In this post, David Cunningham presents a typology of vocation through Gustave Caillebotte’s paintings and reveals four distinct types of vocation: driven individuals focused on mastery, explorers still searching for their calling, craftspeople engaged in practical work, and those who balance work with other life interests. Each type illustrates varied approaches to vocation and personal fulfillment.
The construction of a typology is always a hazardous endeavor, given the necessary simplification and broad categorization required to impose a structure on a complex idea. Nevertheless, we can learn something by sketching the general contours of a multi-faceted subject such as vocation.
I recently found myself contemplating a “typology of vocation” while viewing an exhibition of the work of the French painter Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894) at the Art Institute of Chicago. Many readers will recognize his best-known work, Paris Street; Rainy Day, which is usually displayed in a very prominent place at the Art Institute.
Creative writing pedagogy can enhance vocational teaching across disciplines by encouraging students to construct literary “family trees,” tracing their artistic influences. This exercise fosters a sense of belonging and legacy, linking students to historical figures in their fields. It empowers them to explore their roots, celebrate their influences, and envision their future contributions.
A series of posts on what creative writing pedagogy has to offer vocational teaching in any discipline.
Kalpis painting of Sappho by the Sappho Painter (c. 510 BC).
One of the most revealing exercises that teachers regularly assign in the creative writing classroom is the construction of a literary “family tree”—a map of a student writer’s artistic influences, those influences’ influences, and so on. In my creative writing MFA program, I had to construct a family tree of 20 poets who had shaped my own writing style, starting with 20th-century poet Adrienne Rich and stretching back from her to Emily Dickinson in the 19th century, on to Shakespeare, and all the way back to Sappho, who wrote 2,500 years ago. I then read and took an exam on all these figures’ writing. The exam resembled comprehensive exams in a PhD program, but with the explicit framework of my own personal artistic lineage and legacy.
In this post, I offer the “family tree” as a tool to be used by instructors in any discipline to help students on their vocational journeys.
The sixth season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Lee C. Camp, a public theologian and educator. Camp discusses vocational questions in higher education, emphasizing the importance of asking deeper questions about life’s meaning. He encourages students to pursue larger, more truthful narratives to foster meaningful lives and societal impact.
Lee C. Camp
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has launched its sixth season with an episode featuring Lee C. Camp, host of the podcast and nationally syndicated public radio series No Small Endeavor. In this show he’s explored what it means to live a good life in conversation with some of the country’s most notable philosophers, scientists, entertainers, and politicians. Lee is also the Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Lipscomb University, a NetVUE member institution. As a public theologian, author, and social commentator, Lee’s work focuses on Christian ethics, the intersection of faith and politics, and the meaning and pursuit of human flourishing.
In his conversation with hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton, Lee brings a wealth of experience to bear on questions of vocation in higher education. In the process, he challenges more simplistic and subjective notions of “meaningfulness,” which can often overemphasize our individual needs and perspectives. Instead, he encourages us to be good question-askers. “If we can give our students a better set of questions than the questions that they have,” he says, “it will change their lives.” For Lee, these questions often emerge out of the kinds of stories we live our lives by. He urges all of us, but especially undergraduate students, to expand the moral scope of these stories and consider this question: “Am I trying to live by a big enough, true enough story?” he asks, for “if you try to live by a too small, not true enough story, it can cause all sorts of horrific damage, to yourself and the world around you.” Ultimately, Lee encourages listeners to embrace the exciting adventure of living out these larger stories and creatively pursuing the virtuous life.
Click hereto listen to the episode featuring Lee C. Camp, “A Big Enough Story.”
The article outlines a four-part vocational exploration assignment designed for science students to help them engage with and refine their career aspirations. It emphasizes self-reflection, hypothesis formation, real-world testing, and final conclusions. The objective is to align students’ career choices with their strengths and values to foster their vocational growth.
A series exploring the teaching of vocation in physics.
Over the course of my career, I have found that my students often do not realize that the type of science they might wish to pursue can constrain their future paths. Students who might want to work at a particle accelerator might not realize they cannot do so here in Washington State where I teach. This limitation often surprises them, especially those local students who want to remain close to home after they graduate. A highly scaffolded vocational exploration assignment can address this confusion.
This post explores the relationship between vocation and hope, arguing that very nature of a purposeful vocation obliges us to cultivate hope in our lives and our work. Especially as educators, we are called to choose hope in our work with students and create meaningful learning experiences that allow them to do so the same.
You will not find hope in the headlines. A daily reader of the news and a parent of children ages four, six, and nine, I confronted this paralyzing fact when I read this headline in early September—“Minneapolis Catholic school shooting leaves 2 children dead, 21 people injured.” As I began drafting my concluding post to this series on the theme of hope, I wondered: How do I write about hope in this context? I faced an especially steep challenge, one that had already felt formidable months ago. As I mourned the tragic shooting, I came to see more clearly: hope is, in and of itself, a chosen vocation. It requires practice, strength, and imagination—a wholehearted willingness to keep envisioning new possibilities, even when the odds feel long. Truth be told, it is the harder choice.
NetVUE’s first webinar of the academic year, held on September 16, featured Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore discussing her book, “Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies About Calling.” Participants explored the challenges of vocational discernment in higher education. Additional resources were shared for implementing vocational support on campuses through NetVUE’s Big Read program.
Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore
When we explore and discern our vocations, we often wrestle with both the joys and hardships that we face in the many roles we play in life. NetVUE’s first webinar of this academic year explored this topic on September 16, and featured Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, the author of this year’s Big Read, Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies About Calling. As she discussed her book, she used insights from it to help participants contextualize and understand the challenges that we all face as we live out our callings to work in higher education. The discussion also provided context for colleagues as they being to engage their campuses in the Big Read.
