The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

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, and personal ruin? What are communal and personal habits of coping, survival and collegiality in moments of unexpected professional grief and unmanageable career debacles?

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 Blackness to prepare futures and reimagine leaders.

Dr. Willie James Jennings (Yale Divinity School) is this week’s guest on the Dialogue On Teaching podcast. Jennings and Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield discuss his upcoming book, “After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging,” which will be published in October 2020.

Kwok Pui Lan (Candler School of Theology - Emory University) and Tat-siong Benny Liew (Holy Cross College) interviewed Dr. Kristina Reardon, Director of the Writer’s Workshop at the College of the Holy Cross. They discussed the challenges of turning a class into a community while teaching remotely. Strategies for supporting and resourcing student learning needs, especially for college students, are explored in the video.

New patterns of institutional power, new visions, and the capacity to make unpopular decisions still does not guarantee successful leaders.

In this current wilderness experience, how are leaders trained – who trains? How are leaders identified, mentored and supported for success?

Good leaderships have the dynamic capacity to set direction, can lead to new places, is not cohesive or cruel. Leadership skills are scholarly skills.