Kateri Collins has been sharing her experiences preparing for graduate school with ESN this year. Now that she has started her program, she explores her stories of finding mentoring and offers tips. Check out Kateri’s other pieces: the story of her graduate school search and a reflection on inhabiting transitional time well. Image: Painting by Kateri Collins.Â
diversity
Science Corner: Cutting the String on Yo-yo Dieting
I’m not here to tell you how to celebrate the holidays; whatever you do, do it all for the glory of the Lord. I simply observe that there is a lot of diet discussion this time of year, and so a new paper examining why dieting works and more significantly why it doesn’t work caught my eye. Yes, it involves the microbiome; turns out that Innerspace is the final frontier. Mice that switched back and forth between a high fat diet and a “regular” diet actually gained more weight than mice on a high fat diet all the time, mirroring challenges some people report when they alternate diet plans with less restricted eating.
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After the Election Part 2: Diversity and Unity this Thanksgiving Holiday
The election is over. Now what? In this series, I will use Romans 12 to frame reflections of this presidential campaign and hopefully encourage us to live faithfully as we return to the “ordinary time†of the American political calendar. See Part 1 here. Editor’s note: For previous statistical analysis and nonpartisan political reflection from Josh’s expertise, see this link. [Read more…] about After the Election Part 2: Diversity and Unity this Thanksgiving Holiday
Why should Christians care about diverse worship?
Why should Christians care about creating diverse worship experiences?
Here at the Urbana conference, the worship has represented a cosmopolitan range of cultures, languages, and worship styles. The worship team also made news earlier this week when they wore #blacklivesmatter shirts on stage. What motivates this focus on diversity? In this session, the worship team offers a biblical basis for diverse worship, some frameworks and values that shape the team’s approach, and some practical ways to bring the worship experience home from Urbana.
From Dec 27 – Jan 1, volunteers with our network of early career Christian academics are liveblogging seminars at the Urbana conference, a mission-focused student gathering of 16,000 Christians from across North America and the world. This post was co-written by Galina Pylypiv and Nina Thomas.
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What’s Your Strategy for Controversy?
Almost two weeks ago, Comment published my article Is That Disagreement Religious—or Political?, about the political differences between evangelical academics and their academic colleagues. Here’s my opening paragraph:
In the political conflicts between right and left, evangelical Christian faculty are often in danger of being squeezed in the middle. Not only are they frequently out of step with the academic political mainstream, but the strong connection between evangelicalism and conservative politics outside the academy can make them seem like a “fifth column” to their more liberal colleagues.
I hope you’ll read the whole thing and let me know what you think of my analysis.
Since I work for a parachurch organization, however, I’m not satisfied with stopping at analysis — I want to do something! I suggest some ideas at the end of my article, but they are just ideas. I’d much rather hear from you:
What’s your strategy for navigating political and religious differences in the academy?
There’s a strong case to be made for silence, especially until one achieves tenure. Let’s say it takes you seven years to finish your PhD, another seven years to obtain tenure – that’s a long time to remain silent, though, and neither of those milestones are guaranteed, by any means.
Further, communicating your strongly-held-and-controversial views in a way that attracts others, rather than repelling them, is an ability that takes practice. If you wait until you achieve tenure — assuming that day ever comes — you won’t instantly become a persuasive public intellectual.
So, how do you handle this sticky issue? Are there books, role models, or practices that you’ve found especially helpful? Who do you think does this particularly well?