The Emerging Scholars Blog

As the final stragglers hold their commencements, student and faculty thoughts turn to summer. Later this week, the Midwest Faculty Conference begins at Cedar Campus. InterVarsity Faculty Ministry intentionally designed this conference to provide both intellectual engagement — this year’s main speaker is Ken Elzinga, and there will be seminars on Bach, Chesterton, and influencing the campus — as well as plenty of time for relaxation and refreshment. (BTW, the West Coast Faculty Conference begins August 1, and there’s still time to register.)

I’ve seen many friends on Facebook and Twitter preparing their summer reading, getting ready for academic conferences or research trips, or taking a brief break before summer classes begin. And, of course, there are lots of people moving — to new jobs, new schools, new families, etc.

 Loading ...

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1.  Simon Critchley (chair of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, and part-time professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands) kicks off The Stone, a NY Times forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless with the question, What Is a Philosopher? How would you answer this question?

2.  Scientists Fault U.S. Response in Assessing Gulf Oil Spill (Justin Gillis, NY Times, 5/19/2010).  “‘Our intention is to deploy every single thing we’ve got,’ Dr. Lubchenco [administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] said. ‘If it’s not in the region, we’re bringing it there.’”  But it has been difficult to access research material in order to develop an “understanding where the oil is and what its impact might be” and discern/model “what is happening in deeper water.”  Any suggestions regarding how business, environmental recovery, government, and scientific response can partner?  Sharing their gifts and resources to address the oil spill?  Or are we actually doing well, but have a blame game?

Note:  Scientists have long theorized that a shallow spill and a spill in the deep ocean — this one is a mile down — would behave quite differently. A 2003 report by the National Research Council predicted that the oil could break into fine droplets, forming plumes of oil mixed with water that would not quickly rise to the surface — Scientists Fault U.S. Response in Assessing Gulf Oil Spill (Justin Gillis, NY Times, 5/19/2010).

3. The King James Bible and Its Cultural Afterlife – Ohio State is hosting this conference in May 2011, focusing on the cultural and literary heritage of the King James Version of the Bible. Presenters already on the schedule already include Leland Ryken of Wheaton and Paul Gutjahr of Indiana U. If you are interested in presenting, statements of interest are due July 1. (HT: John Acker, who is also serving as research assistance for the conference)

4. ProfHacker’s Open Letter to New Tenure-Track Faculty – There’s some good stuff here. Just a taste:

Don’t be afraid to say no to service, even when you think you should take on the task. Pick your service load limit (using male colleagues as your standard, since they do less service and get more credit), and stick to that limit.

Make everything into research.

Get in the habit of writing regularly.

5. InterVarsity has a long history of culture making – including its own record label. The vinyl record blog recordo obscura picked up a 1969 InterVarsity record featuring Christian coffee house band Jonathan & Charles at a Cincinnati thrift store. It’s pretty groovy – if nothing else, take a few minutes to listen to “Jesus Was a Pretty Good Guy.”

I included a bit about this in Friday’s Week in Review, but I wanted to give the topic its own post. Last week, I attended the 2010 Stone-Campbell Conference, an annual academic conference for colleges affiliated with the Stone-Campbell/Restoration Movement – Churches of Christ, Christian Churches, Disciples of Christ. It’s organized by William Baker at Cincinnati Christian University, and several people had recommended that I make a connection with the event. I’m glad I did.

I was struck by a few things:

• There was some very good content being presented.
• There were lots of Christian scholars, at every career stage: tenured faculty, tenure-track, adjunct, graduate student, even a sizable contingent of undergraduates.
• Out of a few hundred attendees, I met only one person from a secular university.

Part of it, I’m sure, was the marketing and the subject matter. Most of the papers presented dealt with some aspect of theology, Biblical studies, church history, etc., and many of them were quite specific to the Stone-Campbell Movement. Still, there were enough interdisciplinary or generalist papers that I think most academics would have been able to find something of interest – if, that is, you weren’t interested enough in building relationships with Christian academics committed to their faith and scholarship. I’m not sure that I would recommend traveling across the country to attend if it didn’t fit your subject matter, but for someone local, it would be well worth the price (I think I only paid $30 to register). I’d be willing to bet that there are lots of denominational conferences like this around the country.

So, my questions:

• Have you attended a Christian academic conference like this one?
• Did you find it to be a worthwhile experience, assuming that you weren’t attending for professional reasons?
• Would you recommend it to other “secular” scholars?

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to  Tom or Mike.

1. Friend Request: Confirm or Ignore? (Tom Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/5/2010). Are “we” (are you) becoming more friendly due to increased use of the internet tools such Facebook? Is there a positive feedback loop of increased number of friends with whom one communicates and friendship? How do you define friend in the context of social media such as Facebook?  Is there a threshold for the time/energy expended in virtual versus face-to-face friendships.  Maybe it’s time to read the research instead of the summary ;-)  HT:  Gordon.

2.   Swing by the Mustard Seed Associates for their series 2010-2020, New Challenges-New Possibilities:  Technology & Social Networking, e.g.,  Rosie Perera‘s thoughts on The 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics.

3.  Christian Legal Society v. Martinez: Can Government Funds be Denied to Religious Groups on Campus? by David Masci, Senior Researcher, Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, 4/6/2010.

On April 19, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, a case that will determine whether a public institution can refuse official recognition to a religiously-based organization that prevents those who do not share its religious and moral values from becoming voting members. The case arose in 2004 when a chapter of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) expressed a desire to register as an official student group at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law.

4. Science, Advocacy, and the What It Means to Be Human: “Can Animals Be Gay?” (Jon Mooallem, New York Times, March 29) raises some fascinating questions. This would be an excellent article to read and discuss with a campus group. Questions that you might raise:

• What’s the connection between scholarship, advocacy, and application?
• How do we determine good models for being human?
• What do you do when your research is misinterpreted or misapplied?
• How should Christians interact with topics like “heterosexist bias”?

5. Are you missing chances for Christian community? From Mike: I’m at the Stone-Campbell Conference today at Cincinnati Christian University, an annual academic conference for faculty and students at universities affiliated with the Christian Church, Church of Christ, and Disciples of Christ (“Stone-Campbell” churches).  So far as I can tell, there isn’t anyone here from a secular university, yet here are some of the plenary and seminar topics:

• Scot McKnight (North Park U., author of Jesus Creed, Blue Parakeet, Embracing Grace) is the main speaker, addressing Spirituality in a Postmodern Age and Spiritual Disciplines for Today
• Tomorrow, David Fleer of Lipscomb University will speak on The Challenge of Spirituality for Academic Scholars.
• Seminars include:
  • The Relevance of the Philosophy of Science for Christian Faith
  • Finding God in the Midst of Crisis
  • Spiritual Direction in the Mentoring Relationship
  • 10 Things You Can Do Now to Get Published
  • Post Civil Rights Spirituality
  • Pursuing a PhD: Tips and Warnings

Wow! If you’re at a secular university, don’t those sound like great topics to discuss with your fellow Christian academics?

Books:

Tom’s almost finished with Brian Godawa’s Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story & Imagination (InterVarsity Press, 2009) and it continues to be excellent!  Yesterday Tom couldn’t resist picking up The Comet and the Tornado: Reflections on the Legacy of Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture and the Creation of Our Carnegie Mellon Dream Fulfillment Factory by Donald Marinelli, Executive Producer of Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center.  Anybody else reading it?  Note:  For Tom’s take on the last lecture, click here.

Byron Borger at Jubilee 2009

I spent the weekend at Jubilee, the annual student conference of the Coalition for Christian Outreach. Jubilee has a great reputation for emphasizing the theology of vocation – a reputation which was confirmed, by the way – but I didn’t expect the high level of fun generated by the conference. Saturday evening featured a hilarious (and moving) monologue from actress and writing Susan Isaacs (author of Angry Conversations with God) and a can’t-possibly-be-true-except-he-brought-pictures talk from Bob Goff, president of Restore International and good friend of Don Miller.

Photo: Byron Borger at last year’s Jubilee, but he looked basically the same this year. From livingjubilee via Flickr. Click for a larger image.

Occasionally, these streams of fun and vocation combined, such as the first night. In quick succession, seven speakers presented pecha kucha, a speed-presentation format of 20 slides, changing automatically every 20 seconds, whether the speaker is ready or not. The pecha kucha presenters included:

• David Greusel, an architect speaking on the connection between architecture and faith, especially what he called “the lie” that “secular work” doesn’t matter in God’s kingdom on earth (Greusel was the lead designer of Pittsburgh’s PNC Park).
• Gideon Strauss, President of the Center for Public Justice, who testified to the application of Isaiah 58 in our current society.
• Leroy Barber, president of Mission Year, speaking about Green My Hood, a program which identifies the abuse of the environment in poor urban neighborhoods and looks for ways to bring good creation stewardship into the inner city.
• Good friend of ESN Byron Borger of Hearts & Minds Books, who said that “part of this conference is learning to read deeply,” and reminded us that the word “disciple” means “student.”

As Benson Hines (who was also there) said on Twitter,

Lord, let me be as passionate about my calling as Byron Borger is about his.

More about Jubilee and some upcoming articles after the jump Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the top five articles, books, websites, etc., that we’ve been reading or thinking about the past week. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them.  In addition, if you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1.  Have you experienced, participated in, or witnessed

Tweckle (twek’ul) vt. to abuse a speaker only to Twitter followers in the audience while he/she is speaking”?

Any thoughts on how Tweckle (or the possibility of it) affect conference (and classroom) dynamics?  Any practices which you’ve found (or  think could address) to decrease its influence?  — Conference Humiliation: They’re Tweeting Behind Your Back (Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 17, 2009).  Note:  on the other side, I’ve seen plenty of positive commenting on conferencing/events.

2.  A number of Chronicle of Higher Education articles on news/journalism including:

• Academe and the Decline of News Media (Forum, November 15, 2009)
• I’ve Read the News Today, Oh Boy (Ben Yagoda, November 15, 2009)
• Journalism Schools Can Push Coverage Beyond Breaking News (Nicholas Lemann, November 15, 2009)
• University-Based Reporting Could Keep Journalism Alive (Michael Schudson and Leonard Downie Jr., November 15, 2009)
• We Need ‘Philosophy of Journalism’ (Carlin Romano, November 15, 2009).

3. Belle de Jour reveals herself…as a research scientist.  The anonymous blog and television show Secret Diary of a Call Girl – written from the perspective of a high-end prostitute – were much bigger in the UK than on this side of the pond. The mystery of “who is Belle de Jour?” ended this week, when Dr. Brooke Magnanti confessed that she had turned to prostitution as a way to pay for her PhD. Magnanti now works for The Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health. Magnanti says it was good work:

Dr Magnanti told the Sunday Times she worked as a prostitute from 2003 to late 2004, and found it “so much more enjoyable” than her shifts in another job as a computer programmer.

How ironic that Magnanti studies child health. Tanya Gold of the Guardian says don’t be misled: most prostitutes in the UK live pretty awful lives.

The report found that 70%–95% of the interviewees were physically assaulted while working as prostitutes. 60%–75% were raped while working as prostitutes; of these, more than half were repeatedly raped. 65%–95% meanwhile were sexually abused as children; the line of continuity between being used as a child and being used as an adult is clear.

Around the world, prostitution is often a form of slavery, as CNN reported this week. Urbana’s Advocacy and Poverty track is going to focus on the issue of modern day slavery and sex trafficking, and the work of Christian organizations against this evil.

4. Big Man on Campus – Time profiled Gordon Gee, president of The Ohio State University, anointing him as the best college president in the nation. (Here is the rest of their top 10 list.) Earlier this year, Gee told universities they face “reinvention or extinction” at the American Council on Education’s annual meeting.

To avoid “slouching into irrelevance,” he said, universities must structure themselves horizontally, rather than vertically, change the way they reward faculty and staff members, and learn to better collaborate with each other. While partnerships with business, elementary and secondary schools, and governments are crucial, he said, perhaps the most important links are between universities.

You can download Gee’s full lecture at the ACE website.

Books

Introverts in the Church cover

5. Tom’s been recommending  Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture (Adam McHugh, InterVarsity Press, November 2009) to a number of people, including members of the academic community.  Below’s a quote from Chapter 1, available on-line through InterVarsity Press.  An excellent author interview can be found at Adam McHugh on ‘Introverts in the Church’.

The pragmatism that we have inherited fosters an action oriented culture. Evangelicalism values the doer over the thinker.  The evangelical God has a big agenda. It’s as if the moment we surrender our lives to Christ we are issued a flashing neon sign that says “GO!” There is a restless energy to evangelicalism that leads to a full schedule and a fast pace. Some have said that, in Christian culture, busyness is next to godliness. We are always in motion, constantly growing, ever expanding. …“American religion is conspicuous for its messianically pretentious energy, its embarrassingly banal prose, and its impatiently hustling ambition.” [Eugene Peterson]

Today, just a quick question for the ESN community:

Which conferences do you love to attend?

No boundaries on type – they can be Christian, secular, academic, church-related, artistic, theological, national, local, whatever.

Or, if you’re the aspirational sort, which conferences would you love to attend if you could? In a mere coincidence, but TEDGlobal2009 is taking place this week in Oxford. Check out their theme: “The Substance of Things Not Seen.” Wow. Check out the speakers.

Above, in honor of the moon landing, George Smoot’s 2008 TED talk on “the design of the universe.”