2026 Workshop

Schedule of Sessions

• February 6,  2026, 3-5:00 pm ET
• March 6, 2026, 3-5:00 pm ET
• April 10, 2026, 3-5:00 pm ET
• May 1, 2026, 3-5:00 pm ET
• June 1-5, 2026 in-person (held at Wabash Center, Crawfordsville, IN)
• July 10 , 2026, 3-5:00 pm ET
• August 7, 2026, 3-5:00 pm ET

Leadership Team

Participants

Jane Naomi Iwamura, University of the West
Anjana Narayan, California State Polytechnic University Pomona
Janette Ok, Fuller Seminary
Stephanie Wong, Villanova University
Brett Esaki, University of Arizona
Martin Nguyen, Fairfield University
Ekaputra Tupamahu, George Fox University
Jonathan Tran, Duke University
Jane Hong, Occidental College
Chrissy Lau, San Francisco State University
John Boopalan, Canadian Mennonite University
Himanee Gupta-Carlson, SUNY Empire State College
Grace Kao, Claremont School of Theology
Dong Hyeon Jeong, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary

Description

This hybrid workshop gathers faculty of Asian descent from diverse religious specializations and across the different career stages to participate in a community for six monthly online sessions and an in-person meeting in June 2026. Centering our Asian and Asian American identities, spiritualities, histories, and knowledges, this community seeks to co-create conditions for our renewed imagination, professional alignment, and agency.

As a learning community of committed and skilled teachers, this hybrid workshop will explore issues such as:

• pedagogy and politics of faculty, especially the realities of racism
• thriving in one’s institutional context
• teaching religious, social, racial/ethnic, and learning diversities in the classroom
• connecting the classroom to broader social issues
• addressing the changing landscape in higher education
• remembering the joy, wonder, awe, and purposes of our teacher-scholar-artist professions
• sharing the stories and re-crafting the narratives that shape our personal and professional trajectories

There will be a balance of plenary sessions, small group discussions, structured and unstructured social time, and time for relaxation, exercise, meditation, discovery, laughter, karaoke, and – during the in-person session – lots of good food and drink.

Goals

• To develop a professional network of mutually supportive teachers/scholars of Asian descent
• To speak candidly about the politics and pressures of teaching and learning in higher education, including in mono- or multicultural contexts
• To promote the possibilities of teaching in a religiously pluralistic context
• To unearth and curate a repository of resources for our teaching styles, specializations, and tools
• To explore the different pathways of engaging in public scholarship
• To interrogate the institutional reward systems that shape our agency, desires, and imaginations
• To examine the dynamic, evolving relationship between our professional formation and community-focused aspirations toward wholeness and liberation.