This is the first of a series of excerpts from the Nurturing the Next
Generation of Scholars workshops at the 2009 Annual Meetings of the
American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature
(SBL).
In partnership with the AAR, SBL and its regional organizational affiliates, FTE hosts recruitment workshops and conferences that invite promising students of color to consider the pursuit of the Ph.D. or Th.D. in religious, biblical, and theological studies.
On Saturday, June 4th, FTE doctoral and dissertation fellows attended
the panel Scholarship in Dialogue with Diaspora: A Reflective
Conversation. Drs. Diakite, Hucks, Braga, Hopkins, and Lartey reflected
on experiences with African and African diasporic communities. Among
others, the theme of identity played a critical role in the reflections.
The thrust of these comments was that theological and religious
discourse in both the church and academy must resist the tendency to
define Christian identity in terms of a bipolar, exclusionary logic that
consecrates a hierarchy in which the Christian is naturally superior to
the heathen. As Christian pastors, preachers, and educators, we must
begin to think about ways of conceiving our personal, congregational,
and denominational identities in ways that admit the ambiguity of
distinctive qualities between saved and sinner, church and world, “us”
and “them.”
"Are you traveling to colonize or are you traveling to be a co-learner?"
This was the query posed by Dr. Margaret Aymer to FTE fellows at the closing panel discussion at the 2011 Leaders in the Academy Conference. After all, in the pursuit for excellence in scholarship in our fields of theological education, we are on a quest. This quest encompasses, as Dr. Emilie M. Townes proclaimed in celebration of the great legacy of Dr. Sharon Watson Fluker, great oeuvres along the way.
Having the opportunity to attend the 2011 Samuel Dewitt Proctor
Conference was a transformative and liberating experience. Within
created sacred space, we dialogued and engaged with highly informative,
woefully skilled, and intellectually astute pastors, ministry workers,
and lay persons whose Christian convictions were to uphold the banner of
love, mercy, and justice. The issues of liberation and justice were
central to the conference theme. Weight was given to imagine the ways
in which this liberation and justice can be experienced in the lives of
humans today whose bodily realities vehemently speak towards their need
for justice, love, mercy, and liberation.
“Academic” is one of those words that reminds us about the importance of
context. It can refer either to the scholarly profession or to a
trivial enterprise. So when the Society of Biblical Literature’s
annual meeting is described as an academic conference, I find myself at
a vocational fork in the road. “Which kind of academic am I going to
be?” Never had I felt the weight of this decision more than last May,
when I had learned I would present at the November 2010 meeting.
With the help of my mentor and 2010 SBL president Vincent L. Wimbush, I came to learn that...
“The Book of Eli” opens with a shot of a rotting corpse lying
motionless in the midst of dark, dank woods as an emaciated cat nibbles
at its toes. This is the harsh, post-war setting of Denzel Washington’s
character, Eli. In this post-apocalyptic tale, the lone Eli travels
great distances, endures horrific living conditions, encounters
treacherous enemies and demonstrates superhero dexterity as he journeys
West with a book. It seems, for Eli, getting this particular book to
its appointed destination is a matter of life or death.
Some days, I feel like Eli. Like many of my FTE Dissertation Fellow
colleagues, it seems I am called upon to demonstrate superhero dexterity
with my research topic. Daily, I encounter colleagues that may not
always have my well-being in mind, and compared to many of the
associates I had prior to beginning my doctoral program...
I was able to attend this year’s American Academy of Religion (AAR) meeting in Atlanta, GA, and it was a great opportunity to witness the national and international scope of people invested in the study and practice of various religious traditions. Not only was I able to reconnect with many of the other FTE Doctoral Fellows as we shared our thoughts and feelings about our immersion in study—I was fortunate to engage former mentors and scholars who had encouraged me to pursue my current doctoral studies. Extended conversations and meals with professors who I had not seen in years and friends at other academic institutions helped to provide me a sense of the progress we all make in our intellectual journeys, even as many of us are just beginning them.
I gained a sense of what AAR is for scholars of religion, and the annual
meeting is more than a chance to engage in professional networking. It
was an opportunity to...
” opens with a shot of a rotting corpse lying
motionless in the midst of dark, dank woods as an emaciated cat nibbles
at its toes. This is the harsh, post-war setting of Denzel Washington’s
character, Eli. In this post-apocalyptic tale, the lone Eli travels
great distances, endures horrific living conditions, encounters
treacherous enemies and demonstrates superhero dexterity as he journeys
West with a book. It seems, for Eli, getting this particular book to
its appointed destination is a matter of life or death.
