Directors of the Wabash Center

• Raymond Williams, Director (1995-2002)
• Lucinda Huffaker, Director (2002-2006)
• Nadine Pence, Director, (2007-2019)
• Nancy Lynne Westfield, Director (2019 -present)

Associate Directors of the Wabash Center

• Lucinda Huffaker, Associate Director (1997-2002)
• Dianne Oliver, Program Director (1999-2020)
• Paul Myhre, Associate Director (2001-2020); Senior Associate Director (2020-2022)
• Tom Pearson, Associate Director (2002-2020)
• Mary Stimming, Associate Director (2016-2021)
• Tim Lake, Associate Director (2016 – 2022)
• Kimberleigh Jordan, Associate Director of Educational Design (2020-2021)
• Donald E. Quist, Editor of Journal on Teaching (2021-present); Educational Design Manager (2022-present)
• Gina A.S. Robinson, Associate Director (2022-present)
• Sarah F. Farmer, Associate Director (2022-present)

Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion

Compiled by Jack L Seymour, Professor Emeritus, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

The following timeline lists the programs developed by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion.  Organized by both year and by the goals of the Wabash Center in that year, the timeline shows both the programs of the center and its continuing activities. [1]

Founding of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology & Religion at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana.  (1996)

• Supported by grants awarded by Lilly Endowment Inc. (The planning grants and first grants were a part of “Theological Teaching Initiative” of the Lilly Endowment.)
• Mission: “to enhance and strengthen teaching in theology and religion in North American theological schools, colleges and universities.”
• Originally located at Hovey Cottage on Wabash College campus.  In 2008 moved to the Wabash Center building on the Wabash College campus (301 W. Wabash Avenue, Crawfordsville, IN.).

1991-1995 Preparation and Forerunners

• Wabash College Workshop on Teaching Religion for Young Scholars (1991 – 1992)
• Ongoing conversations with Lilly Endowment & Wabash College administration & faculty
• Lilly/AAR Workshops on Teaching for undergraduate scholars in religion (1991 – 1995)
• ATS Teaching Grants Program (1989 – 1995)
• Wabash College hosted a Consultation on Theological Teaching (March 1995)
• Planning Grant from Lilly Endowment (1995)

1996[2]

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Began early career (pre-tenure) workshops for theological school faculty (additional workshops offered 1996 – present)
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
  • Began to support and participate in meetings at Professional Societies (1996 -present) – For example, American Academy of Religion (AAR), Society for Biblical Literature (SBL), Association of Theological Schools (ATS), Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI), Forum for Theological Exploration (originally Fund for Theological Education, FTE, Asian Theological Summer Institute (ATSI), American Theological Library Association (ATLA), Religious Education Association (REA), College Theological Society (CTS), Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), Carnegie Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Center for Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, etc.)
  • Began series of disciplinary conversations with faculty (began with theology and continued from 1996 – 2018 with additional faculty groups from theology, world religions, Bible, biblical languages, history of Christianity, librarians, practice of ministry, religious education, preaching, ethics, field education, inter-religious studies)
  • Began to offer grants for study of teaching in theology and religion (first grant offered 1996 to the Boston Theological Institute)[3]
• Vocation of Teaching
  • Planning for a consultation on the vocation of teaching
  • Vocation engaged in all workshops, disciplinary, and professional society meetings
• Development of the Professorate in Teaching and Learning
  • Began to sponsor gathering for doctoral program directors (1996 – 2018; schools shared resources of preparing doctoral students in teaching); in 1996 began Consultation on the Formation of Teachers of Religion in Graduate Schools
• Sustaining and Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Wabash Consultation on Undergraduate Study of Religion (meeting with chairs of undergraduate departments; 1996)
  • Partnered with Lilly Endowment through its Theological Teaching Initiative (1996). Continues cooperative work with many Lilly-funded projects including Keystone Project, Lexington Project, Louisville Institute, Association of Theological Schools, American Theological Library Association, Indianapolis Congregations Project, FTE, HTSI, ATSI, etc.
• Technologies and Theological Teaching
  • Partnered with the Lilly Endowment Grant on Library Technology for Theological Teaching (1996 – 2000) – Began with 30 Theological libraries
  • Began to develop a presence on World-wide Web – Wabash Center website (1996 – present)

1997

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Continued early career workshops and planned for future workshops
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
  • Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
  • Continued conversations with academic discipline groups (world religions)
• Vocation of Theological Teaching
  • Began project on the Vocation of Teaching (1997 – 2003). Resulted in the publication The Scope of Our Art (Eerdmans, 2001)
• Development of the Professorate in Teaching and Learning
  • Scheduled conversations with representatives of PhD/ThD programs
  • Began work on syllabus collection
• Sustaining and Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Conversations in workshops raised important issues of faculty climate
  • Planned for grant program to address faculty and school culture and context
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Work with Lilly Endowment and theological librarians on online teaching and use of world-wide web
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Founding of Teaching Theology and Religion (TTR) – (1997 – 2019); Replaced by Wabash Center Journal on Teaching (2020-present)

1998

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Continued early career workshops and planned for future workshops.
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
  • Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
  • Continued conversations with academic discipline group (religious education & Bible)
• Vocation of the Theological Teacher
  • Continued conversations and planned for publications on vocation
  • Continued conversations in workshops and at professional societies, including hosting a meeting at AAR/SBL of new faculty members
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Work on Wabash Center syllabus collection
  • Enhanced participation of the Wabash Center staff at disciplinary, guild, ATS, and deans’ meetings
• Sustaining Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Conversations in workshops
  • Initiated grants program for schools to address teaching and learning, faculty and school environment, and research on teaching and learning
  • Continuing conversation with Lilly Endowment Theological Teaching Initiative partners
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Explored digitizing resources for theological and religious teaching (1998 – 1999) – resulted in grants for creating and digitizing materials
  • Work with Lilly Endowment and theological librarians on online teaching and use of world-wide web
  • Began to track the enhanced use of the Wabash Center web and the syllabus collection
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Planned for book publications supported by the Wabash Center to begin with book on vocation of theological teacher and supported first faculty study grant for a book on teaching religion in colleges and universities

1999

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Continued early career workshops and planned for future workshops.
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
  • Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
  • Continued disciplinary conversations (practice of ministry)
• Vocation of the Theological Teacher
  • Continued conversations on vocation
  • Continued conversations in workshops and at professional societies
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Held a second consultation of representatives of PhD/ThD Granting programs and planned for continuing development of these meetings
  • Conversations at AAR/SBL on preparation of graduate students in teaching
  • Continuing work on syllabus collection
• Sustaining Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Conversations in workshops
  • Supported grants for schools (addressing issues of faculty support, tenure and promotion, and support for enhancement of teaching)
• Technologies and Theological Teaching
  • National Conference in Information Technology in Theological Education (1999)
  • Partnered with the Lilly Endowment on its Information Technology for Theological Teaching (1999 – 2001) – added 42 additional theological schools
  • Worked to license use of Blackboard courseware for schools (1999 – 2004)
  • Hired staff member to work with technology emphasis
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Planned for article and book publications supported by the Wabash Center (many grew out of faculty workshops and colloquies)

2000

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Continued early career workshops and planned for future workshops
  • Began to offer grants for teaching and learning (e.g., a workshop on teaching and learning for the Wartburg Seminary faculty)
  • Launched Consultants program (2000 – present, many focused on teaching practices)
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
  • Continued conversations and programs at professional societies
  • Continued conversations with disciplinary groups (both biblical languages and began a series with theological librarians from 2000 – 2013)
• Vocation of the Theological Teacher
  • Continued conversations and planned for publications
  • Continued conversations in workshops and at professional societies
  • Launched consultants’ program (some focusing on vocation of theological teacher)
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Continued conversations at academic associations
  • Continued to add to the syllabus collection
• Sustaining and Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Awarding of grants to faculty and institutions (2000 – present; many projects focused on faculty relationships and climate, curriculum development, assessment, etc.)
  • Launched consultants’ program (2000 – present; many focused on school environment for teaching, faculty review, faculty climate, addressing race and gender)
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Developed website of resources for teaching – Guide to Internet Resources for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion.
  • Conference with ATLA on digital materials for theological education
  • Made Blackboard courseware available to theological schools
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Awarding of Grants to Faculty Members (2000 – present; many grants resulted in published articles and books. For example, a grant to Joseph A. Favazza and F. Michael McLain resulted in the 2002 book From Cloister To Commons: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Religious Studies edited by Favazza, McClain, and Richard Devine co-published by American Association of Higher Education and the Wabash Center. It then resulted in consultations for colleges on service learning)
  • Research, workshops, consultants, grants, and colloquies began to interconnect
  • Began to develop resources for faculty on the Wabash Center website

2001

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Began early career workshop for faculty teaching undergraduates (additional workshops offered 2001 – present)
  • Continued ongoing workshops
  • Supported consultants to work with schools on teaching
  • Began regular meetings on campus of consultants and workshop leaders (continued to present)
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
  • Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
  • Continued conversations with disciplinary groups (history of Christianity faculty)
• Vocation of the Theological Teacher
  • Publication of Scope of Our Art and planning for future conversations and publications
  • Continued conversations in workshops and at professional societies
  • Supported consultants for conversations at schools on vocation
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Continuation and development of conversations at academic associations
  • Continuing work on syllabus collection
• Sustaining Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Conversations in workshops
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
• Technologies and Theological Teaching
  • Work with Lilly and Theological librarians on online teaching and use of world-wide web
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Planned for book and article publications supported by the Wabash Center

2002[4]

• Completion of Trippet Hall for Guest Accommodations and Meetings (2002 – present; Trippet Hall enhanced the environment for workshops, conferences, etc.)
• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Began mid-career teaching colloquies for theological educators (additional workshops offered 2002 – present)
• Began teaching workshops for faculty of African descent (additional workshops offered 2002 – present)
• Added follow-up stipends for those participating in workshops
• Continued ongoing workshops
• Continued and enlarged consultant program
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
  • Sponsored conversations at disciplinary meetings, with disciplinary groups, and at many professional societies
• Vocation of the Theological Teacher
  • Held consultation on career in theological scholarship
  • Continued conversations in workshops and at professional societies
  • Supported consultants for conversations on vocation
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Sponsored ongoing conversations with new faculty and graduate students in professional academic association meetings
• Sustaining Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Conversations in workshops
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Conference on Teaching and Technology for project directors at over 70 theological schools (2002, 2003, 2019)
  • Continued work on Wabash Center website as resource for learning
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
• Continued to edit and develop TTR
• Planned for publications of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations to be published (e.g., From Cloister to Commons published by Stylus Press in 2002; Being Black, Teaching Black published by Abingdon Press, 2008 grew out of African American faculty workshop; and a project on vocation grew out of mid-career workshop which was published in TTR)

2003

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
• Continued ongoing workshops (early career, mid-career, and faculty of African American descent
• Supported consultants for teaching workshops at schools
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
  • Continued disciplinary conversations (homiletics)
  • Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
• Vocation of the Theological Teacher
  • Continued conversations in workshops and at professional societies
  • Supported consultants for conversations on vocation
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Continued ongoing conversations with schools and supported consultants for work with schools
  • Began to offer grants for schools to address issues of environment and climate
• Sustaining Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Conversations in workshops
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
  • Sponsored panel on library and faculty cooperation at ATLA
  • Training meeting for Wabash Center consultants and workshop leaders
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Continued conferences on Teaching and Educational technology (continued for several years including 2002, 2003, 2019)
  • Worked with Lilly information technology project directors
  • Facilitated access to Blackboard courseware for 30 of the 72 Lilly schools receiving Lilly technology grants
  • Continued work on Wabash Center website as resource for learning including further development of Guide to Internet Resources for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools (e.g., support for faculty to see the emerging distance learning program at Luther Seminary and scholarships to Minnesota Consortium of Theological Schools Computer Camp 5 and the AAC&U Conference on Technology, Learning, and Intellectual Development)
  • Support for development of Teaching Greek website
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Planned for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations (e.g., 2002 Mid-Career Colloquy produced an issue of TTR)

2004

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Began workshops for teaching in racially and culturally diverse classrooms (2004 – 2007)
  • Continued ongoing workshops (early career and mid-career)
  • Continued to provide schools with consultants
  • Provided a series of pre-session teaching workshops at professional academic associations
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
• Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies (e.g., teaching the Bible in diverse classrooms)
• Continued faculty disciplinary conversations (homiletics)
• Vocation of the Theological Teacher
• Continued conversations in workshops and at professional societies
• Supported consultants for conversations on vocation
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
• Continued conversations with school program directors and supported consultants to assist schools with preparing their graduates as teachers
• Sponsored sessions at professional academic associations including dinners for new faculty and graduate students
• Continued to develop partnerships with several academic societies, teaching projects, and Lilly endowment funded projects
• Sustaining Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
• Conversations in workshops
• Sponsored workshop for academic deans at ATS deans’ meeting
• Sponsored meeting with caucus of religiously affiliated institutions at AAR
• Provided consultants and grants for conversations at schools
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
• Continued work on Wabash Center website as resource for learning (e.g., consulted with Bible faculty for further development of language teaching project)
• Sponsored colloquium for ATLA
• Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
• Completed evaluation of Wabash Center Internet Guide
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
• Continued to edit and develop TTR (Special issue on teacher’s career and life)
• Continued planning for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations
• Received report of Wabash Center supported research on introductory undergraduate religion course – Effective Practices from 50 teachers

2005

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Began mid-career colloquies for college/university faculty (additional workshops offered 2005 – present)
  • Held conference on teaching Introductory Religion courses (2005; 50 schools present)
  • Initiated Educating Clergy Project 2005 – 2012 (Held conferences followed by sponsoring teaching workshops at theological schools)
  • Continued ongoing workshops (early career, mid-career, and faculty teaching in racial/ culturally diverse classrooms)
  • Offered consultants to schools for teaching workshops
• Teaching and Learning in Subject Areas
• Sponsored conversations at disciplinary meetings, with disciplinary groups, and sponsored programs at professional societies (e.g., workshops on service learning and teaching the Bible)
• Vocation of the Theological Teacher
• Continued conversations in workshops and at professional societies
• Supported consultants for conversations on vocation
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
• Continued ongoing conversations and supported consultants for schools
• Continued meetings with graduate students at professional societies
• Offered grants for graduate programs to develop programming to prepare doctoral students for teaching
• Sustaining and Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Educating Clergy Project (2005-2012; workshops, grants, and consultations)
  • Conversations in workshops
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools (including mission of schools, teaching practices, and faculty development and climate)
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
• Continued work on Wabash Center website as resource for learning
• Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools (on distance learning, online teaching, and hybrid teaching)
• Provided support for theological faculty to participate in a course for teaching online
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Publication of Educating Clergy by Charles Foster et.al. (2005; partnered with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching)
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR (Special issue of TTR on mid-career faculty)
  • Continued planning for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations to be published – for example projects such as Mary Hess, 2005. Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All That We Can’t Leave Behind. Sheed & Ward, Rowman & Littlefield; Victor Klimoski, ed. 2005. Educating Leaders for Ministry. Liturgical Press; Barbara Wheeler, 2005, Research report on Theological Faculty and Theological Teaching. Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education, Auburn Seminary.

2006[5]

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Began teaching workshops with Asian/ Pacific Islander faculty (2006 – present)
  • Began workshop for fostering effective teaching and learning in racial/ culturally diverse classrooms
  • Held colloquy for Women as Teachers (2006)
  • Held colloquy on teaching Pastoral Leadership for Public Engagement
  • Began Wabash Center workshops for teaching online (2006 – 2018)
  • Continued ongoing workshops (early and mid-career workshops)
  • Supported consultants to assist schools with teaching workshops
  • Sponsored conversations at disciplinary meetings and programs at professional societies
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Educating Clergy Project held six two-day conferences for seminaries, divinity schools, and rabbinical schools. These workshops were followed by grants and support for consultants to work with schools.
  • Continuation and development of ongoing support of consultants for schools
• Sustaining Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Conversations in workshops
  • Offered grants and consultants for conversations at schools including those focusing on Educating Clergy
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Continued work on Wabash Center website as resource for learning
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools (including assessment, cultural diversity, teaching pastoral imagination)
  • Established online workshops for seminary faculty teaching online
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR (special issue on strategies for religious leadership formation)
  • Continued planning for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations
  • Complied a bibliography of over 125 articles funded by Wabash Center grants during the previous 10 years

2007[6]

• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
• Continued ongoing workshops for pre-tenure, and mid-career faculty and on teaching and racial/ cultural diversity
• Supported consultants for teaching workshops at schools
• Sponsored conversations at disciplinary meetings and programs at professional societies (including reunion dinner for participants in last 10 years of Wabash Center workshops and colloquies)
• Held workshop for theological librarians
• Held interdisciplinary consultation on the teaching of the Black experience
• Development of the Professorate in Theology and Religion
• Sponsored ongoing conversations among schools including biannual conference for program directors
• Supported consultants to help schools develop programs to train doctoral students as teachers
• Continued luncheons and programs for graduate students and new teachers at professional societies
• Sustaining Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Sponsored Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses Project (2007-2012; offered several workshops at professional societies and across US and Canada, provided grants, and offered consultations)
  • Supported grants, peer-mentoring, and consultants for conversations at schools (some included curriculum, being theological teacher, measuring outcomes, racial and cultural dynamics)
  • Sponsored leadership development meeting for consultants and leaders of Wabash Center programs
• Conversations in workshops
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Continued work on Wabash Center website as resource for learning
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
  • Continued online workshops for teaching online
  • Began to develop e-newsletter Teaching Links providing resources on teaching
• Creation of a New Literature on Theological Teaching
• Continued to edit and develop TTR
• Continued planning for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations
• Sponsored workshops on writing the scholarship of teaching at professional societies
• Publication of Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses by Barbara Walvoord (2007)
• Offered grants to mid-career scholars on “pedagogy of difficult conversations”
• Coordinated and developed in partnership with the Lilly Endowment a project examining research on theological education

2008

• Completion of building for the Wabash Center, 301 W. Wabash Avenue, Crawfordsville, IN. on grounds of Wabash College (2008 – present)
• Workshops and Other Reflective Practices on Teaching and Learning
  • Continued ongoing workshops including pre-tenure and mid-career
  • Began workshops for Latinx faculty (2008 – present)
  • Continued to provide consultants for workshops on teaching
  • Sponsored consultation on theology and the arts
  • Continued conversations and programs at professional societies
• Development of the Professorate in Teaching and Learning
  • Continued conversations and support of consultants for schools
  • Organized sessions for graduate students and new teachers as professional societies
  • Sponsored biennial gathering for directors of doctoral-granting institutions
• Sustaining and Empowering Environments in Theological Schools and Religion Departments
  • Conversations in workshops
•  
  • Supported grants, peer-mentoring, and consultants for conversations at schools (including assessment, service-learning, online teaching, and race and cultural diversity)
  • Encouraged grants and consultants for schools to focus on both Educating Clergy and Introductory Religion Course
  • Sponsored a meeting for leadership development of consultants, workshop, and colloquy leaders
• Technologies and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Continued work on Wabash Center website as resource for learning
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
  • Continued online workshops for teaching online
• Creation of a Scholarly Literature on Theological Teaching
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Continued planning for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations (e.g., Being Black, Teaching Black, N. Lynne Westfield published by Abingdon Press, 2008). 

2009[7]

• Teaching and Learning
  • Held colloquy on Theology and the Arts (2009)
  • Continued ongoing workshops (including pre-tenure, mid-career, and faculty of African descent and for Latino/a faculty)
  • Provided consultants for schools conducting workshops on teaching
  • Continued conversations and programs at professional societies
  • Began work on an evaluation plan for workshops
• The Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Sponsored conversations among schools and at professional societies
  • Sponsored meetings for graduate students and new teachers at professional societies
  • Sponsored workshop for FTE dissertation fellows
  • Began Graduate Program Teaching initiative to assist graduate programs with enhancing teaching courses and certificates in doctoral programs
• Theological School and Religion Department Environments
  • Conversations in workshops
•  
  • Supported grants, peer-mentoring, and consultants for conversations at schools (including learning outcomes, interdisciplinary teaching, institutional mission and religion majors, race, and culture)
  • Encouraged grants and consultants for schools to focus on both Educating Clergy and Introductory Course
  • Brought consultants together to explore learnings and best practices from their common work
• Digital Technology and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Continued work on Wabash Center website as resource for learning and developed an E-Newsletter
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
  • Continued workshops for teaching online
• Scholarly Literature on Teaching in Theology and Religion
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Continued planning for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations
  • Began workshops on Writing the Scholarship of Teaching (2009 – present) 

2010

• Teaching and Learning
  • Began colloquies for theological school deans (2010 – 2018)
• Continued ongoing workshops and consultants for school
• Continued and sponsored conversations at disciplinary meetings and programs at professional societies
• The Professorate in Theology and Religion
  • Began to partner with FTE, HTI, ATSI on workshops on teaching for doctoral candidates (2010 – 2019)
  • Began Graduate Program Initiative working with 57 schools to enhance preparation of doctoral students in teaching and learning (2010 – 2019)
  • Continued ongoing conversations among schools and at professional societies and supported consultants to assist schools
• Theological School and Religion Department Environments
  • Conversations in workshops
•  
  • Supported grants, peer-mentoring, and consultants for conversations at schools
  • Attention to the concern of school environment and climate in colloquies sponsored for theological school deans and theological librarians
  • Planned evaluation of consultant program
  • Planned leadership training event for consultants and workshop leaders
• Digital Technology and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Continued work on Wabash Center resources for online teaching and learning
  • Completed an assessment of Internet Guide to Religion
  • Continued online course for teaching online and began an evaluation of the course and its future
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
• Scholarly Literature on Teaching in Theology and Religion
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Held colloquy on Writing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
  • Enlarged the collection of books and articles on teaching in Wabash Center library
  • Continued to refine Teaching Links (topics included critical thinking, learning styles, service learning, grading rubrics, assessment, diversity, and syllabi)
  • Offered grants focused on “transnational pedagogies”
  • Continued planning for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations

2011

• Teaching and Learning
  • Continued ongoing workshops (including pre-tenure and mid-career and for Asian/Asian American faculty), and offered consultants on teaching for schools
  • Sponsored colloquy on religious commitments in undergraduate classroom
  • Continued sponsoring conversations and programs at professional societies
  • Developed Philosophy for Workshops and Colloquies to guide Wabash Center (developed under the following headings – Teaching is a Vocation, Teaching is a Craft, and Institutional Setting Matters)
  • Began a longitudinal study of workshops and colloquies
• The Professorate in Teaching and Learning
  • Sponsored ongoing conversations among schools through the Graduate Program Initiative (defining key components and principles for preparing future teachers). Scheduled consultations as 12 schools and provided grants for 15 schools
  • Supported consultants to assist schools
  • Continued work with future and new teachers at professional societies (including session on designing introductory course syllabus)
  • Supported workshop sessions and conversations at professional societies
  • Provided teaching and assessment workshops for doctoral fellows with FTE, HTI, & ATSI
• Theological School and Religion Department Environments
  • Conversations in workshops
•  
  • Supported grants, peer-mentoring, and consultants for conversations at schools (including on race, student assessment, learning outcomes, capstone courses, online and hybrid courses, and race and cultural diversity)
  • Encouraged grants to assist schools
  • Continued colloquies for theological school deans
• Digital Technology and Theological Teaching and Learning
  • Continued work on Wabash Center resources for online teaching and learning (including Teaching Links and E-Newsletter)
  • Added to and completed ability to search the Internet Guide to Religion (1200 syllabi)
  • Supported grants and consultants for conversations at schools
  • Continued online course for teaching online
• Scholarly Literature on Teaching in Theology and Religion
  • Continued to edit and develop TTR
  • Continued planning for publication of projects generated in grants, workshops, and consultations
  • Continued workshops on Writing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 

2012[8]

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
• Continued ongoing workshops and consultations (including early career and mid-career faculty and Latino/a Religion faculty and Asian/Asian American faculty)
• Continued to enhance the orientation and support for workshop and colloquy leaders
• Sponsored conversations at and programs at professional societies (including regular conversations with representatives of other Lilly-supported programs)
• Continued work with doctoral program directors
• Continued work in many settings (professional societies, FTE, HTI) with students preparing to teach in theological education and religious study
• Educational Environments
  • Continued to sponsor consultants and grants for schools (on topics including capstone courses, improving teaching for globalization, designing an assessment plan, introductory courses, student learning outcomes)
  • Continued workshops for theological school deans and theological school librarians and for faculty teaching online
  • Continued work with the Graduate School Initiative (offered grants to schools to assess their programs)
  • Sponsored conference with deans and directors of graduate studies programs to define key components in effective graduate teaching programs
  • Offered grants to support projects and peer-mentoring
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Continued to enhance the Wabash Center website and resource collection (Created an evaluative process for website)
  • Enhanced social media presence of Wabash Center
  • Continued to develop TTR and work for the publication of resources developed through grants, workshops, and consultations (including workshop on Writing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning)

2013

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
• Continued ongoing workshops for early career faculty, mid-career faculty (where the focus was religious commitments in undergraduate classroom), and for Latino/a faculty. Continued work with workshop and colloquy leaders
• Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
• Continued work with doctoral program directors
• Continued work with students preparing to teach in theological education and religious study
• Educational Environments
  • Sponsored consultants working with schools (including topics of seminary’s mission, departmental curricula, multicultural teaching, redesigning MDiv, assessment, dismantling white privilege)
  • Continued work with theological school deans as well as with faculty teaching online
  • Continued work with directors of doctoral programs and with the Graduate School Initiative
  • Continued to offer grants to support projects and peer-mentoring
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Continued to enhance the Wabash Center website including updating the website
  • Continued to enhance resource collection including beginning to explore the work of social media
  • Continued to develop TTR and work for the publication of resources developed through grants, workshops, and consultations

2014

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
• Continued ongoing workshops and consultations for early career and mid-career faculty. Continued work with workshop and colloquy leaders
• Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
• Continued work with doctoral program directors
• Continued work with doctoral students (professional meetings and HTI, ATSI, & FTE doctoral fellows)
• Educational Environments
  • Sponsored consultants working with schools (topics included classroom pedagogy and theological school’s identity, religious commitment in classroom, curriculum, departmental assessment, diversity, modular pedagogies)
  • Continued work with theological school deans, theological librarians, and faculty teaching online
  • Sponsored consultation on diversity strategies in teaching
  • Continued work with directors of doctoral programs, including facilitating assessment of doctoral programs at 30 schools
  • Held summative conference of Graduate School Initiative identifying best practices
  • Held consultation on future of theological education
  • Offered grants to support projects and peer-mentoring
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Continued to enhance the Wabash Center website, resource collection, and social media presence
  • Launched “Scholarship on Teaching” as new web-based teaching resource
  • Renamed the “Internet Guide” as Syllabus Collection
  • Enhanced Wabash Center blogs (“Stories from the Front,” “Race Matters in the Classroom”) and continued to grow “Teaching Links”
  • Began developing video interviews about teaching as web content
  • Continued to develop TTR and work for the publication of resources developed through grants, workshops, and consultations
  • Sponsored an evaluation of TTR (conducted by Helen Blier)
  • Moved book reviews of TTR online and continued to explore online options for sharing the scholarship of teaching and learning
  • Held colloquy on Writing the Scholarship of Teaching

2015

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
• Continued ongoing workshops and consultations for early career and mid-career faculty, and for faculty of African descent. Continued work with workshop and colloquy leaders
• Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
• Continued work with doctoral program directors
• Continued work with students preparing to teach in theological education and religious study, including a set of Doctoral Student Seminars (2015 – 2020)
• Educational Environments
  • Sponsored consultants working with schools
  • Continued work with theological school deans and faculty teaching online
  • Continued work with directors of doctoral programs
  • Offered grant program for religious studies faculties on curriculum
  • Offer grants to support projects and peer-mentoring
  • Sponsored a professional event for all consultants and workshop leaders (sharing three longitudinal studies completed for Wabash Center (pre-tenure workshops, grants, and TTRand resources)
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Continued to enhance the Wabash Center website, resource collection, and social media presence
  • Continued colloquy on Writing the Scholarship of Teaching
  • Continued to develop TTR (including an issue on teaching abroad).  Reviewed the evaluation of TTR.
  • Continued to seek publication of resources developed through grants, workshops, and consultations

2016

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
• Continued ongoing workshops and consultations for early career and mid-career faculty (mid-career focused on community engagement), for faculty of African descent, and for online teaching. Continued work with workshop and colloquy leaders.
• Sponsored a re-gathering of workshop participants who were in 2006-2007 workshops to explore the impact
• Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
• Continued work with doctoral program directors
• Continued work with students preparing to teach in theological education and religious study, including a series of doctoral teaching seminars in Chicago and Dallas, and sessions at professional meetings and regional gatherings
• Educational Environments
  • Sponsored consultants working with schools (topics included faculty development and curriculum coverage, teaching workshops, civic engagement, experiential learning, mentoring teaching assistances)
  • Began redesigned course on online teaching in theological education
  • Collaborated with Interfaith Youth Corps on pedagogy of interfaith teaching
  • Held biennial conference for graduate program directors, deans, and chairs. Continued to work with schools on projects
• Hired staff member to lead work with doctoral students (“Preparing Future Faculty program”) and to work with doctoral programs
•  
  • Offered grants to support projects and peer-mentoring
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Continued to enhance the Wabash Center website including blogs on teaching, video interviews with faculty, expanded social media presence, and book reviews. 
  • Added blogs on “Teaching Islam,” “Teaching, Religion, Politics,” “Theological Schools Deans,” as well as continuing to expand “Race Matters,” “Storied from the Front”
  • Expanded the Wabash Center Resource collection at Wabash College
  • Continued work with TTR.
  • Continued to work for the publication of resources developed through grants, workshops, and consultations

2017

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
• Continued ongoing workshops and consultations for doctoral students (“Preparing Future Faculty”), early career, mid-career faculty, and faculty of Asian/Pacific Island descent. Continued work with workshop and colloquy leaders.
• Sponsored conversations and programs at professional societies
• Began two “Weekend Workshops” for Doctoral Students
• Continued work with doctoral program directors
• Educational Environments
  • Sponsored consultants working with schools (topics included religious studies field work, religious studies and theology, assessment of learning outcomes, enhancing face-to-face encounters in hybrid courses)
  • Continued work with theological school deans and faculty teaching online
  • Held summative conference for Undergraduate Department Grants program
  • Continued work with doctoral programs
  • Continued to offer grants to support projects and peer-mentoring
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Continued to enhance the Wabash Center website
  • Develop focused materials for “Theological School Deans,” “Race Matters in the Classroom,” and “Stories from the Front (of the classroom)”
  • Continued to expand the Wabash Center Resource collection. Launched a new website to share this content
  • Begun research program on “Pedagogy of Interfaith Learning” with Katherine Jones and Cassie Meyers (2016-2018)
  • Continued to develop TTR (Decided to separate from sponsorship of Wiley Blackwell publishers so that the focus of the journal could be more in line with programming of the Wabash Center)
  • Continue to seek for the publication of resources developed through grants, workshops, and consultations

2018

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
• Continued ongoing workshops and consultations for doctoral students, early career, mid-career faculty, and faculty of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Continued work with workshop and colloquy leaders.
• Sponsored doctoral student teaching seminars (NYC and Boston), weekend workshops (Seattle Pacific and SMU), and meetings at professional societies
• Sponsored conversations at disciplinary meetings and programs at professional societies, including a conversation on pedagogies of inter-religious studies
• Continued work with doctoral program directors
• Educational Environments
  • Sponsored consultants working with schools (topics included assessment, hybrid pedagogies, multi-cultural teaching, religion and theology major, contextual learning, distance learning)
  • Continued work with theological school deans
  • Continued work with directors of doctoral programs and sponsored a conference for project directors for schools in “preparing future faculty” program
  • Sponsored leadership development event for Wabash Center program leaders and consultants on “teaching in higher education”
  • Partnered with IFYC to work with schools on consultations on interfaith education and pedagogy
  • Held colloquy on Teaching against Islamophobia
• Offered future faculty grants to enhance teaching practices (2018-2019)
• Offered grants to support projects and peer-mentoring
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Continued to enhance the Wabash Center website and resource collection (editing syllabus collection and transitioning “Internet Guide” to “Religion on the Web”). Launched a new website to share this content attending to syllabus collection and “religion on the web”  
  • Expanded social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
  • Expanded focused materials for “Theological School Deans,” “Race Matters in the Classroom,” and “Stories from the Front (of the classroom)”
  • Continued work on TTR while planning a new Wabash Center academic online journal
  • Continued to sponsor the colloquy on Writing of the Scholarship of Teaching
  • Worked for the publication of resources developed through grants, workshops, and consultations

2019

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
  • Held colloquy on race critical consciousness for transformative theological education (2019-2020)
  • Held workshop on teaching digital media (2019)
  • Continued ongoing workshops and consultations for doctoral students, early career, mid-career faculty, teaching with digital media, and faculty in racial and cultural groups. Continued to work with workshop and colloquy leaders.
  • Worked with doctoral students by scheduling teaching and learning weekends (at Gonzaga and Princeton Theological Seminary), teaching seminars, and meetings at professional societies
•  
  • Sponsored workshops and conversations at professional societies and with partner Lilly-supported programs (including an invitational gathering co-sponsored with Odyssey Impact on “teaching with film for social change”)
• Continued work with doctoral program directors
• Educational Environments
•  
  • Sponsored consultants working with schools (topics included transition in departments of religion, rabbinic formation, integration of spiritual formation in teaching, hybrid programs, cultivating community of intellectual formation)
  • Continued work with theological school deans
  • Continued work with faculty teaching online
  • Continued work with directors of doctoral programs by scheduling biennial meeting of program directors.  Founded a working group to define best practices for “preparing future faculty”
  • Held additional colloquy on Teaching against Islamophobia
• Offered future faculty grants to enhance teaching practices (2018-2019)
• Developed programming for leadership development with those working with Wabash Center programs
• Offered grants to support projects and peer-mentoring
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Brought together a working group to look at future digital strategies for the Wabash Center
•  
  • Continued to enhance the Wabash Center website and resource collection
  • Expanded social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
  • Expanded focused materials for “Theological School Deans,” “Race Matters in the Classroom,” and “Stories from the Front (of the classroom)” and added “Online Teaching, Online Learning,” “Reflections on Teaching and Learning, “Teaching and Traumatic Events,” “Teaching Religion and Politics,” and “Teaching Islam”
  • Continued to expand the Wabash Center Resource collection.
• Launched the Wabash Center Journal on Teaching (2019 – present)
•  
  • Continued to schedule a colloquy on Writing the Scholarship of Teaching
• Continued to seek publication of resources developed through workshops, grants, and consultations

2020[9]  

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
  • Continued scheduled workshops and colloquies as much as possible online including early career, mid-career, and with faculty in racial/ cultural groups
  • Continued to sponsor online the colloquy on race critical consciousness for transformation theological education
  • Created an online mini-workshop on “Teaching with Digital Media”
  • Began Digital Salons for re-imagining teaching and learning in a time of pandemic and trauma (2020–present). Salons were scheduled for mid-career faculty, for mid-career African American faculty, for early career, for faculty of Asian/ American faculty, for engaging the imagination as theological school faculty, and for Latinx faculty
  • Enhanced online orientation for leaders
  • Moved teaching seminar online and completed research in “Preparing Future Faculty” project
  • Offered sessions for doctoral students online at professional associations
• Educational Environments
  • Focused programming and shared resources on responding to the pandemic, faculty overload, moving to online teaching, crisis pedagogies, educational design, anti-racism, and self-care
  • Continued to offer consultants to work with schools online
  • Sponsored online a colloquy on teaching black religious experience
  • Continued to support grants to assist schools
  • Continued to work online with programs of and groups in professional societies
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Recorded 70 podcasts and webinars
  • Created a dedicated page on website to online teaching
  • Created a dedicated blog column for teaching justice and engaging larger social issues of injustice
  • Created an online “Teachers Art Corner”
  • Enhanced social media presence
  • Began linking of symposia and webinars with grants and workshops to create a full environment to assist individual faculty members and schools to engage in education for change – “mobilization pedagogy” (2020 – present). Topic: Becoming Anti-Racist and Catalysts for Change & Teaching and Improvisation
  • Expanded resources on the Wabash Center website on online teaching and responding to the pandemic (2020 – present)
  • Conducted review of TTR and worked with staff and editorial committee to set new directions for JOT
  • Continued to seek the publication of resources developed through workshops, grants, and consultations
  • Sponsored an evaluation of the impact of Wabash Center programming for the past 25 years (conducted by Evelyn Parker and Jack Seymour)

2021

• Faculty Practices and Vocation
  • Continued to respond to the limitations imposed by the pandemic. Scheduled workshops and colloquy online for early career and Latinx faculties
  • Continued to offer digital Salons. Met with faculty leaders to assess the responsiveness and effectiveness of the salons
  • Continued with two online meetings for doctoral students through the “Preparing Future Faculty” project
  • The Wabash Center directors met online with workshop leaders for the last ten years to review and assess the needs and work of the Wabash Center
  • Conducted a formative evaluation of the programming since the beginning of the pandemic
• Educational Environments
• Created two multi-session virtual symposia – one on creativity and the other on anti-racism
• Redefined and focused criteria for consultations
• Sponsored consultations with several theological schools and religion departments (topics included best practices of teaching; values and principles for collaborative learning; classroom practices that foster diversity, equity, and inclusion; nurture and rigor in assignments, curriculum revision)
• Sponsored sessions at over ten professional societies
• Enhanced the regranting process to better focus projects and strengthen institutional support and impact
• Teaching and Learning Resources
  • Published issues of JOT – moved to redevelop and relaunch the journal to better fulfill and advance commitments of the Wabash Center
  • Published several blogs under topics such as “Teaching on the Pulse,” “Online Teaching,” “Democracy Matters,” “Creativity,” “Praxis”
  • Developed podcasts on significant topics about teaching, educational environment, teaching in atmosphere of trauma, future of theological education, race, and classroom practices (in 2020-2021 over 80 total)
  • Created 11 webinars
  • Enhanced social media presence
  • Revised the Wabash Center website enhancing access to the scholarship of teaching
  • Continued to add to Wabash Center resources center

[1] Under “Resources” and “Workshops and Programs” on the Wabash Center website is a full listing of each type of program https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu.  This timeline names when new programs were initiated and gives examples of continuing activity (e.g., examples are given of grants, publications, consultations, and programs at professional academic associations to illustrate the scope of work.)

[2] Each section is organized by mission and program goals.  “Servants of Excellence” was the guiding motto of center leadership.

[3] Throughout examples will be given of the many grants given by the Wabash Center to support teaching workshops, research on teaching and learning, on contexts for teaching and learning, for addressing race and cultural dynamics, on faculty environment, etc.

[4] Lucinda Huffaker became director of the Wabash Center

[5] Program areas for the Wabash Center were revised in 2006 and the first comprehensive evaluation of Wabash Center programming from 1996-2004 was completed by including workshop, meeting, and grant programs (conducted by Mary-Ann Winkelmes, with Erin Driver-Linn, Kathleen Talvacchia, and Victor Klimoski).

[6] Nadine Pence became director of the Wabash Center

[7] The names for the program areas were slightly revised for 2009-2012 grant period.

[8] The mission statement and program areas for the Wabash Center were revised.

[9] Nancy Lynne Westfield assumed position of director of the Wabash Center and the programming of the center. The center was immediately and significantly affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Jack L Seymour, Professor Emeritus, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

            Since its founding in 1996 on the campus of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN, the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion has significantly transformed the conversation about teaching and learning in theological schools and departments of religion.  More than this, the Wabash Center has transformed the ways faculty interact and cooperate across schools and disciplines.  This brief history rehearses the story of that transformative work.  Organized by the key contributions of the center, the story highlights the impact of the center on faculty, schools, and the wider culture. (For a full history of the events of the Wabash Center, see the “Timeline of Programs.”) [1]

            While excellent planning has directed the work of the Wabash Center, a dynamic stance of openness and listening has guided its work.  Wabash Center leadership has honored, listened, and learned from those they serve – the faculty of religious studies and theological education.  As such, the Wabash Center has been a learning organization that listens, collaboratively plans, evaluates, re-listens, and re-plans in partnership with those it serves.

            Funded from the beginning by grants from the Lilly Endowment Inc., the idea for the center arose out of conversations in the 1990s between Dr. Raymond Williams of Wabash College and Dr. Craig Dykstra of the Lilly Endowment.  Other faculty colleagues and administrators at Wabash College contributed to the shape of the center as well as Dr. Dan Aleshire of the Association of Theological Schools and leaders from the American Academy of Religion.[2]  From the beginning, Lilly Endowment staff saw the Wabash Center as a significant part of its wider “Theological Teaching Initiative”—to impact the training of religious leaders and thus the ability of religious organizations to affect communities of faith and the wider society.  Planning grants awarded in 1995 were followed by an implementation grant in 1996 and sustaining grants from then to the present. 

            The purpose of the center, defined at its founding, has remained consistent: “to enhance and strengthen teaching in theology and religion in North American theological schools, colleges and universities.”  Without a doubt, accomplishing this purpose during times of profound change has been amazing. The continuing vitality of the center is due to its openness to listen to the experiences and insights of those they serve, to gather them in conversation, to engage projects, and to review, rethink, and respond.

The Wabash Center Honored College and Seminary Teachers

After my second year of teaching, I attended the Wabash Center early career workshop. While I had worked on content goals for my introductory classes, I had never thought about student learning goals and aligning classroom practices and assignments with them.  Mentors in the summer program honored my previous efforts and stood beside me as I explored options for teaching.[3]

            The mission of the Wabash Center focuses on strengthening teaching.  Raymond Williams, the founding director, sharpened that mission by saying that the center focuses on all the work of the teacher.  The teacher’s experience in the classroom, in preparing to teach, in evaluating teaching, in the department and school, and throughout a life of scholarship and service has thus defined the work of the center.  From its founding, the center offered dignity and welcome to those who teach in the many disciplines of the study of religion, listened to their experiences, and responded with conversations, projects, and resources.

            In 1998 the work of the center began in earnest: 

• the first workshop for theological school faculty was scheduled,
• a consultation was begun with faculty in a teaching area to explore their common work, e.g., theologians examining the introductory course in theology,
• a first grant was awarded, e.g., to the Boston Theological Institute to review course changes in cooperating schools,
• a consultation with undergraduate faculty leaders was held,
• conversations began about an academic journal (that became Teaching Theology and Religion, TTR), and
• explorations were begun in using the “world-wide web” as a tool for teaching.

These initial activities set a pattern for the center.  Each of them created an interdisciplinary space of dignity, welcome, and inclusion allowing teachers to be known and to thrive.  The center honored teachers and their work.

The Wabash Center Nurtured a Rich Conversation about Teaching and Learning

I had been teaching for twenty years. Of course, I talked to my teaching assistants about classroom goals and about criteria for grading, yet I had never talked with colleagues from other schools about the goals for our teaching and the various classroom practices we used.  The Wabash consultation generated a rich partnership with colleagues as we sought to understand ways of teaching students.

Creating conversations about teaching has been the primary strategy of Wabash Center programming.  While workshops, disciplinary groups, and grants had focused agenda and goals, the conversations about teaching that occurred both in the events and around their edges made a significant impact across the study of religion and theological education. 

Much of the work of a teacher is personal and individual.  Teachers study their content, prepare goals for students, organize syllabi and lesson plans, and enact teaching usually all alone.  While faculty members meet in faculty meetings to discuss policies for students and their institutions, most of the work of a faculty member is private.  Too often the result is that the successes of the faculty member in the classroom are not celebrated and their anxieties and difficulties in teaching are rarely shared.  One senior faculty member mentioned that he had felt like an impostor for 20 years.  He had conversations with colleagues about research but had never spoken about his experiences of teaching until an on-campus consultation on teaching led by a Wabash consultant. 

Changing this “private” pattern of faculty life was a genius of the Wabash Center.  The Wabash Center staff honored the academic disciplines.  In the first few years, faculty from theology, Bible, church history, preaching, education, practical theology, ethics, and inter-religious studies, as well as theological librarians, gathered to explore their disciplines and their teaching.  Such reflection expanded conversations beyond research projects to the very character of the disciplines themselves and the best ways to help students learn and use the contributions of the disciplines. 

Moreover, the Wabash Center gathered faculty across disciplines.  These interdisciplinary and multigenerational gatherings of faculty for conversations about teaching were a totally new experience across higher education.  While a few such conversations had previously been scheduled by AAR, ATS, and individual schools, faculty conversations about teaching experiences were not an ongoing and sustained effort, nor a part of the regular preparation of doctoral students.  Wabash Center events thus invited faculty members to talk about teaching and their vocations.  This work was an innovation.  Those first workshops for theological faculty and undergraduate teachers were unique.  Colleagues gathered with listening and mentoring leaders to explore classroom commitments and practices. 

Through the years the Wabash Center has added and expanded its teaching workshops.  A pattern of mutual consulting, listening, and promoting respectful conversations has emerged about the practices, career, and meanings of teaching.  Such generative spaces empowered faculty members to share, focus insights, explore syllabi, share experiences within their classrooms and schools, to address their vocations, and consider the impact of their work.

Furthermore, these conversations have generated scholarship about teaching – resulting in new resources; for example, books on teaching preaching and teaching biblical languages, on the vocation of the theological educator, and on service learning were published as well as articles written for TTR.[4]  In addition, two major research projects were supported by the center.  Both Educating Clergy and College Introductory Courses expanded the attention on the mission and impact of theological schools and departments of religion and on the alignment of teaching practices and the goals of and schools.[5] 

Complementing the work with faculty members was also attention to the schools who were preparing future faculty.  From the beginning, the Wabash Center convened directors of the doctoral programs.  At these gatherings, leaders shared how the goals of doctoral programs to prepare scholars and researchers did and did not connect to concerns about preparing students as teachers.  Schools shared their struggles and successes: teaching assistant programs and classes on teaching.  Building on suggestions given in these consultations, the Wabash Center first developed meetings for doctoral students at professional societies and then a broader Graduate Teaching Initiative (2010).  They also provided grants and consultations (beginning in 2007) to assist schools to improve efforts in preparation for teaching.

Across all the events of the Wabash Center, conversations begun in workshops have been expanded through actions of individual faculty members, through collaborations across faculties, and in research projects. Professional academic guilds now also sponsor conversations on teaching. Individual schools request the Wabash Center to provide consultants and grants to assist them to explore practices of instruction, issues of community life, and the vocation of teaching.  Prior to the work of the Wabash Center only limited conversations among faculty across disciplines about vocation and community life had occurred.  The Wabash Center has stimulated a rich conversation on teaching.

The Wabash Center Was a Catalyst for New Possibilities of Teaching and Learning

Our school hoped to expand our course offerings to include those at a considerable distance from campus.  While I had used digital resources to enrich my teaching, I had never taught a fully online class.  When my dean asked me, I was both excited and anxious.  I was willing to try.  I contacted the Wabash Center who connected me with others who were teaching online.  It was a wonderful gift. 

            Beginning in the late 1990s, the Lilly Endowment partnered with the Wabash Center to explore online learning and digital technology.  The use of digital technology in teaching was just beginning.  The Lilly Endowment provided grants to several theological schools to help them acquire the infrastructure to test the potential of this new way of learning.  In concert, the Wabash Center organized conferences to assist these schools in the acquisition, use, and evaluation of technology.  They organized conversations where schools shared concerns and contributions.  Furthermore, they worked with theological librarians to explore the expansion of library collections and digital resources. 

            While there was some resistance to these new forms of online education with some faculty fearing that the learning community necessary for theological learning was being bypassed, several schools entered into explorations.  Slowly the contributions of digital learning began to emerge. The use of the world-wide web for academic resources, online and hybrid learning, and the development of courseware for classes showed possibilities for extending theological education to new populations.  The work of the Wabash Center had been pivotal in examining how a new form of pedagogy might expand the reach of schools. 

As always, the Wabash Center founded conversations and listened to experiences and needs.  By 2006 and continuing through 2018, the Wabash Center sponsored workshops for teaching online.  Some of these partnered with university online teaching programs.[6]  Again, as usual the conversations at the Wabash Center expanded and supported workshops at professional academic societies, grants for schools, consultants, and research on the contributions of online teaching.[7]

            The importance of these learnings about the practices and effectiveness of online education were made apparent in the necessary 2020 shift across higher education to online learning because of the Covid pandemic.  In fact, schools discovered they had the necessary infrastructure, a sufficient group of trained teachers, and the appropriate courseware to continue education during and after the shutdown.

From 2020 to the present, the Wabash Center has continued to resource and support these shifts that were often difficult and traumatic for students and faculty.  The center expanded its podcasts on teaching, organized support groups (salons) to help faculty deal with the trauma of being forced to move totally online, provided networks to assist faculty members to find and explore options for teaching in the pandemic, and offered consultants to assist schools in their responses.  The work of the Wabash Center provided background, experience, and research foundations on which schools could build.  The Wabash Center has been a catalyst for new directions in teaching.

The Wabash Center Created Communities of Advocacy, Conversation, and Empowerment for BIPOC Faculty

I looked around the room.  This was the first time I had been in an academic setting with all African American colleagues.  We shared about teaching, but even more, we shared our experiences of often being the only faculty of color at our school.  We talked about how hard it was to explain to our colleagues back home the need to ground teaching in our contexts.  The Wabash Center was a godsend.  I could be present, truthful, and engaged.

            Just as most faculty had not engaged in much conversation about teaching, little conversation had taken place in BIPOC communities about the vocation of teaching.  There had been little focused sharing of experiences of teaching in higher education.  In the early, 2000s many theological schools and departments of religion had few, if any BIPOC faculty.  Faculty members were therefore alone or a minority in institutions predominated by historic “white” patterns of interaction, scholarship, and expectations. 

            A workshop at the Wabash Center in 2002 for faculty of African Descent proved path breaking.  As participants in this workshop attest, it was the first time that a group of black faculty members across theological disciplines and institutional experiences could gather to share their experiences in teaching, to discuss together their home institutions, and to reflect on their vocations as educators.  Of course, there had been gatherings of womanist faculty and the Society for the Study of Black Religion had met, yet these groups had a research purpose.  While conversations about the experiences of being a faculty colleague could be shared around the edges, those conversations were not the focus. 

Just as in other Wabash Center workshops, conversations focused broadly on teaching practices, institutional contexts, promotion and review, and experiences as a faculty colleague.  The workshop generated reflection on what it meant to be African American faculty in theological education and religious studies. 

Networks of support and collaboration were built, truth was told about the experiences of serving on faculties, and attention was given to how social location profoundly affected teaching and vocation.  This transformative workshop named patterns of “white supremacy” within higher education.  Communities were formed to explore ways of addressing the character of institutions, naming and encountering resistances, and calling for more openness and responsiveness.  These actions have made a difference.[8] 

The experiences of insight, awareness, collegiality, and action discovered in the workshop for faculty of African descent has been replicated in workshops and gatherings for Asian/Pacific Island faculty (beginning in 2006) and for Latinx faculty (beginning 2008).  These workshops (continuing into the present) along with consultations with BIPOC faculty (like the colloquy on race critical consciousness for transformative theological education in 2019 and 2020) and work with the Hispanic Theological Initiative, the Forum for Theological Exploration, and the Asian Theological Summer Institute have continued to build communities of reflection and networks of action.  They have enriched the fabric of theological schools and have identified key issues at the heart of higher education.  As we know, significant issues remain embedded in the character of institutions, but challenges are truthfully made apparent.  Not only have leaders for schools been developed, but consultants have assisted schools to examine their teaching and learning environments.  

A current effort of the Wabash Center of “mobilization pedagogy” extends this contribution.[9]  “Becoming Anti-Racists and Catalysts for Change” combines online podcasts with grants for individual schools to gather to reflect on the podcasts and seek actions for change within their institutions.  Because of the work of the Wabash Center, BIPOC faculty have had a context for reflection on institutional structures, on the vocation of teaching, and for building community and collaboration to work across disciplines and schools.

The Wabash Center Has Affected the Environments of Theological Schools and Departments of Religion

We had three department chairs in five years.  All the faculty of color who came up for promotion were delayed.  We met our classes, worked with students, attended obligatory faculty meetings, but teaching was a grind.  So much conflict existed – all underground.  A colleague who had been at a Wabash Center event obtained approval from our dean to ask for a consultant to help us clarify criteria for promotion.  With the presence of the consultant, we began to share some truth with each other. We have a long way to go, but it is a start.

Addressing the educational environments in which theological education and religious studies occurs has been a goal from the beginning of the Wabash Center.  How faculty are supported and challenged, how promotion and review occur, and how faculty become a community working together for the mission of the school all affect the quality of the work of teachers and student learning. A grant program was conceived in the founding of the center to assist schools and faculty to engage in projects to enhance their contexts for learning.  Grants have assisted faculty communities to look at teaching practices, expand teaching resources, address conflicts, assess curriculum, and explore the alignment of classroom practices and institutional mission. 

Complementing the grant program has been the development of a group of consultants that the Wabash Center could send to work with faculties and schools.    The staff of the center provides in-service training for consultants and has defined clear goals for the program.[10]  An example of the impact of consultants can be seen in the linking of the Educating Clergy and the College Introductory Course projects with consultants.  Following large workshops where the research of each project was shared, schools were offered grants and consultants for follow-up.  Many schools did respond, and they were assisted in examining their teaching and learning goals and the effectiveness of their missions. 

Over and over those interviewed for this history project have commented on how their institutions were made more aware of their dynamics and were beginning to address ways to enhance their work together.  Schools have talked about impediments to thriving, and about practices to assist colleagues to grow. 

The last 20 years have been a period of significant change for higher education.  Budgets of schools have been stretched, departments have been discontinued, student recruitment has shifted, and the pandemics have shifted the ground under schools. The Wabash Center has helped schools explore new and meaningful possibilities for their futures, for their teaching, mission, and community life. 

The Wabash Center Has Nurtured Leadership for Theological Schools and Departments of Religion

I had never thought about leading my colleagues in a teaching project.  My research had been rewarding, but solitary. At the Wabash Center mid-career workshop, participants helped me think about next steps in my career.  I had published and enjoyed teaching.  I had five rotating classes that I liked and taught well.  My school was supportive and faculty colleagues worked well together.  But something was missing.  Workshop participants helped me express my passions as a faculty member.  I talked for the first time about my “vocation” as a teacher.  Then I realized what might energize our department.  Checking with our chair, the dean, the Wabash Center, and my faculty colleagues, I applied for a Wabash Center grant to help us clarify our departmental mission and the interaction of our various courses.  After some struggle, the project has expanded our conversations and our mission.

            Conversations during workshops, digital salons, and colloquies have encouraged faculty members to examine their own vocations in theological education and religious studies and their contributions to the missions of their schools.  The power of mentoring and colleague support has been clear.  Individual faculty have been asked to join workshop teams, to serve as consultants, and to be mentors for others.  Styles of collaborative learning and empowerment have emerged in on-campus workshops and in consultation and grant projects. 

As faculty members have thought through their own trajectory in a vocation, some have identified gifts of leadership as well as heard calls to serve.  In turn, others have been identified by colleagues in workshops and consultations as potential leaders.  As such, the Wabash Center has provided a context for leadership assessment and the development of skills. 

Several persons interviewed for this project (many of whom now serve in some form of seminary or college administration) spoke about how their experiences in teaching workshops had called out their gifts.  In addition to being teachers, Wabash Center alums serve as department chairs, academic deans, and seminary and college presidents. 

By listening and responding to teachers, by providing interdisciplinary and multi-generational spaces of formation, and by modeling ways of empowering and nurturing, new leadership has emerged from Wabash Center participants for seminary and college administration and for public service.  The Wabash Center provided the collaboration and support that enabled individual faculty members to learn possibilities of expanding leadership. 

The Wabash Center Continues to Stimulate Reflection on the Role of Religion in Public Life

I love working here.  The college takes seriously its religious heritage.  Having a dean that understands that heritage is one of the reasons I joined the administration.  Yet, I was not aware of the extent of the college’s financial struggles.  Our board of trustees are appropriately concerned about the bottom line. I have been asked to review which programs have the fewest majors, to examine the costs, and to propose ways of cutting the budget or expanding enrollment. I need help to address administrative realities and hold onto my commitments to the role of religion in the liberal arts.

            The contributions of the Wabash Center have been fueled by attentive listening to those it has served.  The sponsoring of conversations about teaching and learning has been its genius.  Enhanced tools for teaching and learning, the alignment of classes with institutional mission, and the development faculty support networks have all resulted.  Because of the Wabash Center, teachers can draw on the wisdom of others as they face classroom and institutional concerns. 

            Those I interviewed thanked the directors, Raymond Williams, Lucinda Huffaker, Nadine Pence, and Nancy Lynne Westfield for their vision and courage.  They spoke of the network of friends and acquaintances across schools that they had developed.  They acknowledged that their attention to vocation had been stimulated.  Moreover, they noted that schools had been changed because of the work of the center:

• schools had developed clearer missions,
• promotion and tenure policies have been refined,
• conversations about serving students and their vocations are held more often, and
• schools are intentionally working to address faculty dynamics, including concerns of institutional racism.

The Wabash Center has made a difference. 

            Yet, while my interviewees praised the networks of accountability and service that have been developed, they pointed to issues facing higher education – many of which are clearly outside the bounds of teaching.  They continue to look to the Wabash Center to guide them. 

College and university leaders wondered about the continuing role of religion within the liberal arts curriculum. Moreso, they asked about the future of higher education itself and the role of religion in the curriculum, even in faith-based institutions.  They spoke of fewer and fewer students majoring in religious studies and the shifts in the mission of higher education to vocational forms of education.  Even several religiously affiliated schools have dropped religion majors in efforts to address budget and enrollment concerns.  Seminary leaders also have wondered about the shifts in the patterns of religious life in North America.  They too worried about budgets and enrollment.  They knew their work had to expand beyond educating clergy. The very role of religion in shaping public dialogue is unclear.  Moreover, significant political divisions across the North America have elicited fundamental questions of the role of education itself in public life.

Without a doubt, higher education is in transition – transitions that affect teaching.  One example, schools are hiring more part-time and adjunct faculty.  The possibilities of a lifelong career in research and teaching may no longer be the case.

My informants thank the Wabash Center for its expanded efforts since 2020 to examine through podcasts, blogs, and conversations the future of theological education and higher education.  They know that the environment of crisis many schools face significantly affects teaching.  They look forward to additional conversations and resources that the Wabash Center will sponsor on the role of religiously affiliated institutions, religion in higher education, and theological education.    

These broader questions connect to the work the Wabash Center has been doing from the beginning.  It has transformed the conversation about teaching across theological education and higher education.  It has created networks of collaboration and advocacy.  The practices and goals of teaching have been enhanced.  The contexts of teaching and learning have been engaged. Truths about institutional dynamics and struggles are being told. Faculty have been empowered to make a difference in the mission and service of their institutions. 

The Wabash Center is in a unique place to continue to resource, support, and nurture teachers.  It is also in a unique place to offer grants and consultants to assist schools to examine their education and impact.  It is also in a key place to focus attention on the fundamental questions of the impact of higher education and religion on public life. 

In the founding of the Wabash Center, the Lilly Endowment defined it as a key partner in its theological education initiative – to impact teaching so that teaching could impact religious leadership, and thus to impact the religious institutions and public life.  That concern continues as a goal, challenge, and next step for guided conversations.  As the Wabash Center continues to strengthen teaching across theological schools and department of religion, it continues to gather colleagues to reflect on the contexts of the schools and on the missions and realities within those schools.

[1] This essay is a partner to the “Timeline of Programs” prepared for the Wabash Center website.  While some events and dates will be used in the narrative, a full accounting of the work of the Wabash Center can be found in the “Timeline of Programs: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion,” https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/about.  The research for this history used grant proposals and project reports from 25 years of the Wabash Center, interviews with directors and participants over the years of the Wabash Center events, and focus groups with Wabash Center consultants. All interviews were conducted by phone or on Zoom. Participants gave permission for the interviews and for sharing insights. I thank those who participated in interviews. They were rich and rewarding experiences.

[2] While many other names could also be mentioned, key early partners included the president of Wabash College, Dr. Andrew Ford, and faculty members Peter Frederick and William Placher of Wabash College; and consultants Barbara DeConcini of AAR, Cheryl Tupper of ATS, Charles Foster of Emory University, and Richard Dickinson of Christian Theological Seminary.

[3] Each of the sections of this history begins with a story or comment drawn from those I interviewed.  Each section demonstrates the practices and contributions of the Wabash Center.  The stories are used with permission.

[4] See for example, Gregory L. Jones, ed., The Scope of our Art: The Vocation of the Theological Teacher (Eerdmans, 2001) & Richard Devine, Joseph Favazza, and F. Michael McLain, eds., From Cloister to Commons: Concepts and Models of Service-Learning in Religious Studies (American Association of Higher Education, 2002).

[5] Charles Foster, Linda Dahill, Larry Goleman, & Barbara Wang Tolentino, Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and Pastoral Imagination (Jossey-Bass, 2005); & Barbara Walvrood, Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007).

[6] Wabash Center partnered with the University of Wisconsin, Madison, online teaching certificate,

[7] See for example, Mary Hess, Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All That We Can’t Leave Behind (Sheed and Ward, 2005).

[8] One result of this gathering was an edited book, Nancy Lynne Westfield, Being Black, Teaching Black: Politics and Pedagogy in Religious Studies (Abingdon Press, 2008).

[9] Mobilization pedagogy, named by Nancy Lynne Westfield, combines focused action projects at local sites with excellent content shared through podcasts and conversations.  The Wabash Center has provided schools and faculty leaders with grants and resources mobilizing learning, advocacy, and action.

[10] See the description and goals of the consultation program at https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/programs/consultants/.