Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

Week in Review

Review: March Madness ’14 Finals, Dialogue . . .

Integrating faith & field vs. Realizing justice in action

Ready for finals . . . graduation?

Yes, we’ve made it to the finals of ESN March Madness ’14. I have learned a lot as we have wrestled with the question:

What is the most pressing issue for the Christian to engage when journeying in higher ed?

Please share your vote and invite others to do likewise. Winner will be announced on Good Friday (4/18). Note: If you haven’t voted in ESN March Madness ’14 (and invited others to do likewise), now is the time to engage to make sure your vote is heard.

As I’ve shared before, this tourney is influencing our priority of focus as we prepare for Fall 2014. If you have a desire to address a particular topic or recommend a possible contributor (e.g., book to be reviewed, book reviewer, interview, offer a reflection), please let me know.

Engaging in the conversation . . .

Below are a few pieces which really caught my attention and yes, there are more on ESN’s Facebook Wall 🙂 Please do not hesitate to share your must reads in the comments section below, on Facebook, via email, etc. . . . [Read more…] about Review: March Madness ’14 Finals, Dialogue . . .

Review: March Madness ’14, Reads, Opportunities . . .

ESN March Madness ’14 . . .

A quick ESN March Madness ’14 round between “Finding & keeping vocation” and “Realizing justice in action” followed by a face-off with “Diversity in higher ed” to see who goes to the finals to take on “Integrating faith & field” surprised me by starting with a tie in my own household. Hmm . . .

My wife has stuck to her position that “Realizing justice in action” is possibly the “most pressing issue for the Christian to engage when journeying in higher ed”. Do you agree? I’ll count the votes on Sunday night to begin the finals week. If you haven’t voted in ESN March Madness ’14 (and invited others to do likewise), now is the time to engage to make sure your vote is heard.

As I’ve shared before, this tourney is influencing our priority of focus as we prepare for Fall 2014. If you have a desire to address a particular topic or recommend a possible contributor (e.g., book to be reviewed, book reviewer, interview, offer a reflection), please let me know.

Must reads . . .

Below are a few pieces which really caught my attention, with lots more on ESN’s Facebook Wall 🙂 Please do not hesitate to share your must reads in the comments section below.

[Read more…] about Review: March Madness ’14, Reads, Opportunities . . .

End of March Musts: Madness, Reads, Opportunities . . .

ESN March Madness ’14 . . .

If you haven’t voted in this round of ESN March Madness ’14 (and invited others to do likewise), now is the time! I will keep this round open through midnight on Saturday. I’m very curious to see who rises to the top in the “losers” bracket.

Note: “Finding & keep vocation” and “Realizing justice in action” await their turn for a quick round to see who will go back up for the finals to face off against the winner of “Diversity in higher ed vs. Integrating faith & field”. What issue do you find “the most pressing for the Christian to engage when journeying in higher ed?”  Yes, this tourney is influencing our priority of focus as we prepare for Fall 2014. If you have a desire to address a particular topic or recommend a possible contributor (e.g., book to be reviewed, book reviewer, interview, offer a reflection), please let me know.

Must reads . . .

A lot of material has come across our screen since ESN’s Peek of the Week (3/17/2014). Below are a few I desire to give attention to, with lots more on ESN’s Facebook Wall 🙂 Please do not hesitate to share your must reads in the comments section below. [Read more…] about End of March Musts: Madness, Reads, Opportunities . . .

ESN’s Peek of the week

Anna Lee-Winans, InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) Area Director for Greater New York City, presents at 2013 GFM Staff Team Meetings.

Introduction

The past several weeks have been rich with prayer, conversation, and even some planning regarding next steps for the Emerging Scholars Network. One particular piece of feedback has been the desire to renew the Week in Review. As this week I will be engaged in InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministries (GFM) Staff Team Meetings (March 18-20), I offer you a Peek of the Week. But before you choose various links (below) to follow (and possibly share, comment upon, add to the collection of . . .), pray for our staff team as we gather. Pray for us . . .

  • to delve into how we may continue to grow in Christ-likeness. In particular that we may truly be a blessing in the midst of the rich diversity of the people with whom we labor (and collaborate) on campus. Our pre-conference Bible study and reflection has focused upon . . .

Week in Review: Passionate Classics Edition

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.

Classics for Summer Reading
You could build a great major around R. L. Stevenson’s Kidnapped: juvenile literature, Scottish history…um, swashbuckling.

1. Newly Customized Majors Suit Students With Passions All Their Own (Ilana Kowarski.  Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/9/2010):  Is this what it takes to get creative students to go to Drexel?  Note:  a little dig at my [Tom] friends who are alum. Despite my homemade mix of Biology major, religion classes, and ministry internships (including one with InterVarsity which resulted in me coming on staff), I wish something like this was available when I was an undergrad! Is this some influence of the British model? Wish such possibilities existed on the graduate level in my areas of interest, i.e., higher education which is largely dominated by administrative concerns versus philosophy and ‘whole person’ student formation.  I wonder if customized majors (or existing majors with flexibility) are easier to design at smaller colleges where faculty are involved with mentoring the students.  Would be much more difficult to pull-off in prep for professional schools, in particular Medical School comes to mind.  What are some core classes which are foundational to general education and specific majors?  How are they determined?  Thoughts?

2.  Rereading the University Classics (Kai Hammermeister. Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/9/2010):

Editor’s Note:  This is the first in a monthly series intended to introduce new generations of faculty members and administrators to a core set of classic books about higher education and its institutions.

The American university is often considered to be an unlikely and precarious, if highly productive, conjoining of the British residential college and the German 19th-century research university. In his short treatise, Mission of the University, José Ortega y Gasset rejects both models and wants to replace them with an Italo-Spanish emphasis on student participation that was decisive for the founding of the medieval European university but quickly receded into the background. …

Photo credit: David Masters via Flickr

After the jump, tech/life balance, Stephen Hawking, and more (yes, more) on James Davison Hunter.

[Read more…] about Week in Review: Passionate Classics Edition