to be more skilled and flexible in pedagogy that responds to concrete and changing social locations and cultural experiences affecting the teaching and learning environment. Our proleptic pedagogy depends on attentiveness to changes in teaching resources and contexts - pedagogy is rooted in praxis and cultivation of imagination in teaching and learning.

Proposal abstract :
The small grant will be used to gather a leadership team of women scholars/ teachers of religion and theology to discuss the notion of indignation as a rubric for understanding women faculty issues -- particularly teacher identity, the influence of indignation on vocation, classroom practices, and oppressive forces which seek to render women faculty powerless. In addition, the leadership team will develop proposals for further development of pedagogies of indignation in relation to women faculty.

Learning Abstract :
This planning grant was used to design a project for women who teach and who are simultaneously activists. We are interested in the lives of women who work for justice as they teach and who take seriously their emotional health and well being as well as those who are curious about the role of emotions in the classroom. We see the current phenomena to be problematic - the phenomena of a dramatic increase of women in leadership and very little transformation in the curriculum of higher education. Our plan is to create communal conversation for women so that we might (in an extended conversation) fashion, discuss and create practices for teaching that incorporate the activist spirit and that also take the emotional side seriously. This grant allowed face-to-face meetings with our leadership team to better shape and focus our project.

Proposal abstract :
Support to develop a program designed to train seminary faculty in Hispanic perspectives by directly working with Hispanic theologians to foster culturally inclusive courses for the M. Div. curriculum.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to provide support for seminary faculty in their efforts to include Hispanic perspectives and issues in the design and implementation of their courses. They hoped to increase faculty awareness of the experiences and worldviews of Latino/Latinas; to increase the library's Hispanic texts and resources; to increase their social justice awareness of the church's mission; to graduate competent multi-cultural ministers; and to establish ongoing relationships between seminary faculty and Hispanic scholars in each discipline.
The project director reports that significant learning included the following: awareness that cultural differences generate serious discomfort at times between scholars; doing theology in community challenges traditional approaches to theological education; doing theological education in community requires an interdisciplinary approach; theological education curricula need to highlight the cultural dimensions of theology and ministry; multiculturalism in theological education is an expensive concept, and finally, a multicultural curriculum entails political implications.

Proposal abstract :
The study interviews present and past students of color from ETSS to learn how the seminary can make curricular, pedagogical, and administrative changes that respond to the particular needs of seminarians of color. The study will result in recommendations of ways the seminary can effectively address the unique life experiences and heritage of persons of color. Possible changes in curriculum might include course bibliographies that are inclusive of authors from a variety of heritages, a two-day workshop on race and privilege that includes faculty and staff as well as students, and a faculty discussion on the effects of our privileged status on our teaching.

Learning Abstract :
The study interviewed present and past students of color from Seminary of the Southwest to learn how the seminary can make curricular, pedagogical, and administrative changes that respond to the particular needs of seminarians of color. The study resulted in recommendations of ways the seminary can effectively address the unique life experiences and heritage of persons of color. The final report was shared with the senior administration and all regular faculty, which led to significant discussion on diversity at the institution. The seminary created a task force on diversity to address the issues raised in the final report of the project.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a study leave project that will examine better ways to teach church-state relations and political engagement in order to help students (a) more accurately understand the changing context of church and state in the contemporary setting, (b) creatively and constructively lead congregations to engage political institutions and structures in accord with ecclesiological and other theological convictions; and (c) rethink political engagement so that it reaches to the level of everyday practices of churches and local community organizations. The research will include gathering information, through interviews and focus groups, on how churches and church-related organizations understand and teach political and social engagement. A particular focus will be the practices of teaching and formation which enable African American churches to engage social and political structures in their communities. A conference will bring together seminary teachers with other practitioners and teachers to articulate methods of teaching political engagement in seminary classes on theology and ethics.

Learning Abstract :
This project provided valuable opportunities for scholarly interaction with leaders of exemplary churches through interviews. The interviews produced useful data in audio form which will bear fruit for analysis and reflection. The focus groups with Black church leaders will provide data both for comparison with the interviews and for the body of data about Black churches in North Carolina. The information on teaching and learning processes employed in exemplary churches is already influencing professors' teaching.
Providing financial assistance to students did not always cohere with the technical skills needed for the project. A Project schedule requires clarity about how long it will take to initiate basic institutional paperwork and processes.
This project contributes to the discussion of integrating core theological, biblical, and historical courses with day-to-day practices of churches. It also contributes to using church practice-based models of teaching and learning as sources for course design in theological education.

Proposal abstract :
Support for research project to bring together scholars from each of the six ATS accredited HBCU seminaries in critical reflection and dialogue on the academic purpose, content, and methodology, currently used by these institutions to prepare leaders for the African American Church and community.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to gather together in consultation scholars from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) to examine the pedagogy used to prepare clergy and laity to "translate" the ideas of the theological academy to the issues of the African American church community. A working paper would be developed and then responded to by representatives of each of the 6 ATS accredited HBCU seminaries.
The consultation was held in July, 2003 at the Shaw Divinity School. Participating seminaries included: the Divinity School of Shaw University, Hood Theological Seminary, Howard University Divinity School, the Interdenominational Theological Seminary, and Samuel De Witt Proctor School of Theology. The project director reports that as a result of the consultation dialogue, the group developed "a new commitment to stay together in order to engage in common work around a flexible and experimental, but growing and consistent focus on Black Issues in Theological Education."

Proposal abstract :
This project will examine the unique dimensions of teaching Biblical exegesis in Historically Black Theological Schools (HBTS). The faculty who teach Biblical Studies in select schools (Hood, Howard, ITC, Payne, Proctor, and Shaw) will meet for a conference to discuss the unique needs of their students and the expectations of the African American Church, to share best practices in teaching, and to formulate one or more approaches for teaching exegesis within their contexts. These approaches will be tested in classes at all six schools. After testing the approaches in the classroom at the institutions, a second conference will be held to evaluate the approaches, summarize the findings, and plan for future collaboration.

Learning Abstract :
We gathered scholars who teach in Biblical Studies at six Historically Black Theological Schools, selected methods of teaching biblical interpretation, tested those methods in the classroom, and evaluated the results. The faculty who gathered had to share best practices in teaching, and to learn from each other. The two conferences we held produced enthusiastic responses from the participants. They also highlighted a general lack of agreement about what it means to teach biblical interpretation. Although there was general agreement that teaching Historical Critical methods and teaching biblical interpretation as a prelude to preaching are not good models, there was very little agreement about what we should teach. We also recognized that insufficient attention has been paid to correlating teaching methods to the skills we want students to gain.

Proposal abstract :
This grant will fund a two-day workshop on facilitating dialogue across difference for faculty and graduate students in the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University. Workshop participants will learn communication and pedagogical techniques to assist them as teachers and participants in creating conditions for constructive conversations about issues many find contentious, divisive, and polarizing especially at the intersection of identity, belief and world view in religious studies classrooms.

Learning Abstract :
This grant funded a two-day workshop on facilitating dialogue across difference for faculty and graduate students in the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University, based on the methodology of Reflective Structured Dialogue as used by Essential Partners, a non-profit that specializes in conflict management. Workshop participants learned communication and pedagogical techniques to assist them as teachers and participants in creating conditions for constructive conversations about issues many find contentious, divisive, and polarizing, especially at the intersection of identity, belief, and world views in religious studies classrooms. Specific topics included making "safe enough" spaces for difficult conversations, thinking of teachers as facilitators, the importance of preparation for dialogue, what makes a good dialogue question, the potential uses of dialogue on campus, and the biological roots of polarization.

Proposal abstract :
This project will develop curricular and pedagogical tools for bringing views oppositional to students' faith life into the classroom. Administrators, faculty, and students from five diverse faith institutions (three schools of theology and two religious studies departments) will describe, review, and critique what is currently happening in their institutions in order to design, test, and evaluate curricula and pedagogies that foster inter and intra religious knowledge and relationships.

Learning Abstract :
Others interested in how to include the "religious other" in their classes may obtain from us nine pedagogies and the syllabi within which they are included, institutional principles that should be adopted to encourage learning about the religious other, and a review, critique, and suggestions as to coaching, crisis management, and creating a safe space for dealing with "religious others." Several institutions were reluctant to survey their students, to allow some or any expression of religious diversity oppositional to their institutional identity, and move beyond the status quo. These institutions, or subsets within the institution, demonstrate the necessity of continuing the project in some form.

Proposal abstract :
The faculty desiring to be proactive, agrees that further attention is needed to enable ourselves to construct more effective teaching and learning environments with students culturally different from ourselves and from each other. In organizational development terms, we are exploring a transition from being a “non-discriminating” organization toward an intentionally “multicultural” organization that is seeking ways to ensure the full inclusion of all.

Learning Abstract :
I faced my greatest difficulty up front when first investigating if the faculty was willing to examine white privilege. Some suspected that my proposal of a two day workshop on that subject was a judgment, perhaps even an indictment, of the seminary. Convincing them otherwise was the most important work I did as it led to whole hearted participation by most of them during the two day process, and a strong commitment to continue examining institutionalized white privilege. The focus forced all of us to reconsider how we manage the classroom moment, and the necessity of empowering students of color to participate in ways respectful to their culture of origin for the sake of their learning.

A small portion of the faculty found this subject painful to address because of their personal histories. It was important to acknowledge and respect their pain.

Proposal abstract :
What does it mean to teach biblical studies latinamente and what difference might it make in teaching undergraduate students who themselves represent a broad range of ethnic and religious diversity? This project will foreground four characteristics of latino/a pedagogies, namely: (1) explicit contextuality; (2) communal construction of knowledge (trabajo en conjunto); (3) inclusivity of other voices and perspectives; and (4) interdisciplinarity. Implemented in the undergraduate Introduction to the Bible course, this will provide a framework for introducing students to a field of study that has itself become increasingly complex, interdisciplinary, and intentionally contextual.

Proposal abstract :
This project examines approaches to teaching womanist theory in the Religious studies classroom. Specifically, the project explores the identification and definition of womanist pedagogy from the point of view of womanist practitioners. The goals of this project include: 1) Identify and define womanist pedagogy using the point of view of womanist teachers; 2) Deepen and enrich my ability to implement womanist pedagogical strategies in my teaching; 3) Develop a practical study that articulates womanist pedagogical strategies; 4) Generate a data collection of transcribed interviews and research on womanist instructors’ reflections on their scholarship and pedagogy; and 5) Utilize womanist approaches to improve teaching and learning in the Religious Studies classroom by developing a course.

Learning Abstract :
With this project, I deepened my understanding and ability to implement womanist pedagogical strategies, particularly in the Religious Studies classroom, which differs significantly from that of the Theological studies classroom in its methodological, theoretical, and institutional formulations. In speaking with founding womanist instructors and contemporary womanist scholars, I was able to create an intellectual history. Not only was it useful to teach and learn about the development of womanist methodology, but, through reflection upon the emergence of womanist thought, we have a direct impact on how such approaches are utilized. In sharing my insights with students, I also discovered how valuable it is for us to understand the historical contexts in which our learning models originate, as well as their relationship to theory - which exists not in a vacuum, but within particular discourses that are replicated in the public study of Religion. How gratifying it can be for both students and teachers to explore and to recognize the sources of current academic practices!

Proposal abstract :
Support for a Study Leave Grant project to provide professors of ethics with practical insights for re-envisioning their courses in ways that engage encounters with difference in the borderlands. Utilizing in-depth, qualitative interviews with fifteen professors and forty students, observations of classroom practices and analyses of course syllabi, as well as background writings by the professors themselves, this project aims to do four things: identify borderlands teaching strategies, write narratives of these strategies, re-envision a course in the light of these narratives, and assist professors in re-imagining their own ethics courses.

Learning Abstract :
This research has enabled me to identify "generative themes" in the pedagogical arsenals of faculty who teach for diversity and justice. Professors, especially colleagues of color, articulate complex sets of intercultural identities. In dialoguing about these, I not only gained a deeper understanding of my own identity, but came to realize the value of challenging students in our predominately white colleges and universities to examine the "intercultural" nature of their own identities as well.

Another generative theme that surfaced was the explication of critical approaches to oppression. I learned that racism is alive and well in academia. Further, teaching for diversity can not be separated from teaching for social justice, and recognizing this interrelationship necessitates some painful acknowledgments for many of us. Clearly, transforming teaching dynamics in the classroom must go hand in hand with changing structural dynamics in the institution, and we all have constructive, subversive roles to play.

Proposal abstract :
A consultation in May 2008 will bring together racial ethnic women professors teaching religion and theology in predominantly white university and college settings in order to share pedagogical models and strategies for teaching. Racial ethnic minority women face particular challenges when they enter the classroom, and the religion classroom, itself, poses special challenges that complicate these women’s professional and personal lives. We want to explore, in the grant period, what happens when racial ethnic minority women enter the space of the religion classroom, both to them and with students, how this affects teaching, and what strategies may be employed to ease this interaction. In a time when pedagogy is embodied and strives for transformation of professor and student, a “colored” body, particularly in a predominantly white institution, brings forth a variety of response that is both overt and hidden. This is an opportunity for racial ethnic minority women professors to be reflective about their teaching and teaching context, share teaching strategies, and shape models of support within departments and institutions that will encourage recruiting and retaining women minority academic faculty in the disciplines of Religion and Theology.

Learning Abstract :
Racial ethnic minority women teaching in the Religious Studies or seminary classroom experience unique tensions. As, often, the only person of color and/or the only woman, these teacher-scholars find themselves analyzed by the gaze of both students and colleagues. From students, this gaze can exoticize the professor, bringing about unsettling moments in the classroom for which generating teaching strategies that both uncover racism and sexism and teach students to "read as the other" is necessary. From colleagues, this gaze can make the racial ethnic woman wonder continually if her colleagues believe she "measures up" to their standards, making the racial-ethnic woman either paralyzed or defensively over-productive in her teaching and scholarship. While such activity may lead to excellence in the career, the perfectionism, stress, and fatigue, ultimately, may undermine the teacher-scholar's longevity. Collegial support, teaching strategies, self-care, rest, and open conversations among racial ethnic women scholars, such as the conversation in this consultation, generate support, opportunities for publication, and teaching strategies that open true paths to excellence and sustained, transformative careers in the academy.

Proposal abstract :
The mission statement of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School can be summated by the University motto: “Forming Students to Transform the World Through Christ.” This project will address the need to reflect on the meaning and significance of this statement in light of its power to inspire reflection and activity in several critical areas, namely, vision for faculty and administration, curricular development, and pedagogy in the classroom. The working committee will seek to determine if they are pursuing all avenues needed to empower the construction of a theological community that remains faithful to its biblical and theological foundations, while “forming students” in a way that equips them to meet the theological, demographic and ministerial challenges presented by a growing diversification of voices and concerns in the United States as well as in the world along the lines of race and culture.

Learning Abstract :
This grant funded a series of conversations among faculty, administration, and current/past students on the minority presence at Trinity and Trinity's main mission as a divinity school. This groundwork emphasized the need for curricular, co-curricular, and substantial financial aid to recruit and retain racially diverse students. The Mosaic Learning Communities program was established that aims to assist M.Div. students prepare for their future work in multi-ethnic communities. The yearly program of the MLC consists of a fall retreat, guest speakers, formation work with faculty and fellow students, peer-mentoring, and local connections to churches in the area.

Through this project we learned that when you find others across the disciplines that share your interests and passion for a project, it may be the start of a journey whose end cannot be imagined yet.

Proposal abstract :
Faculty interested in the implications of ethnicity/race for theo. ed. and for ministry in congregational settings will meet 15 times for lunch/discussion and have guest speakers to address these issue.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to gather faculty weekly over lunch on the topic of the implications of ethnicity/race for theological education and for ministry in congregational settings.
Their gatherings were successful in forging and strengthening the relationships among the faculty. A rich conversation on ethnicity and theological education was carried out. Faculty felt the lunches were safe spaces to explore difficult issues that were seldom, if ever, discussed in a larger faculty setting. A result of these meetings was the commitment of the group to engage in a joint writing project focusing on ethnicity and race as a way of bringing the conversation more to the center of institutional life at the school.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a three-year project designed to give PhD students in Intercultural Studies supervised experience as teachers who will prepare future pastors to acquire appropriate cross-cultural skills and understandings. The focus will be on a pedagogy of intercultural service-learning, organized around "short-term mission trips," and designed to integrate theory and practice, school and community, experimentation and in preparing pedagogical materials. Research on program design and educational outcomes will accompany each stage of the project.

Learning Abstract :
This several year project was focused on service-learning within the framework of MDiv student mission trips to Peru (and to urban Chicago). As doctoral students helped with research, filming, and with designing pedagogical exercises, a great deal of enthusiasm was generated, motivating several to do their PhD dissertations on the topic. Both doctoral students and the project director published articles related to this. An educational DVD on mission trips was produced. Our team came to appreciate the importance of clearly identifying intended learning outcomes, and incorporating into our learning exercises 1) appropriate biblical texts and theological themes; 2) relevant experiences of intercultural service and learning; 3) attention to the voices of Christians in destination sites; and 4) active efforts at understanding. The value of a learning community of PhD students, faculty, and visiting scholars (who attended conferences we hosted), where all were focused on service-learning mission trips, came to be deeply appreciated.

Proposal abstract :
A year-long program of interdisciplinary, inter-ethnic seminars, a two-day workshop, team teaching, and a national meeting on teaching race and ethnic relations.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought funds for an interdisciplinary and inter-ethnic network of scholars with shared interests in ethnicity and race in relation to theological studies, classroom pedagogy and congregational life. Activities included: faculty seminars on race and ethnicity; a workshop with a guest lecturer on the topic of reconciliation; a required, team-taught course on race and ethnic relations; a gathering of scholars who teach courses in seminary on race and ethnic relations; and a faculty retreat on the topic of culture, race and ethnicity in theological education. Wabash funds were part of larger funding received.
Project directors report the following learning: the importance of "sustained vision and intentionality" among parties; the importance of strategic partnerships across race in "co-constructing conversational initiatives"; the importance of creating safe spaces with empathetic and critical listening; a commitment of all parties to being "learners together"; the importance of a shared vocational and theological core to pull together the diversity of the group: the value of external sources of funding to bring visibility and respect for the project; "the value of keeping one's own faculty at the center of every initiative, empowering and treating them as professionals"; the value of networking with and including external scholars; the value of networking with and dialoguing with denominational and church leaders who have experience of diversity in congregational settings.

Proposal abstract :
Theological education has insufficiently equipped most church leaders to engage many crucial challenges to human life and dignity - largely due to pedagogical deficiencies connected to the compartmentalization of bioethics in the theological curriculum. The proposed initiative seeks to begin the process of correcting this insufficiency through a series of three meetings in early 2007 involving 12 Trinity faculty members. These meetings will be driven by a pedagogical purpose: to learn how a theological faculty can teach students most effectively to understand and engage crucial bioethical challenges.

Learning Abstract :
Once faculty members in every discipline of the curriculum are equipped to make the conceptual connections between their disciplines and bioethical challenges, they can become highly energized to develop appropriate pedagogical strategies for insuring that their courses help students to understand and engage vital bioethical challenges. This project mobilized such a team of teachers through readings, a set of three extended meetings, and a final reflection instrument that fostered further pedagogical strategizing. The project also uncovered a serious obstacle to classroom effectiveness. Teachers need better tools - case studies in particular-to bridge from their particular disciplines to bioethical issues. They need better understanding of how to mobilize the resources of their disciplines to address ethical case studies. And they need to be equipped to engage the unique pedagogical challenges involved in using highly inter-disciplinary bioethics case studies in class. A follow-up initiative is being developed to address these needs.

Proposal abstract :
Trinity is in the crucible of change. However, this kairos-time provides the opportunity to strategically innovate—integrating “student-centered inquiry"—for stronger learning outcomes among a wonderfully-diverse student body. The past eight years have seen changes from a traditional Bible college to a “biblically-centered liberal arts college” with new majors beyond traditional ministry. The changes of campus location, president, academic dean, Biblical Studies chair, new majors, and adding athletic programs has resulted in a vastly different student body— with 42% people of color, almost half are athletes, and approximately 7% are non-Christian—a radical change from a decade ago. Thus, the faculty seeks to engage the diversity of ethnicity, faith traditions, and learning styles by integrating the “gracious space” provided through student-centered inquiry. We seek to develop our capacity to empower active, responsible participants in their own learning in ways which respects diversity while engaging meaningfully in exploring the Christian world view.

Learning Abstract :
Trinity Lutheran College faculty and administrative staff were able, over the short period of the grant, to "develop our capacity to empower active, responsible participants in their own learning in ways which respects diversity while engaging meaningfully in exploring the Christian worldview," as well as identify limitations of our ability to accomplish these aims. After baseline measures and post-test comparisons, as well as trainings for faculty, Trinity applied changes to our core religious curriculum. Further, the grant made obvious that while change in syllabi and pedagogical practices can indeed make a small impact on how students learn, the "who" students work with is an equally important question that needs to be asked and addressed. The need to diversify the faculty profile is paramount to student success in biblically centered curriculum.

Proposal abstract :
Support for development of pedagogical practices in theological classrooms that encourage intentional connections across disciplines, cultures, and discourses, in order to better equip students for more fully integrated ministries in the Church and the world.

Learning Abstract :
Purpose: to develop pedagogical practices that foster connections across disciplines, cultures, and discourses, in order to equip our students for more fully integrated ministries. Twelve educators began; four discontinued because of changes in professional or family circumstances. Positive outcomes: 1) our conversations were extraordinarily rich and important for our development as teachers; 2) interdisciplinary and multicultural programming was carried out in six theological schools; 3) an article on multiculturalism was published in Theological Education. Challenges: 1) The loss of four colleagues required that we drop the public-voice dimension of our work: many factors can hamper the effectiveness or commitment even of participants who start out with great enthusiasm and vision. 2) Neither of two planned collaborative articles was completed, despite carefully structured timelines and significant work.

Proposal abstract :
This project consists of a series of three educational opportunities for a selected group of faculty, staff, and students at Union-PSCE to intentionally read about, reflect upon and decide on issues of cultural diversity as they apply to its academic and institutional life. The twofold purpose of the project is to train a representative group in fundamental concepts and practices of cultural diversity and to generate the conditions to establish institutional and academic policies that will move Union to become a more effective multicultural theological institution.

Learning Abstract :
This project, with important modifications that resulted from the dialogical and democratic process it engendered, was successful in achieving its twofold purpose, that is, to train a representative group from the Union-PSCE community in fundamental concepts and practices of cultural diversity and, on the other hand, to generate the conditions to establish institutional and academic policies that will move Union-PSCE to become a more effective multicultural theological institution. It is now clear that there is a significant group of students, staff and faculty convinced of the need for Union-PSCE to pay serious attention to issues of diversity in general and multicultural diversity in particular. Nevertheless, more needs to be done in a more sustained and extended manner in regards to the first part of this purpose.

During Workshop III, Dr. Maxine Beach, our guest speaker, affirmed that with the work done through this project, Union-PSCE has begun an important process that respects all parts of our institution as having something to offer to the conversation about multicultural diversity. Dr. Beach said that given the special circumstances currently at Union-PSCE (e.g. in the process of a Curriculum Review, working on a new Strategic Plan, and with a new president beginning this year) "Union-PSCE has a great opportunity to stop and be able to make some decisions about whether or not this is something {we} want to embrace fully, as a priority, and not something that would be nice to do if we have the time and money."

The challenge now, especially for those with "decision-making" power in our institution, is to discern where, how and when to implement those changes (institutional, academic, etc.) that will enable us to become a more effective multicultural theological institution. The good news is that decisions have already been made, as Appendix E shows, that point to the fact that the challenge has been assumed and that the work done in this project will continue to bear fruit in the near future.

Proposal abstract :
This project seeks to adapt a theoretical model for understanding racial/ethnic identity development as a valuable tool for under-represented minority (URM) faculty working in mostly white theological institutions. The primary purposes of this project are, first, to offer URM faculty in theological education a theoretical framework for them to define the personal and institutional significance of their belonging to a particular racial/ethnic group while working in a theological school with mostly white students and faculty; and second, to make available to white faculty and seminary officers a theoretical tool to better understand the institutional and academic implications of having URM as members of their faculties. The adapted model of racial identity development to be proposed will be based on documented shared experiences of URM faculty in theological education, bibliographic research on faculty of color in Higher Education, and the racial identity development theory developed by William E. Cross and analyzed by Beverly D. Tatum.

Learning Abstract :
Working in this project has been one of the most stimulating and rewarding academic experiences I have had during my almost ten years as a theological educator in North America. It allowed me to build upon my own experiences and the experiences of those in theological education who, like me, share two characteristics: one, that of belonging to a racial/ethnic minority (REMF); two, that of teaching in a predominantly white theological institution (PWTI). In conclusion, the quantitative and qualitative data of this study shows that discrimination based on race and ethnicity, which increases when gender and age are factored in, is very much an open and deep wound for the majority of REMF working at PWTIs. What is at stake is too serious to keep this reality concealed or unaddressed. It affects the present and the future well-being of the first and the present and future integrity of the mission of the latter. Theological institutions are called to mirror the values of God's reign and not those of society. Therefore, their leaders should commit themselves to the understanding and transformation of this reality for the sake of what is central to the theological enterprise: the church and its mission in the world.

Proposal abstract :
Against the backdrop of racial tension in the United States, two ethnically diverse Christian college faculties - one from a historically black college and one from a predominately white institution - will partner to develop and co-teach a course on racial reconciliation and ethnic diversity at their respective institutions. Preparation for the course includes building deeper relationships among faculty in a retreat context, with consultation, followed by regularly scheduled faculty development experiences. Using backward course design, faculty will develop a co-taught course to be offered at both institutions. Assessment of the student, faculty, and institutional experience will be offered for both local and national publication. We hope this will model for our larger faculties a way of inter-institutional relationship, research, and education. Most importantly, we hope that the students who take these courses will be formed and transformed by the experience in ways that will enable them to take those lessons with them to impact the world.

Learning Abstract :
Faculty and students realized at a deep level that the work of racial justice and reconciliation is difficult, time-intensive, and requires intentionality and purposefulness. The range and intensity of life experiences related to race varies dramatically from person to person, even within race subgroups, thus challenging any generalizations. The grant project generated an eagerness to continue to work together and to work toward having an impact more broadly in the community. The striking differences between a predominantly White, Southern Baptist-affiliated university and an historically Black college affiliated with the CME church pose challenges around racial justice and reconciliation, but also challenge other educational, political, social, and economic realities. The greatest challenge ahead for the two colleges in the effort to work toward racial justice may be the need to maintain momentum. Both schools are occupied with other institutional and educational responsibilities and each group participant has other primary job assignments.

Proposal abstract :
In its 2003 Proposal to ATS to implement a new PhD program, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) seminary stated: LTSP is fully committed in all its programs to explicitly dealing with issues of globalization and with gender, race, and ethnic concerns. The PhD program will also serve to further issues of justice and quality, as students engage theology on issues in the public arena. This grant seeks to help LTSP live into this commitment by addressing the role in which its teachers both teach and advise Graduate students who are from different cultural backgrounds. This grant will provide opportunities for LTSP professors to help them recognize the different cultural modes of communication and styles of learning of International Students, be conscious of the different social locations of International Students both within the classroom as well as in the seminary community, and develop different pedagogical tools for teaching in such an environment. Through this process, LTSP will develop an academic environment that will allow the gifts and abilities of International Students to be respected and encouraged, so that they might flourish and grow academically.

Learning Abstract :
This grant has been an extremely valuable "first step" as our faculty strives to be intentional about being effective teachers in multi-cultural classrooms. The grant allowed the faculty to meet and begin a public conversation about these issues. Having several outside professionals speak to the faculty provided authoritative voices about the general needs and practical methods in teaching and advising International Students. It was our hope that the grant would publicly raise the awareness and provide tools, and in this regard the grant succeeded. The question is now, where do we go from here? Currently, a plan has been submitted to the administration to lay out a plan for an "international Student Office" where the seminary could continue to be intentional about providing both holistic support for International Students as well as continued learning opportunities for faculty to address pedagogical issues when teaching in multi-cultural classrooms.

Proposal abstract :
This project aims to develop a statement articulating a theology of theological diversity, attentive to racial, ethnic, and class issues, which can guide implementation of curricula and a culture of theological diversity in the seminary learning environment. The difficult conversation at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (UTS) arises both from its ecumenical nature, and its simultaneous commitments to gender justice, racial justice, and cultural diversity. Students, faculty, and staff, have differing theological commitments, which often reflect racial and cultural differences, leading to tensions in dialogue over difficult issues. The project seeks to construct a theology of theological diversity and to train the faculty to facilitate dialogue and provide an atmosphere of theological and cultural diversity in the classroom through syllabi content and classroom conversation and conduct. It ends with evaluations and findings that will form the basis of an article on teaching theology in a theologically diverse setting.

Learning Abstract :
In a project that was admittedly ambitious, we set out to develop a "theology of theological diversity" that would inform the learning environment of a liberal seminary that would prepare it for the cultural and racial diversity that it seeks. We articulated our hopes in several ways, for example, that students could be theologically multilingual, or would embrace and not simply tolerate theological diversity of experiences, beliefs and expressions. We realized that because of the impact of our null curriculum, we have to be very intentional about welcoming theological diversity and cultivating dialogue. To this end, several professors have added books and/or course objectives to their syllabus to promote and guide classroom learning and discussion.

Obstacles that we encountered in the first (main) portion of our project we were able to address with some success in the extension period. We learned to write course objectives, goals, and assessments. We had extended substantive theological discussions within the faculty, and a substantive discussion on the purposes of theological diversity. We modeled our new confidence and ease with diversity to our students and staff.

Students have responded positively to changes that have been made. There has been much appreciation of the ability and encouragement to express differing theological beliefs and experiences. There is a desire to continue theological diversity discussions.

There is much future learning to do. We have started down a path that is vital to our mission and viability as an institution of theological education. We need to continue down this path. We need to continue growing in our embrace of theological diversity. We need to grow in our ability to use course objectives to articulate and thus achieve an atmosphere of welcome in the classroom. We need to continue modeling this for the students, both old and new.

This grant has made a significant impact on the theological atmosphere at United, and we are very grateful.

Proposal abstract :
This grant will help transform the seminary’s corporate culture and institutional patterns from a more ‘passive’ and ‘symbolic’ affirmation of cultural diversity toward becoming a more fully inclusive institution in its identity and structures.

Learning Abstract :
The year-long process (Fall 2006– Spring 2007) provided an opportunity for the various participants of the seminary life to come together as a community and to strongly express their commitment to make it a culturally diverse and racially just institution. The community realized that it is not nearly where it wants to be: a culturally diverse and just institution. It has become clear to the community that good intentions are not enough. The community believes that a major change in the ethos and environment must happen at United Seminary for cultural diversity and racial justice to happen in the classroom, for racial-ethnic minorities to come and feel at home in the seminary, and for the curriculum and strategic direction to embody cultural diversity and racial justice. The major change cannot, however, happen unless specific goals, actions and accountability are identified in light of the vision.

Proposal abstract :
This proposed strategic intervention project seeks to develop pedagogical and curricular resources to attract a new generation of scholars into the field of Latina/o Religious History, and to lay the groundwork for growing a new cohort in the field among current undergraduates, including, especially, Latina/o-identified students. The creation and dissemination of learning and research modules for insertion into syllabi, courses and research programs across the humanistic and social scientific disciplines will expand the pedagogical repertoire of faculty at institutions across the country, and prime them to serve as collaborative recruiters and mentors of potential future historians and scholars of the U.S. Latina/o religious experience.

Learning Abstract :
The project developed pedagogical and curricular resources to attract a new generation of scholars into the field of Latina/o Religious History, and to lay the groundwork for growing a new cohort in the field among current undergraduates, including, especially, Latina/o identified students. The project surveyed the state of Latina/o religious experience in U.S. religious history courses and illustrated a general lack of materials and modules related to the topic. Given the lack of materials in higher education classrooms, the project also included the development of learning and research modules that could be inserted into existing syllabi, courses and research programs across the humanistic and social scientific disciplines in North America.

Proposal abstract :
The grant will support the development and hosting of a three-day symposium of an interdisciplinary group of scholars and ecclesial leaders who will address the dynamics of white privilege from their respective academic departure points. The symposium will achieve three goals: 1) stimulate theological research on white privilege; 2) use the University of Notre Dame’s interdisciplinary resources toward the service of the academy, particularly the discipline of theology, and of the church in the effort to advance scholarly analysis of white privilege; and 3) make a methodological contribution by correlating form with content.

Learning Abstract :
The symposium was well attended by students from Notre Dame and St. Mary's as well as other area institutions, including a class of twenty students from Goshen College. The symposium events became an explicit focus of discussion in at least three graduate theology courses offered at Notre Dame and were also a point of reference in undergraduate courses in psychology and anthropology. All participants were provided with a Select Bibliography for further reading that corresponded with the presenters' particular areas of focus, and this served to generate conversations between participants and presenters about their work as well as other recommended resources corresponding to particular research topics. Many of these conversations took place over meals as students and other participants were invited in small groups to dine with the symposium speakers.

Proposal abstract :
This grant will facilitate a planning conversation within the Divinity School at Vanderbilt toward the incorporation of the problematic of race and ethnicity across the theological curriculum. The conversation will be conducted during the 2005-2006 academic year.

Learning Abstract :
This was a planning grant toward a major grant proposal involving the inclusion of the racial-ethnic problematic at all levels of institutional life and practice of the Divinity School, so that it truly becomes able to welcome all, to educate all, and to minister to all-as it has formally committed itself to do. Most useful for our discussions was the model for institutional analysis, Multicultural Organization Development, formulated by Professor Bailey Jackson. This proved crucial in establishing where we stood and what needed to be done to move toward an ideal vision. Quite useful as well was to involve a variety of individuals representing major units and programs of the institution – all were involved in reading key material in racial-ethnic discourse and critical pedagogy. Also quite useful was the task of moving in common toward the conceptualization and formulation of the major grant proposal. In conclusion, this was a project with no disappointments and multiple successes.

Proposal abstract :
The project seeks to move the Vanderbilt Divinity School, its units and programs, closer to the ideal vision of a multicultural organization. This is a vision that has been present from the beginning in the ideals and principles of the School, well captured in its self-designation as a School of the Prophets, and that presents itself as ever more pressing, given the profound social and cultural transformation at work in the country and the churches alike. The project seeks to pursue this vision by focusing on theological education and its fundamental tasks of teaching and learning. Towards this end it proposes to introduce the problematic of race and ethnicity into the whole spectrum of its units and programs. Through such expansion of the School of the Prophets, its long-standing commitments and ideals, the project envisions a profound transformation of theological education in the 21st century.

Learning Abstract :
The project sought to move the Vanderbilt Divinity School's programs and units closer to the ideal vision of a multicultural organization through faculty study, conversation, the use of academic and pedagogical consultants, and envisioning multicultural theological education across all disciplines. It was successful in its goal of carrying out faculty conversations and study, but was not able to engender the school-wide conversation and change it envisioned.

Proposal abstract :
Support for a consultation to develop strategies for how best to introduce students to the practice of interfaith dialogue.

Learning Abstract :
The "Consultation on Strategies for Interfaith Education" was quite successful in building bridges between Wake Forest University faculty in Religion and Divinity and the local Jewish leadership through informal conversations over a series of common meals. We discussed strategies for introducing interfaith dialogue to undergraduate and Divinity students at Wake Forest University, with an emphasis on the value of studying books of the Hebrew Bible as scripture shared by Jews and Christians. We also laid the foundation for future collaborative efforts between the University and area Jewish congregations. When asked about their concerns in the training of Christian ministers, the Jewish representatives in the consultation expressed a consistent opinion on the importance of communicating to Divinity students (1) the importance of the formative period of Rabbinic Judaism (c.200 - 500 CE) and (2) the historical and theological importance of the Shoah and post-Holocaust theology and philosophy.

Proposal abstract :
Western Theological Seminary has lived out its primary mission of preparing leaders for the Reformed Church in America for 141 years. This has led to a particular profile in faculty, administration, and enrolled students that lacks significant diversity. In recent years, the seminary has come to realize the need to engage the multicultural realities in the community and the church. We engage these conversations, knowing that this change will be both challenging and at times difficult; yet, we are committed to the journey. This grant will allow us to engage these difficult conversations and to further institutional moves we have already made in our approaches to theological education and formation for ministry, in a context of increasing community and institutional diversity.

Learning Abstract :
Through two years of difficult conversations, we in the Western Theological Seminary community have grown in understanding the challenge of diverse growth. Engaging the whole community in this discussion has been a challenge. Sometimes, we have met the challenge and found satisfaction in the ensuing conversation. At other times, for a variety of reasons, we have failed to find the space for the conversation to take place. The two twin challenges of engaging community members of the majority culture who have difficulty seeing the importance of the conversation, while supporting community members outside the majority culture in their growth and their sense of belonging in this context have seemed at times overwhelming. The grant encouraged leaders to continue the process and to seek ways to creatively address inevitable tensions that arise on this journey.

Proposal abstract :
A consultation in May 2007 will bring together women teaching/scholars of religion who are seeking to combine action for social change with their academic profession so that they can share models and create new models for educational transformation. The participants are already committed to changing from a predominantly lecture model to an interactive and collaborative pedagogy that involves the students in integrating what they learn with their own vocational life goals. The consultation provides an opportunity for them to work together as an intergenerational, interracial and interfaith group to share their transformative strategies.

Learning Abstract :
The consultation succeeded in bringing together female teaching scholars of religion who seek to combine action for social change with their academic profession to share models and create new models for educational transformation. The consultation evoked lively debate and thoughtful reflection with specific action plans that will be fine-tuned by the participants. This kind of transformatory consultation required an engaged pedagogy that has a commitment to dialogue and critical reflection. Hence, the educational transformation we sought to discuss, addresses the structure of theological education and pedagogical strategies that will enhance teaching and learning such that students and teachers recognize that education is not a neutral enterprise, but a crucial vehicle for shaping broader societal values explicitly and implicitly.