The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Emilie Townes (Vanderbilt University - The Divinity School) and Dr. Valerie Bridgeman (Methodist Theological School in Ohio).  In crisis times, the creative voice speaks to the soul. The scholarly voice does not have to eclipse the creative voice. As published poets and scholars, these womanists will talk about their creative process and its influence upon their scholarship. They will also read original works.

What is spiritual formation for teachers? Teaching during the chaos of the pandemic is soul work. It requires a soul pedagogy. This discussion provides insights into nurturing the spiritual awareness of teachers to better support and assist the learner. The conversation provides practices for the online classroom, encourages teachers to risk creativity and imagination, and suggests that formation or deformation of students is a matter of attentiveness, flexibility and freedom.  

Teaching during the pandemic requires we care for our students as well as ourselves. This podcast features a conversation with Rachel Harding (University of Colorado, Boulder) about rebuilding spiritual practices for this uncharted moment.

Teaching online can honor the body, encourage agency and nurture intellectual community. A pedagogy of hospitality for this moment of crisis. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Evelyn Parker (Perkins School of Theology) in this conversation. 

Writing for liberation of faculty voices to speak with courage and agency. 

What kinds of preparedness is there for events like mass shooting or a devastating storm? What does it mean to teach immediately after these events? What happens when these events occur in your school or immediate community or in your classroom? How does one teach when there is a national interruption? What is a trauma informed classroom? 

What is trauma and how does trauma affect body, mind, and spirit? Are there different kinds of trauma? Since classrooms are spaces of human interactions, understanding how fear and woundedness affects the teacher and the learner is critical to effective teaching. What classroom practices might lessen the experience of fear, helplessness, voicelessness, and being overwhelmed? 

What does it mean when scholars of religion are forbidden from teaching about racism? Who is harmed and what problems are created when sophisticated and common-sense approaches to race are part of the curricular experience? In what new ways is tenure necessary for scholars who risk teaching critical race theory? Dr. Finley’s work on whiteness is sparking controversy in and beyond his Louisiana State University classroom. As a scholar of religion, what preparation is needed for the moments our work spills-over into the larger society and provokes social discourse with the potential to catalyze social change? Scholar, who told you that you could think freely, think boldly, and think imaginatively? What is it to garner the courage to do the scholarly work our souls must have?  

Conversations on Teaching and Spirituality
Series One: Exploring Thurman's The Sound of the Genuine

Series One: Episode 2 of 3: Expressions of the Genuine
What if hearing the genuine inside yourself requires a quest, a leaving home, or an exploration of the unfamiliar? If you leave home, can you find a home again? Does the genuine come from within you or does it come through you from somewhere else? What does it mean to offer the genuine as you teach? 

Dr. Amy G. Oden
Adjunct Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality
Independent Scholar

Rev. Dr. Shively T. J. Smith
Assistant Professor of New Testament
Boston University School of Theology

What conditions prepare schools and classrooms for racist and other harmful events? What knowledges are needed to create spaces of compassion, confrontation, and moral accountability?  What do students know and what do they need to know when issues of injustice, inequity and transformation must be faced?