Application Deadline:

September 27, 2023

Schedule of Sessions

All Virtual Sessions – 12:15 – 2:45 ET

• Session 1 – February 8, 2024 (virtual) 
• Session 2 – March 14, 2024 (virtual) 
• Session 3 – April 25, 2024 (virtual) 
• In person: June 10-14, 2024 – Wabash Center on the campus of Wabash College
• Session 4 – August 1, 2024 (virtual)
• Session 5 – September 26, 2024 (virtual) 
• Session 6 – October 24, 2024 (virtual) 

Leadership Team

Katherine Turpin, PhD, Iliff School of Theology
Willie Jennings, PhD, Yale Divinity School

Participants

Karri Alldredge, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Jennifer Aycock, Hood Theological Seminary
Adam Bean, Milligan University
Yara González-Justiniano, Vanderbilt University
Deidre Green, Graduate Theological Union
Joelle Hathaway, Bethany Theological Seminary
Kathryn House, Meadville Lombard Theological School
Emily Jendzejec, Loyola University New Orleans
Sarah Kathleen Johnson, Saint Paul University
Cody Sanders, Luther Seminary
Megan Strollo, Union Presbyterian Seminary
Nicole Sarita Symmonds, Columbia Theological Seminary
Eric Williams, Duke University
Rachel Wrenn, Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University

Description

This hybrid workshop invites participants to explore the craft in teaching. Through conversations, artistic experimentation, and creative expression, we seek to discern how to sustain pleasure in a teaching life. We will consider sustaining pleasure through forming a healthy distance from one’s doctoral formation, gaining a strong sense of agency in one’s institution, engaging one’s discipline on one’s own terms, claiming one’s freedom in the classroom, and attending to the whole person as a teacher. Participants can expect to:

• Think alongside crafts persons and artisans about their creative process
• Explore artistic expression in their own lives
• Experience collegial work in an environment that is relaxing and restorative
• Imagine ways of teaching and learning that evoke curiosity, joy, and hope

The hybrid workshop will gather for six online sessions and an in-person summer session at the Wabash Center in Crawfordsville, IN. Sessions will include small group and plenary discussions, structured and unstructured social time, and time for personal and communal growth, relaxation, restoration, and shared meals.

Goals

• To identify those elements that sustain pleasure in the teaching life 
• To cultivate a strong sense of agency and freedom in the teaching life, the classroom, and the institution
• To establish a practice of experimentation that aligns with their teaching commitments and values
• To develop a network of colleagues and co-collaborators as an ongoing resource for their teaching life

Participant Eligibility

• Completed 1-5 years of teaching in a full-time, tenure track or other continuing position
• Doctoral degree completed by end of Spring 2022
• Tenure decision (if applicable) no earlier than Spring 2026
• Teaching in an accredited seminary or divinity school in the United States, Puerto Rico, or Canada
• Job description or contract that is wholly or primarily inclusive of teaching

Application Materials

Please complete and attach the following documents to the online application:

• Application Contact Information form 
• Cover letter:  
  • Write a cover letter that describes why a Wabash workshop, given the diverse makeup of its participants, would be helpful to you at this point in your career. What role do you see peer colleagues and collaborators playing in your growth as an early career teacher and scholar?
• Brief essay:  
  • In 500 words or fewer, describe moments of pleasure in the teaching life that you hope to sustain throughout your career. Choose moments that bring us into your classroom, your particular discipline, and your institution. 
• Academic CV (4-page limit) 
• A letter of institutional support for your full participation in this workshop from your Department Chair, Academic Dean, Provost, Vice President, or President. Please have this recommendation uploaded directly to your application according to the online application instructions.