Arts-Based Pedagogy – In Action: Ralph Watkins
Dialogue on Teaching, Wabash Center’s podcast series, is hosted by Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D., Director of the Wabash Center. Amplifying the Wabash Center’s mission, the podcasts focus upon issues of teaching and learning in theology and religion within colleges, university, seminaries, as well as the publics impacted by these schools. Dialogues with faculty and administrators working in the wide range of institutional contexts illumine the complexity of teaching and the teaching life.
Through arts based research methodology, the documentary Seeing the Future of the African American Church in the Rainbow: A Year in the Life of Real Inspirations Ministry was created.
The documentary is complemented by a photo exhibit. R. Watkins is the photographer and videographer. Both pieces of artwork were created in pursuit of asking about Black religious expression and the place of LGBTQ persons in the life of the Christian church. The conversation discusses the ways story and storytelling can enliven our research, teaching, and approaches to meaning making with and for our students.
Ralph Basui Watkins is the Peachtree Associate Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth at Columbia Theological Seminary.