_LFP Update_ Archives List Printable Version
__LFP Update__4.3
Welcome to the _LFP Update_, an e-publication from the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts to keep LFP representatives and others informed about the activities of 1) LFP National Network institutions, 2) present and former Lilly Fellows and, 3) the LFP office at Valparaiso University.
In this issue:- Information regarding the 2009 LFP National Conference and the Administrators Workshop
- Introducing Second Cohort of The Lilly Graduate Fellows
- The First Conference for the First Cohort of Graduate Fellows at St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota
- Selection Information for the Third Cohort of Lilly Graduate Fellows
- Opportunities for receiving Mentoring Grants or hosting Network Exchanges and Regional Conferences
- Upcoming LFP Regional Conferences
- Other dates and deadlines for your calendar
- From the Colloquium...
______Information regarding the 2009 LFP National Conference and the______
______Administrators Workshop ______
2009 LFP National Conference
The 2009 LFP National Conference--Practicing Cosmopolitanism--will take place October 2-4, 2009, at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Practicing Cosmopolitanism will consider how church-related institutions of higher education can cultivate in their students the skills needed to be cosmopolitan in a markedly global society--attentive to the particularities of their own culture, respectful of legitimate differences, and able to balance their own allegiances with obligations to others, particularly those to whom they have no relation by nature or inclination.
Faculty and administrators are invited to join us as we consider what it means to practice cosmopolitanism in plenary sessions, interactive discussions, immersion in global visual and performing arts, and forays into the urban renewal of the Grand Rapids community.
Keynote addresses for this year's conference will be offered by three gifted practitioners of cosmopolitanism: Amir Hussain, Angela Christman, and Suresh Canagarajah. Dr. Hussain will speak to us on Muslim/Christian neighborliness, Dr. Christman will present theological resources for cosmopolitanism, and Dr. Canagarajah will address the possibilities of multilingualism. We look forward to welcoming you to Calvin's campus for a time of thought-provoking discussions and interaction.
The deadline for registration is September 1, 2009. For more information, click here. To Register, click here.
2009 LFP Workshop for Senior Administrators
Immediately preceding the National Conference will be the Tenth Annual Workshop for Senior Administrators on the topic, Assessing Mission Effectiveness. The Workshop will be held at Calvin College, October 1 and 2, 2009. Addressing the workshop will be Barbara Walvoord, Professor Emerita from the University of Notre Dame. The Workshop is offered at no cost to senior administrators at Lilly Fellows Program National Network member institutions. The first participant from each school will be reimbursed for travel costs up to $600. Meals and hotel accommodations will also be paid for by the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts. Additional participants from member schools will be wait-listed until September 1 and will be enrolled as slots become available. The deadline for registration is September 1, 2009. For more information, click here.
To Register, click here.
______Introducing Second Cohort of The Lilly Graduate Fellows ______
We are excited to report the successful selection of 16 Graduate Students for the Second Cohort of Lilly Graduate Fellows. We especially want to thank you, the representatives, faculty, and administrators in our network of church-related schools, not only for your hard work in nominating 88 students from whom the selection committee had the difficult task of selecting only 16, but for providing the vocational formation evident in this impressive group of graduate students.
The 16 Fellows were selected by a 9-member selection committee who interviewed 24 finalists on April 17-18. The Fellows met together for three days at an Inaugural Conference on August 4-6, 2009, in Indianapolis, Indiana, with their mentors--Susan Felch of Calvin College and Bill Portier of the University of Dayton, along with the LFP staff and guests including Mel Piehl, the Dean of the Christ College Honors College at Valparaiso University and Dr. Stephanie Paulsell (LF 93-95), who, drawing on Dante's Divine Comedy, addressed the subject of the vocation of the Christian Scholar. (You will be able to read her address in the upcoming issue of the network Communiqué.) The Fellows participated in discussions centered on this theme as well as the theme of hospitality. As did the First Cohort of Lilly Fellows, the Second Cohort of Fellows will embark on a long-distance colloquium drawing on classical theological and other texts to continue to explore the theme hospitality in the fall and friendship in the spring. The Fellows will also engage in one-on-one mentoring relationships and participate in the second of four conferences in August, 2010, at Calvin College.
Lilly Graduate Fellows, Cohort 2
Jonathan Buttaci received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2009 and will pursue a PhD in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.
Devin Byker received his Bachelors Degree from Calvin College in 2009 and will pursue a PhD in English literature at Boston University.
Paul Camacho received his Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree in philosophy from Boston College in 2007 and 2009 and will pursue a PhD in philosophy at Villanova University.
Joel Scott Davis received his Bachelors Degree from Samford University in 2005 and a Master of Arts Degree at Claremont Graduate University in 2007; he will pursue a Doctorate of Musical Arts in composition at Claremont Graduate University.
Kristen Gaylord received her Bachelors Degree from Westmont College in 2009 and will pursue a PhD in Art History at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts.
Amanda Dykema received her Bachelors Degree from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2004 and her Masters Degree in 2008 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; she will pursue a PhD in English at the University of Maryland.
Brian Hamilton received his Bachelors Degree from Messiah College in 2006 and his Masters of Theological Studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. He will pursue a PhD in moral theology at the University of Notre Dame.
Heidi Hausse received her Bachelors Degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2009 and will pursue a PhD in history at Princeton University.
Nicholas Jacobson received his Bachelors Degree from Seattle Pacific University in 2007 and will pursue a PhD in the history of science and technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Emily Neumeier received her Bachelors Degree from Boston College in 2008 and will pursue a PhD in art history at the University of Pennsylvania.
Stephen Ogden received his Bachelors Degree from Rhodes College in 2005 and his MA in Religion from Yale Divinity School in 2009. He will pursue a dual PhD in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Yale University.
Mike Popejoy received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2008 and will pursue a PhD in philosophy at Purdue University.
Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins received his Bachelors Degree from Concordia University-Portland in 2005 and a Masters in Liberal Studies from Reed College in 2008. He will pursue a PhD in history at Columbia University.
Kelly Vincent received her Bachelors Degree from Whitworth University in 2009 and will pursue a PhD in philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Rachel Schneider Vlachos received her Bachelors Degree from Seattle Pacific University in 2006 and will pursue a PhD in religious studies at Rice University.
Paul Zajac received his Bachelors Degree from Loyola University in Maryland in 2009 and will pursue a PhD in English literature at Pennsylvania State University.
_____ The First Conference for the First Cohort of Graduate Fellows _____
_____at St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota _____
On August 8-11, 2009, the First Cohort of Lilly Graduate Fellows met at St. Mary's University in Winona, MN for their second conference: The Word as Icon: Augustine, Dostoevsky, and the St. John's Bible. Among other activities, which included wonderful times of fellowship, the group attended worship services at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Winona; Dr. Angela Christman of Loyola University-Maryland and Dr. Paul Contino of Pepperdine University addressed the group and led a discussions on Augustine's Confessions and The Brothers Karamozov, respectively, and Dr. Barbara Sutton, Associate Dean for Formation at St. John's University School of Theology, led a spiritual exercise (Visio Divina) using the St. John's Bible. We want to thank St. Mary's University, and Jane Kelley Rodeheffer, mentor for the First Cohort of Fellows, and Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary's, Dr. Thomas Mans, Vice President for Academic Affairs at St. Mary's, and Dr. Mary Catherine Fox, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at St. Mary's, for being such wonderful hosts and for introducing the cohort to the Lasallian tradition in higher education. The First Cohort of Fellows will meet again this year with mentors Dr. Rodeheffer and Dr. Michael Beaty of Baylor University in a distance colloquium that will focus this fall on the topic of vocation. In May, 2010, these Lilly Graduate Fellows will meet for a third conference at Baylor University.
_____ Selection Information for the Third Cohort of Lilly Graduate Fellows _____
It is time to begin the process of selecting the third cohort of Lilly Graduate Fellows who will be entering graduate school in the fall, 2010. The process for nominating graduate fellows remains basically unchanged from last year. The only minor change is that the actual application deadline for nominees has moved up two weeks to January 15, 2010. As was the case last year, each network school can nominate up to 3 students for the Lilly Graduate Fellowships. Students who plan to enter Ph.D., MFA, or comparable programs in fall, 2010, and received a bachelors degree from your institution after April, 2005, are eligible for the Lilly Graduate Fellowship. For additional eligibility requirements, click here. The deadline for nominations is November 21, 2009. LFP Representatives are responsible for nominating applicants, and we are in the process of mailing promotional materials to you, so the time is now to begin preparation for nominating students from your school. For more information, please click here or contact us here.
____ Opportunities for receiving Mentoring Grants or hosting ____
____ Network Exchanges and Regional Conferences ____
As a member of the LFP National Network, you are part of an ecumenical program that sustains an ongoing conversation and set of initiatives that enrich and sustain church-related higher education. In addition, you enjoy a number of privileges including support for attending the LFP National Conference and Workshop for Senior Administrators and the chance to nominate up to three of your students for the Lilly Fellows Graduate Program.You also have the opportunity to apply for four program grants to enable you to sponsor (1) programs for mentoring faculty on your campus, (2) network exchanges that showcase programs or projects that have been especially successful on your campuses, (3) smaller regional conferences that enable you to engage in close collaboration with schools in your area or with scholars who want to focus on a particular question or subject, and (4) summer seminars for college teachers that bring together scholars from network schools for several weeks to address teaching concerns.
At its upcoming meeting in October, 2009, the LFP national network board will award grants for these first three initiatives: mentoring programs, network exchanges, and regional conferences.
The grant to sponsor a faculty mentoring program is an especially great way to get started in the LFP granting process. Please visit the LFP website for more information on these programs. Please note that applications for mentoring programs, regional conferences, and network exchanges are due September 15, 2009.
Please also note that there will be a workshop on applying for LFP grants during registration at the LFP National Conference at Calvin College (October 2-4, 2009)
___ Upcoming LFP Regional Conferences ___
Please mark your calendars if you live in the New England area to reserve April 16, 2010, for a 2010 LFP Regional Conference, Imago Dei: Human Dignity in Ecumenical Perspective, to be held at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. The stress of the conference will be ecumenical, and the three keynote speakers will be: C. Ben Mitchell, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity at Trinity International University; John Behr, Dean and Professor of Patristics at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary; and Russell Hittinger, Research Professor of Law and Warren Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa. For more information, contact Thomas A. Howard, who is directing the Conference, or the Lilly Fellows Program, and be looking for further announcements this year--in particular the announcement of an upcoming website for the conference.
A second 2010 LFP Regional Conference, Seminar on Academic Leadership in Baptist Universities, will be held at Baylor University, May 16-20, 2010.
______Other dates and deadlines for your calendar ______
The next series of programs that will receive funding are: Mentoring Programs, Network Exchange Programs, and Regional Conferences. Proposals are due September 15, 2009.
The deadline for submitting up to three nominees for the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program is November 21, 2009.
The deadline for applications for the 2007-2009 Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowships in Humanities and the Arts has been set for Tuesday, December 15, 2009. For more information, visit the LFP website.
______From the Colloquium ______
In a slight shift of emphasis in this column, I would like in this edition of the _LFP Update_ to reflect on the colloquium readings from the first year of the Lilly Graduate Fellows' colloquium.
Over the past year, the two mentors of the First Cohort of Fellows, Michael Beaty of Baylor University and Jane Kelley Rodeheffer of St. Mary's University in Winona, MN, have led a distance colloquium that provides a depth of Christian theological understanding, as it relates to the vocation of the Christian teacher/scholar, commensurate with the increasing depth of study in their respective academic disciplines.
The Graduate Fellows focused on two themes last year. In the fall, they focused on the theme of hospitality as it relates to their reception in the Academy, their reception of others, and their interaction with ideas and texts. Their readings included classics by the Desert Fathers, Augustine, and Simone Weil, along with contemporary works by Elizabeth Newman (Untamed Hospitality), Amy Oden (And You Welcomed Me), and Christine Pohl (Making Room). They also read Phillip Halle's study of resistance to the Vichy regime during WWII, Lest Innocent Blood be Shed, along with essays from The Scope of Our Art by Gregory Jones and Stephanie Paulsell (LF 93-95), and they worked through Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours. In the spring, the colloquium focused on friendship, with classic readings from Aelred of Rievaux, Aristotle, Augustine, Cicero, Simone Weil, and others, along with readings from Raymond Carver, Gilbert Meilander, and the letters of Flannery O'Connor. The Graduate Fellows especially took to heart Simone Weil's essay, "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies," which casts study--insofar as it connects to attentiveness--as a spiritual discipline.
In reflecting on the colloquium readings and sessions, the Graduate Fellows have stressed the opportunities they provide for interdisciplinary and ecumenical dialogue and their exploration of the vocation of scholar-teacher more generally. According to one Fellow, when raising questions in the colloquium about the meaning of Christian scholarship and skillful teaching, she was "being drawn out of the narrow vision characteristic of many graduate programs" and "given the chance to inquire more broadly, a skill to which we were introduced at our liberal arts universities." For another Graduate Fellow, the colloquium "provided the template for what I think academic engagement should look like and what I hope my first teaching assignment next year will entail: the camaraderie, the differing viewpoints, and most of all, the joyous spirit." Another believes that "the biweekly Lilly seminar became a hospitable place in which I could develop a theology of academia."
This fall, the Second Cohort of Graduate Fellows will likewise focus on hospitality and friendship, while the First Cohort of Graduate Fellows fill focus on the theme of vocation.