Resources
Travel Information for Participants Already Accepted into the WorkshopGround Transportation: About a week prior to your travel you will receive an email from Beth Reffett (reffettb@wabash.edu) with airport shuttle information. This email includes the cell phone number of your driver, where to meet, and fellow participants with arrival times. Please print off these instructions and carry them with you.
Click Here for Book Review When religious diversity is our reality, radical hospitality to people of other faiths is not a luxury but a necessity. More than necessary for our survival, radical hospitality to religious diversity is necessary if we are to thrive as a global society. By no means does the practice of hospitality in a multifaith world require that we be oblivious of our differences. On the contrary, it demands a respectful embrace of our differences because that's who we are. Neither does radical hospitality require that we water down our commitment, because faithfulness and openness are not contradictory. We must be able to say with burning passion that we are open to the claims of other faiths because we are faithful to our religious heritage. The essays in this book do not offer simply theological exhortations; they offer specific ways of how we can become religiously competent citizens in a multifaith world. Let's take the bold steps of radical openness with this book on our side! (From the Publisher)
Workshop for Theological School Faculty Teaching Online In this workshop, theological school faculty will design, build, implement, assess, and redesign an online or hybrid course to be taught in the 2018-19 academic year. The workshop will be offered as a hybrid experience, blending elements of individual work, three face-to-face sessions, and collaborative work as part of a virtual learning community. During the first summer, participants will engage in an intensive program that includes online content (developed in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin - Madison), bookended by two of the face-to-face gatherings with peers on the Wabash College campus. During the 2018-19 academic year, participants will teach and assess the course they designed. In the final face-to-face session during the summer of 2019, each participant will review their assessment information, share best practices, wrestle with deeper issues of pedagogy and sociology of learning, and complete a plan for revising their course. Goals Participants will be able to: Design, construct, implement, assess, and revise a well-conceived and pedagogically sound course for delivery in an online or hybrid format Assess the unique opportunities and challenges for effective teaching and learning posed by traditional, hybrid, and online teaching environments Apply sound principles of pedagogy and the sociology of learning communities to the design of an online or hybrid course Make informed decisions about how to shape effective pedagogical and sociological strategies for the venue in which they will be used, in order to achieve the desired learning outcomes Design and facilitate learning activities and processes in order to achieve effective, relational, and formational learning outcomes Contribute in positive ways to institutional exploration of online and hybrid learning environments Honorarium Participants will receive an honorarium of $3400 for full participation in the three f2f and online course sessions. In addition, all participants will be reimbursed for local expenses and travel. Read More aboutPayment of Participants Participants Front Row: *Steve Delamarter (Portland Seminary), Valentin Ekiaka Nzai (Mexican American Catholic College), Jeffery Tribble (Columbia Theological Seminary), Tim Westbrook (Harding University). Second Row: Rachel Miller Jacobs (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary), *Stacy Williams-Duncan (Virginia Theological Seminary), Catherine Williams (Lancaster Theological Seminary), Carmichael Crutchfield (Memphis Theological Seminary), *Bridget Powell (University of Wisconsin – Madison), S. Tamar Kamionkowski (Reconstructionist Rabbinical College), Kent Kersey (Corban University). Third Row: Kristel Clayville (Lexington Theological Seminary), Elias Ortega-Aponte (Drew Theological School), Lee Beach (McMaster Divinity College), Mariano Avila (Calvin Theological Seminary), Max Lee (North Park Theological Seminary), G. Alan Overstreet (Anderson University). Back Row: Zachary Tackett (Southeastern University), *Tom Pearson (Wabash Center). *leadership/staff position. Dates Online Start-up: May 8-21, 2018 (5-8 total hours of work) F2f session #1: May 29-June 1, 2018, Wabash College Online course: June 5-July 31, 2018 (15-20 hours/week) F2f session #2: August 1-4, 2018, Wabash College F2f session #3: May 28-31, 2019, Wabash College Leadership Team Steve Delamarter, Director,Portland Seminary Stacy Williams-Duncan, Virginia Theological Seminary Bridget Powell, University of Wisconsin-Madison Thomas Pearson, Associate Director, Wabash Center Important Information Travel and Accommodations for Summer Sessions at the Wabash Center Philosophy of Workshops Policy on Participation Map of Wabash College Campus Travel Reimbursement Form Foreign National Information Form Payment of Honorarium For More Information, Please Contact: Thomas Pearson, Associate Director Wabash Center 301 West Wabash Ave. Crawfordsville, IN 47933 800-655-7117 pearsont@wabash.edu
Workshop for Early Career Theological School Faculty This workshop invites those in their first years of teaching in theological schools to join a community of generosity and hospitality that responds to early career professional and vocational development. Together they will: Wrestle with generative questions about teaching and learning Learn how to live a life of the mind without losing one’s mind Discover ways to engage institutional and cultural realities that are liberative and life-giving Imagine teaching that constructively engages and transforms the larger world through creative thinking and risk-taking The workshop will gather 14 faculty members for a week in two successive summers at Wabash College, and a weekend winter retreat in a warm location. There will be a balance of plenaries, small group discussions, workshops, social time, and opportunities for relaxation, exercise, laughter, and lots of good food and drink. Goals Participants will join a collaborative cohort in which they will: Reflect critically on processes of learning that foster intellectual curiosity Discover ways to sustain practices of teaching and learning with passion Understand and navigate institutional cultures Explore deepest convictions about teaching and learning in theological schools Honorarium and Fellowship Participants will receive an honorarium of $3400 for full participation in the three workshop sessions, plus local expenses and travel. In addition, participants are eligible to apply for a $5000 workshopfellowship for work on a teaching project during the following academic year (2019-20). Read More aboutPayment of Participants Read More about the Workshop Fellowship Program Participants Front Row: Paul Monson (Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology), Rebecca Esterson (Graduate Theological Union), *Rolf A. Jacobson (Luther Seminary), *Bar J. McClure (Brite Divinity School at TCU), Daniel Orlando Álvarez (Pentecostal Theological Seminary). Second Row: Joseph Gordon (Johnson University), Sunggu Yang (George Fox University), Emily Peck-McClain (Wesley Theological Seminary), Ashley Hicks White (Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary), Timone Davis (Loyola University Chicago), Christine J. Hong (Columbia Theological Seminary), Helen Kim (Candler School of Theology – Emory University). Back Row: *Paul O. Myhre (Wabash Center), Scott Hagley (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), Jennifer Awes-Freeman (United Theological Seminary of Twin Cities), *Andrea C. White (Union Theological Seminary, NY), *Eduardo C. Fernández (Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University), Jeney Park-Hearn (Seattle University). *leadership/staff position. Dates First session: July 9-14, 2018, Wabash College Second session: January 24-27, 2019, Corpus Christi, Texas Third session: June 17-22, 2019, Wabash College Leadership Team Rolf A. Jacobson, Director,Luther Seminary Barbara J. McClure, Brite Divinity School Andrea C. White, Union Theological Seminary-NYC Eduardo C. Fernandez, Jesuit School of Theology, Santa Clara University Paul O. Myhre, Associate Director, Wabash Center Important Information Travel and Accommodations for Summer Sessions at the Wabash Center Travel and Accommodations for Winter Sessions in Texas Philosophy of Workshops Policy on Participation Map of Wabash College Campus Travel Reimbursement Form Things To Do In Crawfordsville - Recreation Foreign National Information Form Payment of Honorarium Fellowship Program For More Information, Please Contact: Paul Myhre, Associate Director Wabash Center 301 West Wabash Ave. Crawfordsville, IN 47933 800-655-7117 myhrep@wabash.edu
This article focuses on Reflective Structured Dialogue as a set of practices developed in the context of conflict resolution that are well suited to handling quotidian uneasiness and extraordinary moments of disruption in religious studies classrooms. After introducing Reflective Structured Dialogue's history, goals, and general practices, the authors consider its uses in classroom settings. They argue that a classroom in which teachers understand themselves as facilitators, and in which students are experienced in structured dialogue practices – including being comfortable in a state of intellectual “wobble” – is one more apt to be able to engage with, and more likely to benefit from, disruptive events.
A panel at the 2016 American Academy of Religion conference staged, taped, transcribed, and edited this conversation about the challenges and opportunities of teaching in a “nano department” – an undergraduate religion or religious studies department (or combined religion and philosophy department) with only one, two, or three faculty members. Two things quickly become evident: one is the impossibility of coverage of the full religious studies curriculum, and the other is the necessity for collaboration with other departments. Neither of these is unique to nano departments, but there exists an intimacy between students and faculty in small departments, a necessary freedom to rethink the place of the study of religion in the liberal arts curriculum, and a disruptive value in what can be critiqued and contributed from a marginalized position. Arguably, nano departments are the canaries in the academic coal mine, charting the future of the humanities that cannot be discerned from the vantage point of Research-1 contexts.
One page Teaching Tactic: a discussion exercise on the first day of class fools students in order to disrupt their prior assumptions of what constitutes a “real religion."
One page Teaching Tactic: discussion of a classical text that moves students from description to analysis and evaluation.
One page Teaching Tactic: scaffolds progressively more nuanced student understanding of difficult religious studies theory.
An extended metaphor for teaching. This essay draws out the useful parallels between the best kind of teacher and the Good Witch of the North, Glinda, from The Wizard of Oz. Unappealing to many viewers or readers of the classic children's story, Glinda offers an inspiring reminder of four important pedagogical points: (1) the master teacher always treats her student as a peer; (2) the master teacher acknowledges and encourages her student's abilities but lets her learn how to exercise them on her own; (3) the master teacher is often not equivalent or even similar to anyone the student has encountered before; and (4) the master teacher is not a surrogate parent but a more distant figure.