As our family heads to InterVarsity’s Cedar Campus for a MidWest Faculty dialogue on The Ends and Goals of Higher Education in Twenty-First-Century America: Change and the Calling of the Christian Educator, it is my privilege to announce that Hannah Eagleson has joined the InterVarsity Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) staff writing team.
Hannah holds a M.A. in liberal arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Delaware. As you may remember, she is the author of several ESN blog series including What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School and Mentoring. Her post What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School: Surviving the Workload is in the top five of most visited ESN blog posts.
Why did Hannah join the Emerging Scholars Network staff writing team? In addition to writing for the blog, she looks forward to spearheading two significant projects. Allow me to let her share about these endeavors:
Academic Devotional
As a writer and editor with a PhD in literature, I am deeply excited about supporting ESN in the creation of an academic devotional website. For busy academics, it can be hard to carve out the time to meditate on God, and it can feel as though many devotional works don’t address your specific pressures and callings. I’m delighted to collaborate in putting together devotional works that address the concerns of believers trying to understand how best to integrate faith and learning. I feel that the process of gathering these works into a book, one of the goals of the project, will also allow many opportunities to encourage community among believers who are working to foster deep and thoughtful devotional lives within the academy. [To learn more (even offer contributions), please email the Emerging Scholars Network].
Theology of Higher Ed
As a graduate student early on in an intense program, I often longed for another believer in my field who could serve as a mentor. My program had great mentoring which I deeply appreciated, but I hadn’t yet found someone who could advise me from the standpoint of Christian belief. ESN has the potential to build a great network of mentoring and academic community among Christian students and scholars. One way to build that community is to involve Christian scholars in a conversation about the theology of higher education, learning from those who are working on it already and reaching out to those who need a community with which to study.
I look forward to seeing how these projects will take shape on the ground in Boston through Hannah’s creation of an ESN Hub, on-line through various platforms, and connected to other developing ESN hubs.
Thank-you, your support and encouragement are much appreciated as we take these next steps in expanding the gifts offered by ESN to those called to journey through and serve in higher education. As a “Welcome” to Hannah, please take a few minutes today to write a note of encouragement to her in the comment section below. In the note you may desire to pass along congratulations to her and husband J. Nathan Mathias (Research Assistant, MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media). They married at the end of last month. Lots of transitions — a theme she’ll explore on the blog in July. To God be the glory!
Tom enjoys daily conversations regarding living out the Biblical Story with his wife Theresa and their four girls, around the block, at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church (where he teaches adult electives and co-leads a small group), among healthcare professionals as the Northeast Regional Director for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), and in higher ed as a volunteer with the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). For a number of years, the Christian Medical Society / CMDA at Penn State College of Medicine was the hub of his ministry with CMDA. Note: Tom served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA for 20+ years, including 6+ years as the Associate Director of ESN. He has written for the ESN blog from its launch in August 2008. He has studied Biology (B.S.), Higher Education (M.A.), Spiritual Direction (Certificate), Spiritual Formation (M.A.R.), Ministry to Emerging Generations (D.Min.). To God be the glory!
So glad that Hannah is joining ESN! You always have thoughtful and insightful pieces, and I am particularly looking forward to the academic devotional.
Congrats again!
Terrific news! Hannah, I’m so excited to hear this. The projects you’ll be working sound like vital additions to ESN’s resources. Congratulations!
Welcome, Hannah! Great to have you on board at ESN and grateful for your willingness to use your gifts to serve in this way. We will no doubt be looking to ‘share’ your work over at The Well!
Glad to have you joining ESN! I have been so grateful to you for your insightful advice both here and over email. Your generosity with your wisdom and time have been precious to me!
Congratulations on entering these new phases of your personal and professional development, Hannah!
Welcome Hannah! I’m looking forward to your contributions and ESN’s continued growth!
Congratulations, Hannah, on both the new position and, especially, the new marriage. Very much looking forward to reading and sharing the devotionals.
Welcome, Hannah! We’re so glad to have you on the ESN “Team”. I’m sure you’ll have valuable insights and perspectives to share!
Welcome, Hannah! Glad to have you “drop anchor with us,” as one of my former professors would say. And have a delightful start to your marriage!
Welcome to esn, Hannah
Hannah, welcome to ESN! I’m especially interested in seeing how your work on “Theology of Higher Ed” unfolds…
Best wishes!
Hannah:
Great! I love your background–St. John’s, esp. and your work at Delaware. I’ve visited both schools as a speaker (St. John’s) and short worldview course teacher (Deleware). I’ve got a funny story from St. John’s interesting engagement with the Naval Academy one Fall Saturday afternoon.
Onward and Upward!
Jim Sire
Thank you, Dr. Sire! I’d love to hear your St. John’s croquet story sometime. You can email me at hannaheag@comcast.net if you want to tell it.
Thank you, everyone, for such warm and thoughtful welcomes! I look forward very deeply to further conversation.