Our Work with Undergraduate Departments
Context matters. The Wabash Center has undertaken a series of initiatives to address the unique challenges of teaching theological or religious studies in undergraduate contexts.
Department Grant Program
15 grants of $30,000 each, awarded to undergraduate departments which had previously enrolled at least one faculty member in our Early Career or Mid-Career Workshop and Colloquy program.
The approved grant projects explore teaching and learning issues encountered in religious or theological studies’ classrooms and contribute to the capacity for sustained pedagogical conversations within the department or college. The project directors of each of the awarded grants gather three times during the grant period to share and learn from one another’s experience.
Mid-Career Colloquies on designated topics of specific concern to undergraduate contexts.
- 2019-20 Colloquy on Race Critical Consciousness for Transformative Theological Education
- 2016-17 Pedagogies of Community Engagement
- 2013-14 Religious Commitments in the Undergraduate Classroom
- 2010-11 Religious Commitments in the Undergraduate Classroom
We supported Barbara Walvoord as she researched and wrote her landmark book, Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses (Blackwell, 2008).
We then convened a working group of teachers who had been nominated to participate in her study, and hosted a series of workshops on college campuses and at the AAR-SBL regional and national meetings.
Nearly every summer we launch a new Early Career Workshop specifically for faculty in undergraduate education. Workshops gather for nearly a week during two successive summers, and a 3-day weekend in January.
List of Early Career Workshops for Faculty in Undergraduate Contexts:
- 2021-22 Maureen O’Connell & Tat siong Benny Liew
- 2019-20 Bernadette McNary-Zak, Director
- 2018-19 Joanne Maguire Robinson, Director
- 2016-17 Reid B. Locklin, Director
- 2015-16 Patricia Killen, Director
- 2014-15 Richard Ascough, Director
