Events

2023 AAR & SBL Annual Meetings Wabash Center Events Saturday, November 18th, 8:00 AM-10:00 AM New Teacher Breakfast By invitation only, new teachers will join together for breakfast and directed table conversations about the first three years of teaching. Location: MRC - Grand Ballroom: Salon J Saturday , November 18th, 12:00 PM-2:00 PM JoT and Blog Writers Luncheon For those hoping to broaden the reach and creativity of their scholarship, this luncheon will be an opportunity to learn more about blogging as a scholarly genre and practice! Join us as we share approaches, techniques, and generative writing exercises. This will be an interactive gathering intended to wide academic settings. Location MRC - Grand Ballroom: Salon J Facilitator Donald Quist University of Missouri Sunday, November 19th 12:00 AM-2:00 PM BIPOC Faculty Luncheon Are you an educator of color? Come to the BIOPOC Faculty Luncheon to connect, share, and learn from others in a supportive environment. We hope to explore self-care as an essential component of the teaching life within a network that cares about the successful navigation of the classroom, your institution, and academic career. Esteemed Womanist Ethicist Dr. Emilie Townes will be our featured speaker. She will share about self-care from the "rear view." Come hear Dr. Townes offer wisdom on self-care that takes her entire teaching and scholarly career into perspective. Location MRC - Grand Ballroom: Salon J Speaker Emilie Townes Sunday, November 19th 8:00 PM-10:00 PM Wabash Center Reception and Book Launch Come join us for drinks, tapas, DJ, music, and dessert as we celebrate the launch of Nancy Lynne Westfield's creative biography entitledGlimpses of Me and Mine! We will honor our work with faculty in religious studies departments and theological schools. Meet past, present, and future participants from Wabash Center workshops, colloquies, consultations, grants, and learn about current programming and resources to support your teaching. Location MRC - Grand Ballroom: CDE Speaker Nancy Lynne WestfieldWabash Center

The Future of Latinx Placemaking in the Academy Gathering July 29 - August 2, 2024 Wabash Center Crawfordsville, IN Leadership Team Cristian De La Rosa,Boston University School of Theology Gregory L. Cuéllar,Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary Gina Robinson,Wabash Center Participants Jonathan Calvillo, Candler School of Theology Francisco Castillo, Loyola Institute for Ministry David Escobar Arcay, Palm Beach Atlantic University Oscar Garcia-Johnson, Fuller Theological Seminary Chauncey Diego Francisco Handy, Reed College Débora Junker, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi, Iliff School of Theology Roberto Mata, Santa Clara University Néstor Medina, Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto Adriana Nieto,Metropolitan State University of Denver Altagracia Perez-Bullard, Virginia Theological Seminary Lis Valle-Ruiz, McCormick Theological Seminary Honorarium and Fellowship Participants will receive an honorarium of $3,000 for full participation in the Conversation. Read More about Payment of Participants Important Information Foreign National Information Form Policy on Participation Description This roundtable will gather Latinx faculty members from diverse scholarly specializations and institutional contexts to address the challenges and possibilities of Latinx placemaking within contradictory contexts. We will approach our cohort as a community of inquiry and practice, wherein we will collectively and creatively lament, innovate, and create places and spaces to celebrate our own resilience in the face of anti-border laws, state-sanctioned violence, institutional racism, and coloniality. As a collaborative learning cohort of teacher-scholars, we will explore such topics as: Indigenous placemaking within Latinidad Afro-Latinidades, placemaking, and inclusion Latinx joy and healing (social, emotional, psychological) Border-crosssing as a life-giving strategy Goals Retrieval of ancestral resources within our own academic journeys Carefully exploring and identifying our own journey in the academy by making ratablos Share and exchange wisdom on how to navigate strategically colonizing forces on our identities and practices. Exploring the future of placemaking for Latinx scholars in the academy Questions How can Latinx studies consider placemaking in contradictory contexts? Hows do Latinx scholars create a sense of place and space in the face of harmful rhetoric? How do Latinx scholars celebrate their resilience in the face of anti-border laws, state-sanctioned violence, institutional racism, and coloniality? What can we learn from our ancestors who were displaced by empire and within our own academic discipline? What is the future of placemaking in the academy?

Gathering Date January 11th-15th, 2024 Emory University Conference Center Atlanta, GA Team Nancy Lynne Westfield, Director Sarah Farmer, Associate Director Gina Robinson, Associate Director Participants Carolyn Medine, University of Georgia Lahronda Little, Candler School at Emory University Myra Rivera, Harvard University Joseph Tucker Edmonds, Indiana University - Purdue University João Chaves, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary Maria Wong, City Seminary of New York Dong Hyeon Jeong, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seimary Kenneth Ngwa, Drew University Honorarium and Fellowship Participants will receive an honorarium of $1500 for full participation in the Conversation. Read More about Payment of Participants Important Information Foreign National Information Form Policy on Participation Description BIPOC colleagues of all descriptions have had to learn to cope in school ecologies which immerse us in the white supremacist USA milieu. We have experienced and survived many forms of hatred. We have been schooled in self-hatred. We have learned, a little bit, how to survive individualism, sabotage from non-black colleagues, and blatant and subtle systemic racist practices. Shedding poisonous assumptions, habits, and practices of mis-education requires great intention and support. This gathered conversation endeavors to articulate visions for new and renewed possibilities for communities of justice, equity, and belonging, i.e., renewed attempts at racial solidarity, camaraderie, and collegial cohesion between BIPOC teachers. We are gathering to dream, to strategize, and to problem solve. Using a case study approach, we will discuss our experience of anti-black ecologies in teaching and the teaching life. With an eye toward learning new habits and practices, we will focus our discussion on experiences of racial solidarity, community, building new institutions and seeking health. Our aim is to become better teachers for our students and healthier colleagues for one another. We will focus upon: What is solidarity among BIPOC colleagues who teach religion and theology? What have been advantageous strategies of racial solidarity among one another and in partnership with white allies? What would it take to realize the potential benefits of studying, through case study analysis, strategies of racial solidarity for the wellness, sanity, and longevity of BIPOC colleagues? What would it mean to center our experiences of effective racial solidarity for our teaching and learning? What would it mean to move from a mentality of risk-taking to a mentality of risk-sharing? Goals To discuss, as BIPOC people, new visions for more just contexts of education and strategies of solidarity. To tell the stories of experiences of collegiality, bravery, and advocacy. To concern ourselves with common ground, good community, the beloved community, bridge building, partnerships, collaborations, and coalitions. To define solidarity in the identity politics of USA’s academy and theological education. To explore practices of agency, advocacy, and acting one for another in spaces of oppression and where there is little to no vision for diversity, equity, and belonging beyond tokenism. To fortify ourselves for teaching as BIPOC peoples. To learn ways of risk-sharing so we are not exhausted or overtaken by loneliness. Questions What does it mean, as BIPOC colleagues, to be in relationship that is not dependent upon the white gaze? What does it mean to shed, heal from, or dismiss the anti-black notions to which we have been indoctrinated? What are our questions and discovery experiences for the affirmation of our lives, healing and moving forward as BIPOC colleagues in solidarity with one another? What are the possible institutional locations where racial solidarity might reshape the institution as well as the experience of the students and our own teaching life? What kinds of courage is needed for solidarity? What kinds of agency? From where comes a shared vision of community, abundance, and agency for one another? What is risk-sharing and how might we mobilize to share the risk? What is at stake if efforts for solidarity fail or are not taken seriously? What cases (incident reports and experiences) can we analyze for insight on solidarity? What stories will empower and heal? What if solidarity requires a kindling of love, compassion, and accountability?

Breaking the Academic Mold: Liberating the Powerful, Personal Voice Inside You Important Dates Application Opens: January 16, 2024 Application Deadline: March 6, 2024 Event: Monday, July 8, 2024 to Sunday, July 14, 2024 Gathering Location Inn at Serenbee Atlanta, GA Leadership Team Sophfronia Scott Director of the MFA in Creative Writing Alma College Donald Quist Assistant Professor of Creative Writing University of Missouri Instructions for Leaders Participants Anna Mercedes,College of St. Benedict and St. John's University Colleen Conway,Seton Hall University Derek Taylor,Whitworth University DeAnna Daniels,University of Arizona Ellen Posman,Baldwin Wallace University Matthew Maruggi,Augsburg University Sarra Lev,Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Valerie Miles-Tribble,GTU - Berkeley School of Theology Fred Glennon,LeMoyne College Mitzi Smith,Columbia Theological Seminary Molly Greening,Loyola University of Chicago Susan McGurgan,Mount St. Mary's Seminary and School of Theology For more information, please contact: Sarah Farmer, Associate Director Wabash Center farmers@wabash.edu Stipend Each participant will be provided with travel expenses, meals, lodging, and a stipend of $1500. Read More about Payment of Participants Important Information Foreign National Information Form Policy on Participation Description This writing workshop is for scholars of religion and theology who have written exclusively or primarily in the scholarly genre for other scholars of religion but long to share their knowledge or personal experience in a more creative way with a wider audience. Many scholars yearn to speak to a broader audience through creative nonfiction, blogs, op-eds, and memoir. Many scholars want to write with more clarity and imagination. Participants in this workshop will develop their writing voice in service to topics they care about, and for which they have passion and curiosity. A combination of plenary, small group and individual instruction, our week together will help scholars free the creative spirit, structure their writing more effectively, and speak on the page in a truer, more engaging voice. Our focus will be on releasing the professors’ voice to the public square, giving permission to be imaginative, and finding new ways of being inspired. No previous experience publishing in creative writing genres is needed. Workshop Goals To create a collaborative learning cohort of teacher-scholarsto expand and deepen scholarly writing To navigate the intersectingchallenges of creative writing as an academic To develop new practices of creative writing in the service of teaching and scholarship of religion and theology To explore strategies for the authentic voice while thriving in institutional,politicaland personal contexts To write and receive feedback while also being in conversation with other creative writers Participant Eligibility Tenure track, continuing term, and/or full-time contingency teaching full time in college, university, or seminary Must be teaching in religion and theology or related fields Job description or contract that is wholly or primarily inclusive of teaching Teaching in accredited college, university, seminary in the United States, Puerto Rico or Canada Personal commitmentto participate fully in workshop with 100% attendance in all sessions Little to no experience with publishing in creative genres, but great interest in learning to write in creative genre