The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

Yii-Jan Lin is Associate Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School. 

Stephanie M. Crumpton is Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Director of the Trauma Healing Initiative at McCormick Theological Seminary.  At what season in your career, if ever, did you make time for your own thoughts and curiosities? Who do we become over time and while teaching? What choices about our teaching are made easier with time? Whose permission do we need to be less productiv...

Eric C. Smith is Associate Professor of Early Christian Texts and Traditions and Co-Director of the Doctor in Ministry Program at Iliff School of Theology.

Dr. Anne E. Streaty Wimberly is Professor Emerita of Christian Education at the Interdenominational Theological Center and Executive Director of the Youth Hope-Builders Academy, a youth theology program funded by the Lilly Endowment. The relationship bonds between faculty and student can be long-lasting and mutually lifegiving. What happens when, in the season post-teaching, former students become...

Kelly Campbell is Associate Dean of Information Services and Senior Director of the John Bulow Campbell Library at Columbia Theological Seminary. 

Eric C. Smith is Associate Professor of Early Christian Texts and Traditions and Co-Director of the Doctor of Ministry in Prophetic Leadership Program at Iliff School of Theology.  What does it mean to create and sustain learner centered approaches for courses in Bible? When Bible courses are not neutral nor benign, but acknowledge a political dynamism in the conversation, what is the role of the...

Almeda M. Wright is Assistant Professor of Religious Education at Yale Divinity School. Her research focuses on African American religion, adolescent spiritual development, and the interesections of religion and public life.

Laura Carlson Hasler is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies  and Alvin H. Rosen Chair of Hebrew Bible at Indiana University.  What are teaching strategies when the religious identity of students presents obstacles to learning in religious study courses? How do you teach academic inquiry when curiosity is considered antithetical to faith? What does it mean to teach a student...

Kelly Campbell is Associate Dean of Information Services and Senior Director of the John Bulow Campbell Library at Columbia Theological Seminary.  A healthy ecology of teaching includes librarians and libraries. Libraries are magical nonjudgemental spaces. The responsibility of librarians for resourcing, teaching, and technology is invaluable and underacknowledged. The leadership role of librarian...

Almeda M. Wright is Assistant Professor of Religious Education at Yale Divinity School. Her research focuses on African American religion, adolescent spiritual development, and the interesections of religion and public life. We discuss Wrights' latest book entitled, Teaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist Educators and Radical Social Change. The book profiles eight distinguished African Am...

Mindy McGarrah Sharp is Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Pastoral Care as well as Lead Faculty in the Master of Arts in Practical Theology Program at Columbia Theological School.

Willie James Jennings is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School.  The disappointment is real! Early career colleagues report their disappointment after joining a faculty.  Many excel during the doctoral program only to feel deflated, marginalized, or overlooked as a “junior” scholar. Many feel invisible, duped, or overworked on a faculty....

The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey is the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean at Garrett Evangelical Seminary. The New York Times bestselling author discusses why her scholarship of religion focuses upon issues of race and anti-racism.  She suggests that the work of translation, interpretation and meaning making (good teaching and good faith) is critical in the work of reconciliation a...

Willie James Jennings is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School.  Administrative duties are a work of care for the thriving of all in the community. Being a good administrator requires the ability to think organizationally, and the willingness to prioritize nurturing faculty, students, and staff. Effective leaders are capable of visioning...

Roger S. Nam is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Emory University Candler School of Theology.  What are the constructive aspects of being contract faculty?  If you spend your career as a contract faculty person have you failed as a scholar? How do you find your place on a faculty with tenure-track and tenured colleagues? What can administrators do to assi...

Dr. Steed Davidson is the Executive Director of the Society of Biblical Literature. Data show that the kinds of persons we bring into doctoral programs and hire onto faculty remain relatively unchanged. In what ways can directors of graduate divisions of religion attend to atrophying doctoral programs? What is the future of religious scholarship if our formation pipelines are stagnant? 

Roger S. Nam is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Emory University Candler School of Theology.  When at the dawn of your career, how do you learn the institutional power dynamics, the unspoken social and professional obligations, the ways conflict is resolved or left open? How do you acquire agency, get accurate information, and gain the trust of colleague...

Dr. Steed Davidson is the Executive Director of the Society of Biblical Literature. What does it mean to examen the influences of the bible upon contemporary society? In what ways can classrooms encourage understandings of the bible's complex roles in culture, now and into the future? 

Phillis Sheppard is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, Culture and Womanist Thought, and Executive Director of the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements at Vanderbilt University.  Our careers will have disappointments, injustices, events which are unfair and, even shaming. How do we avoid boundary crossing, blaming, isolation, an...

Roger S. Nam is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Emory University Candler School of Theology.  What makes for mediocre, good, and exceptional administrators? Who should consider administration as an occupation, and who should remain on faculty? How do you balance the call for transparency in communication and the need for confidentiality? What kinds of as...

Dr. Steed Davidson is the Executive Director of the Society of Biblical Literature. In what ways do faculty positions prepare you for administrative jobs? What kind of professional formation is needed to be an administrator? How important is your team to achieving an organizational vision?  What if imagination is the best skill of an administrator?

Phillis Sheppard is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, Culture and Womanist Thought, and Executive Director of the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements at Vanderbilt University.  Life is a series of transitions. Transitions of an academic career can leave one feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or agitated and angry. How might life...

Philip Butler is Assistant Professor of Theology and Black Post-Human Artificial Intelligence Systems at Iliff School of Theology.  What if teaching had the audacity to pose questions which disrupts reality? What if the disruption was generative, imaginative, and healing? This conversation grapples with what it means to teach at the intersection of neuroscience, technology, spirituality, and Black...

Phillis Sheppard is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, Culture and Womanist Thought, and Executive Director of the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements at Vanderbilt University.  When adult learners have learning styles and processes which are not expected, what is the role of the Academic Dean, the role of the faculty person, t...

Angela Parker, PhD is Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek with Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology. Adult students sometimes feel confronted or disrespected when their personal faith is disrupted in bible and theological courses. In what ways does a professor prepare students for deeper learning? How do professors cope with belligerent students? What does it take to build...