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.
______ Upcoming Deadline for Lilly Graduate Fellows Nominations ______
One of the three initiatives the Lilly Fellows Program sustains is the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program. During this three-year pilot program, the LFP will select 3 cohorts of 15 graduate students who have bachelors degrees from one of the 89 schools in the LFP National Network of church related schools. The 2008-2011 Lilly Graduate Fellows will enter graduate school in the fall, 2008. Over a three year period, these fellows, along with two senior mentors, will communicate and collaborate with each other in areas of research, teaching, and professional development.
LFP Representatives are responsible for nominating up to three candidates who have graduated from their institutions with a bachelors between the spring of 2006 and the spring of 2008. The deadline for submitting these nominees is December 10, 2007.
Please submit your nominations to the LFP office via the LFP general e-mail. If for some reason the transmission fails to go through, please fax the nominations to 219-464-5496 or submit the nominations via snail mail. If you must fax or snail mail the nominations, please give the office a quick phone call to alert us (219-464-5317).
Please include the following information regarding the nominees:
- name
- e-mail address
- campus mail address
- permanent address
- phone number (campus, cell, or permanent--at whichever we can reach the student)
- month and year of graduation.
______ Upcoming Deadline for Lilly Fellow Applications ______
One of the three initiatives the Lilly Fellows Program sustains is the Residential Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Lilly fellowships are for teacher-scholars who seek to renew and enrich their intellectual and spiritual lives while preparing for leadership roles at Catholic or Protestant institutions of higher education. Each academic year, three Fellows are appointed for two-year periods at Valparaiso University. Fellows are selected from applicants who evince an interest in the relationship between Christianity and the academic vocation and are considering a career at church-related colleges or universities. Application Deadline for 2008-2010 Lilly Fellowships is Tuesday, December 18, 2007. Please click here for more information.
_____ Call For Papers for Upcoming LFP National Research Conference _____
Loyola Marymount University (http://www.lmu.edu/site4.aspx) has issued a call for papers as host of the 2009 LFP Annual Research Conference Convivencia:
a Religious World Religious Identities in the New World which will be held March 27-29, 2008.
From the 'old world' of medieval Spain, when Christians, Muslims and Jews lived in mutual tolerance and relative peace comes the concept of Convivencia, or shared existence. Our 'new world' seems to be defined by tensions between religion and secularism, and is scarred by religious and ethnic violence. Globalization co-exists with fragmentation, and fundamentalism with hybridity. Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the city where America imagines itself, hosts a major scholarly conference on the myths and realities of American and other religious identities.
Keynote speakers include: Ahmet Karamustafa, Linda Komaroff, Timothy Matovina, María Rosa Menocal, Ebrahim Moosa, Robert Orsi, Peter Phan, Thomas Tweed, Diane Winston, and Rabbi David Wolpe.
Proposals for presentations are sought from scholars from all branches of the humanities. Paper sessions will include but are not limited to:
- Identity and religious practice
- Fusions, Hybrids, Multiplicities
- Generations
- Church and State
- Globalize religion
- Immigration, Diaspora and exile
- Nationality, Ethnicity and Religion
- Identity and Technology
- Depicting the other, Depicting the Self
- Historical Identities
- Corporate and Individual Selves
Proposals (500-word max.) should be submitted by January 25, 2008 to: convivencia@lmu.edu.
For further details, contact:
Dr. Amir Hussain
1-310-338-5987
amir.hussain@lmu.edu
Dr. Dorian Llywelyn SJ
1-310-338-2856
dllywelyn@lmu.edu
_____ The LFP NATIONAL CONFERENCE _____
The 17th annual LFP National Conference (http://www.lillyfellows.org/lfp_national_conferences.htm), hosted by Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, October 19-21, 2007, was attended by more than one hundred LFP representatives and Lilly Fellows. The conference, "Three Mirrors: Reflections on Faithful Living The Legacy of Robert Shaw, Flannery O'Connor, and Martin Luther King, Jr." was addressed by three insightful and engaging speakers, each focusing on a person listed above:
Ann Howard Jones, Professor of Music, Director of Choral Activities, Boston University, and Former Assistant to Robert Shaw, presented Teaching America to Sing: The Legacy of Robert Shaw; Christina Bieber Lake, Associate Professor of English, Wheaton College, presented The Incarnational Art of Flannery O'Connor, and Andrew Manis, Assistant Professor, Macon State College, presented Macon Black and White: An Unutterable Separation of the American Century.
At the evening Vespers on the opening afternoon, and during Jones' talk, the audience was treated to the music by Mercer University's student choir; especially memorable was two performances of Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Bogorodiste Devo" from his Vespers in the original Russian.
At the conference banquet on Friday evening at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, Program Director John Steven Paul, presented the Second Biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award to Thomas A. (Tal) Howard (LF, 97-99), Associate Professor of History and Director of the Jerusalem & Athens Forum at Gordon College, for Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University, and the 2008 Arlin G. Meyer Prize to Gilbert Meilander, Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Professor of Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University, for The Way that Leads There: Augustinian Reflections on the Christian Life.
On Saturday afternoon, a large number of attendees took a bus to Milledgeville, GA, to visit two sites associated with Flannery O'Connor. One visited the O'Connor Collection at the Georgia College and State University archives, while the other group visited Andalusia, the Milledgeville farm where Flannery lived with her mother and where she wrote most of her stories and essays.
Many thanks are due Richard F. Wilson, Columbus Roberts Professor of Theology and Chair at Mercer University, and his assistant, Nancy Stubbs, for their splendid work in conceiving, planning, and organizing the conference, and to Mercer University and the city of Macon for being such wonderful hosts.
The 18th LFP National Conference (PDF) will be held at Seattle Pacific University, October 10-12, 2008, and will address the topic: Beauty: What's Justice Got To Do With It?
____ 8th Annual Workshop for Senior Administrators ____
On Thursday and Friday, October 18-19, the Eighth LFP Workshop for Senior Administrators welcomed 37 participants from Network Schools who gathered for a lively and thoughtful and thoughtful discussion of "Mentoring Faculty for Mission." The workshop was hosted by Margaret Franson, Associate Dean of Christ College at Valparaiso University. Administrators were addressed by Caroline J. Simon, Professor of Philosophy and Director of General Education at Hope College in Holland, MI. Simon entitled her address "Becoming the Mentors We Need Our Faculty to Be." On Friday, Denise Doyle, Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, spoke on the topic "The Role of Senior Administration in Mentoring the Whole Community for Mission."
The Ninth Annual Workshop for Senior Administrators will be held at Seattle Pacific University, October 9-10, and address issues of Diversity and Mission.
______ Notable Events of the LFP NNB October Meeting,
Including Newly Approved Projects and Initiatives ______
The National Network Board of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts met for its semi-annual meeting October 18-19, 2007, at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
The Board considered proposals for Regional Conferences, Network Exchange Programs, and Mentoring Programs. It decided to fund the following Proposals:
Network Exchange Program for Geneva College in Beaver Fall, PA, entitiled Returning to the Roots of Civil Rights (Director: Todd Allen)
Regional Conference for Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, entitled The Pietist Impulse in Christianity (Directors: G. William Carlson; Christopher Collins Winn, and Christopher Gehrz)
Mentoring Programs at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, and the University of Dallas.
The National Network Board voted the following LFP Representatives to the National Network Board:
Richard F. Wilson, Columbus Roberts Professor of Theology and Chair at Mercer University, Macon Georgia
Susan M. Sanders, Vice President for Mission and Heritage, St. Xavier University, Chicago and Orland Park, IL
Lisa DeBoer (LF, 96-98), Assistant Professor of Art, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California
The four-year terms of these board members will begin with the National Network Board meeting in April, 2008. We welcome these colleagues to the Board.
The National Network Board also approved membership into the LFP National Network for three institutions: Grove City College (http://www.gcc.edu/) in Grove City, PA; Salve Regina University in Newport, RI, and Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY.
______ The Third Annual Arlin G. Meyer Prize ______
On October 19, 2007, the LFP, announced the winner and finalists of its 2007 Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Humanities Non-Fiction
at the program's seventeenth annual national conference at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
The winner of the 2007 Arlin G. Meyer Prize is The Way that Leads There: Augustinian Reflections on the Christian Life, by Gilbert Meilaender, Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Professor of Christian Ethics, Valparaiso University. In their letter of nomination, Professors Mel Piehl and Elizabeth Burow-Flak of Valparaiso University commended The Way that Leads There as "a superb and profound reflection on central matters affecting the Christian life…[that] draws on Meilaender's wide and deep learning in the Christian tradition." In selecting The Way that Leads There as the winning entry among a field of strong contenders, the selection committee found the book a gracefully written meditation on the Christian life that is grounded in years of reading, teaching and thinking with Augustine. As a work of Christian scholarship, the book demonstrates how fruitful it can be to bring the wisdom of ancient authors to bear on the most pressing issues of life in our contemporary world. The selection committee was especially impressed by Meilaender's ability to treat Augustine's writing with critical reverence, interpreting his work through a practice of reading that is both creative and generous.
The Lilly Fellows Program also honored five finalists for the Award: Practicing Mortality, by Christopher Dusting, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross, and Joanna Ziegler, Professor in the Department of Visual Arts, College of the Holy Cross; Dialogue and Drama: Elements of Greek Tragedy in the Fourth Gospel, by Jo-Ann Brant, Chair, Department of Bible, Religion, and Philosophy, Goshen College; Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, by Timothy Larson, Professor in the Department of Theology, Wheaton College; The Gift of Story: Narrating Hope in a Postmodern World, by Emily Griesinger, Professor of English, Azusa Pacific University, and Mark Eaton, Professor of English, Azusa Pacific University, and "Women, Religion, and Insanity in Mary Lamb's 'The Young Mahometan," European Romantic Review, Vol. 16, No. 4, October 2005: 417-438, by Julie Straight (LF 02-04), Assistant Professor of English, Northwest Nazarene University. These finalists will be honored at Lilly Fellows Program conferences and on its website.
The Arlin G. Meyer Prize is awarded annually to a fulltime faculty member from a college or university in the Lilly Fellows Program National Network whose work exemplifies the practice of the Christian artistic or scholarly vocation. The $3000 prize honors Arlin G. Meyer, Professor Emeritus of English at Valparaiso University, who served as program director of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts from its inception in 1991 until his retirement in 2002.
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2008 Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Performing Arts, which will be presented at the LFP National Conference at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington, October 10-12, 2008. The Nomination Deadline is March 1, 2007.
______ The Second Biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award ______
On October 19, 2007, the LFP, announced the winner and finalists of its Second Biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award at the program's seventeenth annual national conference at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
The winner of the Second Biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award is Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University (Oxford University Press, 2006) by Thomas Albert Howard (LF 97-99), Associate Professor of History and Director of the Jerusalem & Athens Forum at Gordon College. In this fascinating work, Howard examines the emergence of the German University as the "global standard" in the nineteenth century within the context of German political, theological, and philosophical history. Howard discerns that science, theology, and the ideals of the modern university developed together, each being indelibly shaped by the other. Howard therefore not only uncovers this largely untold story of the way German universities and modern theology, as well as science and philosophy, developed, but he repositions critical developments in the relationship of religion to higher education to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Germany. Howard's work has already been recognized for its importance by such leading thinkers and Frederick Gregory, Stanley Hauerwas, and Mark Noll. According to Friedrich Wilhelm Graf in Historiche Zeitschrift, Howard's book is "an ambitious wide-angled view of the path of Protestant university theology from the Reformation at Wittenberg . . . to the twentieth century. . . ." Richard Crouter in Journal of Religion, believes that "Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University will provoke reflection among readers who wrestle with the place of the academic study of religion . . . in the universities . . . ," and Todd Ream, in The Cresset, asserts that Howard's book is " . . . essential reading for anyone concerned about the past and thus the future of both theology and the university."
The Lilly Fellows Program also honored three finalists for the Award: Gladly Learn, Gladly Teach: Living Out One's Calling in the Twenty-First Century Academy, edited by John M. Dunaway, Professor of French & Interdisciplinary Studies and Director, Mercer Commons at Mercer University (Mercer University Press, 2005); Spirit of Service: Exploring Faith, Service, and Social Justice in Higher Education, edited by Brian T. Johnson, Chaplain, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Carolyn R. O'Grady, Associate Professor of Education, Gustavus Adolphus College (Anker Press, 2006), and The Decline of the Secular University: Why the Academy Needs Religion, by C. John Sommerville, Professor of English History, Emeritus, University of Florida (Oxford University Press, 2006). These finalists will be honored at Lilly Fellows Program conferences and on its website.
The biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award honors an original and imaginative work from any academic discipline that best exemplifies the central ideas and principles animating the Lilly Fellows Program. These include faith and learning in the Christian intellectual tradition, the vocation of teaching and scholarship, and the history, theory or practice of the university as the site of religious inquiry and culture. The Lilly Fellows Book Award will be offered again in 2009.
______ Upcoming Deadlines for Awards and Grant Opportunities ______
December 10, 2007: Nominations for the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program
December 18, 2007: 2007-2009 LFP Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowships
March 1, 2008: Nominations for the Arlin G. Meyer Prize
March 15, 2008: Applications for National Research Conference
(2008-2009 Academic Year)
March 15, 2008: Applications for Summer Seminars (Summer 2008)
______ From the Colloquium... ______
In alternating years, the Lilly Fellows Colloquium takes up the subject of the academic vocation. We have recently considered Gil Meilaender's essay "The Divine Summons: the Infinite Horizon of Vocation" in The Freedom of a Christian (Brazos 2006). Meilaender takes as his point of departure not a Christian source, but rather Vergil's Aenead, "a poem about vocation." (103) Aeneas' destiny is, of course, to found the city of Rome. Though a number of his company beg him to settle with them in Sicily and Queen Dido commits suicide when he leaves Carthage, a place where he had been happy and satisfied, Aeneas dutifully responds to the call from Jupiter: "The man should sail." (Naviget.)
"Do you want to know what is your vocation?" Meilaender asks.
Then the first question to ask is not "What do I want to do with my life." It is not as if I first come to know myself and then choose a vocation that fulfills and satisfies me. For it is only by hearing and answering the divine summons, by participating in my calling, (itals. mine) that I can come to know who I am. We are not who we think we are; we are who God calls us to be. "The man should sail." (106)
Many of our students, it seems, just can't wait to hear what God has in mind for them and when God doesn't seem to be speaking loudly and clearly they become frustrated. ("God will not be Googled," an impatient one once said.) The task for those of us who are aiding students in their vocational discernment is to keep them obedient to God, working with God, participating in their calling.
Autumn blessings, John Steven Paul
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