Continuing a long professional connection, the Columbia Theological Seminary (CTS) will become the home of the archival collection of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, beginning on February 1, 2025.
Founded in 1996, the Wabash Center was established in Crawfordsville, Indiana, at Wabash College to enhance the teaching of religious and theological studies in higher education. The Wabash Center fulfills this mission by creating and curating educational resources, administering a regranting program, and convening cohort groups.
The links between CTS faculty and the Wabash Center run deep, and over the decades, the Wabash Center has provided a space for CTS faculty to connect the classroom to the world. These opportunities support faculty’s pedagogical development, scholarly engagement, and service to the Seminary, Church, and community.
CTS President Victor Aloyo, Jr. remarked, “Columbia’s relationship with the Wabash Center has been an immense gift to our institution and especially our faculty. As we continue our forward-looking trajectory in pursuit of our mission and vision, we are delighted to be taking this next step in partnership with Wabash”.
The Wabash Center previously supported CTS faculty with awards for more than 20 grant projects, such as Teaching as a Practice of Cross-Cultural Encounter, awarded to Dr. Marcia Riggs in 2004, and Centering the Community and Lived Experience in Classrooms, awarded to Dr. Sue Kim Park in 2022.
“The Wabash Center has been fulfilling its mission at Wabash College for nearly 30 years by providing resources and support that enhance teaching and learning at colleges, seminaries, and theological schools around the world,” said Wabash College President Scott E. Feller. “We are grateful that the Columbia Theological Seminary will provide archival assistance that will preserve the Wabash Center’s history and provide digital access that will allow others to benefit from this important work.”
The Wabash Center archives include materials that document faculty practices and vocation, theological educational environments, and teaching and learning resources. The materials include committee records, internal documentation, consultation documentation, and records associated with The Journal on Teaching and the Dialogue on Teaching podcast.
“The history of the Wabash Center encompasses many aspects of the story of theological education. We are elated to partner with CTS to preserve our story and to make our materials accessible for research,” said Wabash Center Director Nancy Lynne Westfield. “Along with record retention and archiving, in the coming years, we are planning to develop programs to assist religion and theology faculty with learning the skills of archiving to create more dynamic courses and more innovative curriculum.”
This partnership will foster vibrant cultural and academic exchanges, generate new ideas and knowledge opportunities, and engage in experiential learning. Visitors to the archives will be pleased to discover the rich history of the Wabash Center alongside documents from CTS history that provide context for the history of theological education in the United States.