The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

Samantha Miller, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Theology at Whitworth University. How do you give permission to adult learners to drop their intellectual guard and engage openly in the complex thinking of your course? How do you assist students with pushing past those fears which keep them self-conscious and hinder their learning? Making use of gaming, imagination, simulations, the outdoors, i.e. play in many forms, strengthens adult classroom experiences.

Rev. Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert is Dean of Howard School of Divinity. Dr. Gilbert discusses the dream of being an architect, the surprise of being able to create space for oneself, the joy of lightbulb moments, and the superpower of prayer.

Grace Kao is Professor of Ethics and the Sano Chair of Pacific & Asian American Theology at Claremont School of Theology and Joy McDougall is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Emory's Candler School of Theology. McDougall and Kao reflect upon the experience of participating in a Wabash Center grant project entitled, "Teaching at the Intersections: Re-Imagining Feminist, Womanist, Asian, Latin, and Indigenous Theological Pedagogies." The imaginative and generative project, using a case study approach, convened a diverse spectrum of colleagues to reflect pedagogically and programmatically to strengthen teaching.

Donald Quist is Assistant of English at the University of Missouri. Donald Quist discusses the developmental editing approach that helped create Glimpses of Me and Mine by Nancy Lynne Westfield. Their conversation describes the writing technique called fragmentation and how it is advantageous for scholarly writing. Westfield and Quist discuss the challenges and potential rewards of writing with intimacy, transparency, and personal disclosure in fiction and nonfiction.

The Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee is Professor of Practical Theology at Iliff School of Theology. In this Silhouette Interview, Lee covers reflection over the impetus of her teaching, being mindful when what's being taught isn't being embodied, the path not trodden of being a physicist, and more.

Yohana A. Junker, PhD is Assistant Professor of Art, Religion, and Culture and Associate Dean for Strategic Planning at Claremont School of Theology. Employing arts-based pedagogies allows students' analysis and curiosity to get inside the systems which oppress, wound, and hobble in order to dismantle, rethink, or jettison. Designing classroom experiences which takes seriously a story-centered approach asks students to use their imaginations to learn and grow for the good of community. Experience-praxis methods invite students to seek healing, remedies, and reclaim the passions which brought them to the classroom in the first place. Using creative practices, engaging all the senses in learning activities, beckons students move to new kinds of meaning making and learning. The aim of these classrooms is for student and teacher, together, to walk into potential, possibility, and hope.

The Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey is Vice Presidents for Academic and Student affairs and Associate Professor of Constructive Theology at Meadville Lombard Theological School. Dr. Lightsey discusses the childhood dream of being a civil rights attorney and using the discipline you have to help other people as well as the importance of a job that allows you to bring your full, creative self and the joy of learning from students.

Donald Quist is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Missouri. Improved writing means improved teaching - and vice versa. The Wabash Center's initiative on creative writing supports imagination, creativity, and scholarship. Hear from the Wabash Center's expert in creative writing on ways to expand scholarly writing, rekindle the passion of teaching, and nurture your own habits and practices toward new kinds of publications.

Rev. Dr. Steed Davidson, Executive Director of the Society for Biblical literature. What kind of professional development, formation, and imagination is needed for career longevity as a scholar of religion and theology? What kinds of adaptations, new perspectives, and new conversation partners are needed for a life of scholarship? What new and needed academic and academic adjacent careers will be accessible? What is a career trajectory plan when there is so much change and opportunity?

Dr. Eric D. Barreto is the Frederick and Margaret L. Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. In this Silhouette Interview he discusses the childhood desire for a life with words, the influence of high school teachers, the faith required of the teaching life, the power of community in the work, and the miracle of playing a part in bringing about God's justice.

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.

The Rev. Dr. Daisy Machado is Emerita Faculty in Church History at Union Theological Seminary in New York and the Director of the Hispanic Summer Program. In this Silhouette Interview, she discusses her childhood dream of being a translator at the United Nations, rebellion out of Pentecostalism and into the Disciples of Christ, life-changing work at the southern border, the happiness that the teaching life generates, and the superpower of perseverance.

Gregory Cuéllar, PhD is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Austen Presbyterian Theological Seminary. In this Silhouette Interview, Cuellar discusses the childhood dream of flying helicopters in the military, being a part of a long line of teachers, the importance of nurturing curiosity, the superpower of discernment, surviving violence by being savvy and ready with quick wit, and the miracle of staying the course.

Marcia Y. Riggs, PhD is the J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics and Ombudsperson at Columbia Theological Seminary. In this Silhouette Podcast Interview, Riggs discusses wanting to be an artist who made statements with her art, the inspiration of Bell Hooks' "Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope," reinventing oneself in the classroom, the value of a position to help manage conflict, the superpower of seeing pattern and connection, and the importance of confronting violence rather than ignoring it as well as believing in the inherent goodness of people.

Dwight M. Hopkins, PhD is the Alexander Campbell Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School. In this interview, Hopkins discusses his desire to be a writer as early as kindergarten, the freedom of the teaching life, the superpower of cross-cultural engagement, and the miracle of helping students realize that they much more than they think they are.

Steed Davidson, Ph.D is Dean of the Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs and is Professor of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament at McCormick Theological Seminary. In this Silhouette Interview, Davidson discusses his childhood desire to be a meteorologist and the pride of his family in his profession. Also: surprise at the difficulty of the teaching life with its constant attention, the superpower of mediation and the "Sense of We," surviving violences by writing and community, and the miracle of igniting students' curiosity.

Lisa L. Thompson, Ph.D is Associate Professor and the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Black Homiletics and Liturgics, Homiletics and Liturgics at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Thompson discusses the childhood dream of being an OBGYN, rejecting the false dichotomy between scholarship and teaching, and the ways in which faculty can be punished for being good teachers. Also: the superpowers of intuition and the facilitation of creativity, community as the key to surviving violence, the miracle of helping people own their voices, and cultivating institutions that facilitate creativity.

Peter T. Cha, PhD is Professor of Church, Culture and Society at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Cha discusses his childhood desire to be an architect and how that love of design informs his teaching and class creation. He also talks about the demands of institutional citizenship, the superpower of distillation, and the joy of the 'aha' moments.

Rolf Jacobson is Professor of Old Testament and the Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Scripture, Theology, and Ministry at Luther Seminary. In this Silhouette Interview, Jacobson discusses early thoughts of a career in finance, bafflement at the pace of technological and societal change, being a musician, dogged persistence of his students and colleagues in a world filled with violence, as well as the superpower of sarcasm--one of the gifts of the spirit Paul didn't get a chance to enumerate!

Dr. Tina Pippin is the Wallace M. Alston Professor of Bible and Religion at Agnes Scott College. In this Silhouette Interview, Dr. Pippin talks about how she always wanted to be a teacher and was particularly inspired by teachers who pushed boundaries. She discusses being driven to connect the Word with the world, and in her fight for just wages, her superpower is the ability to show up and stand fast in the places where power doesn't want you.