The Emerging Scholars Blog

What? Your freshman move-in day didn't include a visit from a friar? I guess you didn't go to Siena College.

It’s that time of year again – the NFL Preseason! Just kidding. I’m actually thinking about the beginning of school, especially all of the undergraduates who are either beginning their college experience or starting to think of life after their bachelor’s degree. For undergrad members of ESN, this likely includes thoughts about graduate school.

I’ve asked about advice for undergraduates before, receiving some great comments in the process. Since the responses were so good the last time, I’ll just repeat the same questions:

• If you were once an undergrad, what do you wish someone had said or asked you at that stage of your academic career?
• If you are an undergrad, what kinds of questions do you have about grad school and the life of an academic?
• What kinds of resources would be most helpful for ESN to produce or distribute?

Leave your advice in the comments, or send it directly to me, if you wish.

Photo credit: sienacommunications via Flickr

In May, I’m going to help lead a track at InterVarsity’s Southeast Chapter Camp called “Getting Ready for Grad School.” (If you’re not familiar with the undergrad InterVarsity world, this is a week-long camp for students involved in IV chapters, and it typically includes tracks for new Christians, students headed into chapter leadership roles, training in inductive Bible study, and a few other topics.)

Video: What? Don’t you think The Paper Chase (1973) is still relevant to graduate school? Don’t you carry massive suitcases to your study sessions, or is that just me?

The track is co-sponsored by the Emerging Scholars Network and our new partner ministry, Black Scholars and Professionals. While ESN’s focus is on academic careers, the Grad School track will include as many grad school options as we’re able: master’s programs, law school, medical school, professional degrees, MBAs, PhDs — really, whatever grad school path our students are considering.

What do you think we should be sure to cover? Here are the topics we’re planning to touch on:

• A study of Daniel as a Biblical example of a scholar/professional
• The theology of vocation and calling
• Postmodernism and naturalism (which we think are the dominant worldviews in the academy), contrasted with a Biblical worldview
• Multiethnicity and gender in graduate school
• Practical next steps and spiritual disciplines for graduate school

We’re also planning to have a faculty roundtable on the final day, so that students can ask faculty whatever questions are on their minds.

What are your suggestions, either within those topics or in other areas?

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. New online journal for student research: The Chronicle reports on Student Pulse, a new online journal for student research. Some good points from the Chronicle’s commenters about copyright and usage issues, but still an interesting and inspiring idea for sharing early academic work.

2.  Abstract Thoughts? The Body Takes Them Literally (Natalie Angier, NY Times, February 1, 2010).  Leaning forward with anticipation regarding what we might learn from the immensely popular field called embodied cognition or reclining (even if only a little bit) and giving it a quizzical look?

3.   Educators Mull How to Motivate Professors to Improve Teaching (David Glenn, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 24, 2010). Any suggestions or encouraging case studies to share?

4.  Teaching Matters: Rethinking the Hybrid Course (Steve Fox, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 31, 2010).  What do you think of Fox’s suggestions regarding Hybrid courses?  Have you taken or taught any Hybrid courses?  What recommendations would you add, in particular with regard to the management of a classroom blog?  Any encouraging case studies to share?

Books

5. “The most important person in the world”: I (Mike) was not familiar with the HeLa cell line until I read Dwight Garner’s NYTimes review of the new book by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Ms. Lacks, an uneducated, African American Virginia tobacco farmer who died of cervical cancer at the age of 31, contributed the famously immortal cells that have

helped with some of the most important advances in medicine: the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization,” Ms. Skloot writes. HeLa cells were used to learn how nuclear bombs affect humans, and to study herpes, leukemia, Parkinson’s disease and AIDS. They were sent up in the first space missions, to see what becomes of human cells in zero gravity.

The problem? Ms. Lacks never gave permission for her cells to be used for scientific experiments, and researchers continued to draw samples from her descendants without explaining why, one part of the tragic legacy of American medical treatment of African Americans. From Garner’s review:

As one of Mrs. Lacks’s sons says: “She’s the most important person in the world, and her family living in poverty. If our mother so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?”

This looks like an important – and discussion-provoking – book.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my request for the best books for undergrads! Here are the recommendations that we received on the blog, from Facebook, and via email. Tom and I received an amazing variety of responses. Here were some interesting trends:

• C. S. Lewis was recommended more than any other author, but not a single book of his was mentioned more than once!
• Only three books were recommended more than once: Augustine’s Confessions, J. I. Packer’s Knowing God, and Tim Keller’s The Reason for God
• Other highly recommended authors included Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, and Os Guinness.

Photo credit: net_efekt via Flickr

I have tried to group the recommendations to make it easier to read and compare, but all such classifications fall short of the ideal. I have also given C. S. Lewis a category all to himself. Most of the links below are affiliate links to Amazon.com, but I’ve tried to note when the book is available for free online.

A final note: I have not edited the recommendations in any way! If we received a recommendation, I’ve included it below. Disagree with a choice? Think we left out something obvious? Let us know in the comments.

The full list appears after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

In a mere 12 days(!), Tom and I will arrive in St. Louis for Urbana 09, InterVarsity’s triennial student missions conference. Most of the 20,000+ conference delegates are undergraduate students, and we’ll be talking to them about ESN, vocation, and loving God with your mind.

It’s impossible for me to talk to students about ESN without recommending at least half a dozen books. I have my favorites, but enough about me — what are your favorites?

What books do you recommend to undergraduates, on God, on academia, or just about life in general?

…that you wanted to be an academic?

Urbana 09 – InterVarsity’s triennial student missions conference – is coming up next month, December 27 to 31. This year features a special “In the Workplace and In the Academy” set of seminars to introduce students to a robust theology of calling. I’ll be leading a seminar called “Serving Christ as a Professor: 10 Things You Need to Know.” It will include some “missional” ideas of why the university matters to God and some pragmatic advice on graduate school and career prep, but I also hope to give students some resources for discerning whether they ought to pursue an academic vocation.

So, how did you know that you wanted to be an academic? What do you tell students who are thinking about a faculty career? I’d love to share your stories and advice with the students at Urbana. Feel free to email me if you’d rather not leave a comment.

Two more Urbana-related notes:

Get credit: Trinity Evangelical Divinity School is offering credit for Urbana, through a wrap-around course on Global Christianity. Register for Urbana first, then register for the course.

Save money: Register before December 1 and save $50 by using the code novu09 when you register.

Campus Map

Does your choice of undergraduate major affect your religious faith? Inside Higher Ed recently reported on a study by Miles S. Kimball, Colter M. Mitchell, Arland D. Thornton and Linda C. Young-Demarco, all of U. Michigan, that asked that very question. Using data from the long-running Monitoring the Future study, Kimball et al. tracked the religiosity of college students (based on how frequently they attended religious services and how important they viewed religion in their lives, along with some secondary indicators) to see how their choice of college major affected them.

Photo: Campus map of Minnesota St.-Moorhead by xavierla, via Flickr. Did you ever choose a class based on how close it was to your dorm or parking lot? I never did, I swear.

What did they find? In (very) brief,

• Education or Business major increased religiosity.
• Humanities or Social Sciences major decreased religiosity.
• Biological or Physical* Sciences major had no effect on religiosity.

*Physical science majors showed a decrease in how important they viewed religion, but no change in how often they attended services. Biological sciences had no effect on religiosity. Read the rest of this entry »

Great deals await...maybe.

The WSJ reported a few weeks ago on the effect that the economy is having on college choices, at least among families who have access to upper end colleges and universities.

But as Sarah’s college choice loomed last year, [her mother] Ms. Perrizo, a real-estate appraiser, and her husband, Richard Goldstein, an attorney, “were agonizing over whether to pay $52,000 for one year at NYU, or $18,000” at their state university, Ms. Perrizo says. Both regard a bachelor’s degree as “only the beginning” of higher education for students like their daughter, who is interested in international studies; they hope to help with her graduate-school costs.

Joseph Losco (chair of political science at Ball State) observes in the article that universities aren’t accustomed to competing on price – in fact, lowering tuition can sometimes tarnish a school’s reputation. The mother in the article compares the college choice to “shopping at Loehmann’s vs. Bloomingdale’s. I’m teaching my daughter to be a good shopper and to pick value.”

That comparison between two department stores — one known for its high value, the other for its high prices — struck me as inappropriate, but I’m sure that’s how many families view the college process. Or, at least, the way the mother structured the comparison was inappropriate. In my mind, it doesn’t matter whether you shop at an upscale or discount store: the question is, what are you buying? Upscale stores have lots of good bargains, as well as items that are well worth the price. As I have discovered too many times when buying earphones, though, discount stores are a waste of money if you buy something that’s worthless. Read the rest of this entry »

[Editor's note: This is a new weekly feature from your blog contributors.  Each week, we'll be posting articles, books, news, etc., that Tom, Mike, and the ESN community have been pondering. If you have a book or article you'd like us to add to next week's Review, add it in the comments or send it to either Mike or Tom.  Thanks!]

After Accepting Students, NYU Asks Them: Are We Too Costly for You? (Chronicle of Higher Education, $) – NYU is asking admitted students to consider whether they can truly afford to attend.

Not Moving On Up – The MLA’s new report (Standing Still) finds that women are promoted to full professor at a slower rate than men, and that pregnancy and childrearing may not have much to do with the trend.

Following Christ 2008 track audios: Lots of good material! Join Tom in digging in, discussing, and passing along to those with interest.

Pastor and Scholar: John Piper and D.A. Carson recently spoke together on the topics “The Pastor as Scholar” (Piper) and “The Scholar as Pastor” (Carson) at an event sponsored by TEDS. They mostly focused on theological/seminary scholarship, but lots of good stuff about vocation, the integration of faith, life, and learning, and personal experiences. Audio, video, and manuscripts are available for download.

Do you need a PhD to teach in higher education? Rob Jenkins doesn’t think so.

Tech Stuff

Amazon releases the Kindle DX with a large screen, built-in PDF reader, and deals in place to offer electronic textbooks. Case Western Reserve U. will be studying how the ebook experience compares to traditional textbooks. Here’s Jeffrey Young’s take on the idea at the Chronicle.

Omeka – A new open-source project for online archives, scholarly websites, and other “complex narratives.” (HT: Dan Cohen)
Free Amazon Web Services for Academics – Mike has no idea what this actually means, but he’s sure it will be useful to someone. (HT: MacWorld)

Books

Your Mind Matters by John Stott.  In June, we’re going to begin an on-line discussion series of this 93 page classic introduction to Christian thinking. In order to be prepared, Tom once again picked up his heavily notated edition.  If you don’t already have a copy of Your Mind Matters, borrow one from your InterVarsity staff or order one with your Emerging Scholars Network discount for InterVarsity Press.  More details tba ;-)

Made to Stick:  Why Some Ideas Survive & Others Die by Chip & Dan Heath (HT: Mike).  In the first chapter, Tom’s most impressed with Commander’s Intent, what he summarizes as the compact, core idea which guides good decision making in the field as one’s best laid plans unwind in the midst of the daily grind. Love this quote, “No plan survives contact with the enemy. No doubt this principle has resonance for people who have no military experience whatsoever. No sales plan survives contact with the customer. No lesson plan survives contact with teenagers” (p.27, italics in original text).

Reaching the Campus Tribes by Benson Hines is a free on-line book exploring campus ministry in the USA (HT:  The IVY Jungle Network Campus Ministry April 2009 Update). Tom encourages you to take the time to download, skim, enjoy the pics, and share your thoughts.  He’s posted some initial reflections here and more here.