ESN is currently running a preview series to give a glimpse of our plans for the 2016/2017 academic year. See the intro post here and the blog topics preview post here. 

This academic year, thanks to God’s grace and generous funding from the STEAM Project through Fuller Seminary, our faith/science engagement will be expanding in several ways:

1. We’ll be running a monthly faith/science curriculum on the blog
2. We’ll be testing that curriculum with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA graduate student campus fellowships
3. We’ll be running an expanded student track at the American Scientific Affiliation 2017 conference
4. In Summer 2017, we’ll be launching a booklet version of our field-tested faith/science curriculum for use in InterVarsity campus groups, ASA chapters, and beyond

We’re grateful for this opportunity for many reasons, one large one being the way it lets us grow in collaboration. As we’ve thought and prayed about ESN’s next steps over the past two years, collaboration with other InterVarsity staff members and with likeminded organizations has been a major theme. In addition to growing our faith/science materials, we’re seeing this opportunity as a model for other collaborations.This grant lets us grow in collaboration in these ways:

Further Collaboration with InterVarsity GFM Campus Groups to Develop Material

InterVarsity campus grad groups will be sharing their questions, and we’ll be crafting our monthly faith/science curriculum around those questions, asking thoughtful Christians in science to address them. We’ll also be testing the materials with these campus groups before revising the curriculum and releasing it in booklet form for wider use. We’re eager to collaborate further with our colleagues in campus groups to continue producing material and making it as helpful as possible.

Collaborations with Likeminded Organizations to Expand Conferencing

We’re also excited to collaborate further with likeminded organizations to provide conference opportunities for emerging scholars. We were so grateful for the chance to launch an ESN student track at this year’s ASA conference, and we’re delighted to expand it next year and invite authors of the blog curriculum we’re producing to speak. We’re hoping for similar collaborative opportunities in other subject areas, too.

One of the Emerging Scholars Network Seminars at the 2016 ASA Annual Meeting.

Collaborations with Individuals and Groups to Share Tested Material

Once we test our material, we very much look forward to collaborating with individuals and groups to get out the word about the booklet version of the faith/science curriculum we’ll be releasing in Summer 2017. We hope it will be a useful resource to InterVarsity staffers, church groups, and others with an interest in serving students.

In God’s grace, we hope this is just the start of many collaborations. We’re looking for ways to expand our collaborations and materials in the humanities and social sciences as well as continuing to deepen our faith/science engagement.

This project was made possible through the support of an award from the Science and Theology for Emerging Adult Ministries project at Fuller Theological Seminary. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Fuller or the STEAM project.

PS. As the Lord provides, prayerfully consider investing in what ESN does / writes. You can give here or contact us here. More specifics will be shared in future posts.