Tag: social justice

Attention and Contradiction: Willie James Jennings

Willie James Jennings, an esteemed theologian at Yale Divinity School, emphasizes the importance of belonging in education through his insights shared on NetVUE’s podcast. He advocates for educators to engage with students as fellow learners and highlights the need to confront racial injustices within education systems while committing to challenging antisemitism and advocating for Palestinians.

Willie James Jennings

The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features an interview with Willie James Jennings. Willie is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. A highly sought-after speaker, Willie teaches and writes in areas that include theological anthropology, liberation theologies, cultural identities and race theory, and environmental studies. He is the author of numerous articles and several award-winning books. He is also an ordained Baptist minister, and before completing a Master of Divinity from Fuller Seminary and a PhD from Duke University, he received his undergraduate education from Calvin University, a NetVUE member institution. Willie was also the keynote speaker for the NetVUE Unconference in March of 2021.

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Asking Good Questions: Caryn Riswold

Professor Caryn Riswold discusses her work and insights on NetVUE’s podcast Callings. She emphasizes the importance of social justice, identity, and culture in vocational exploration and discernment. Riswold urges listeners to ask ask meaningful questions as a means to foster human connection and empower others in their vocational journeys.

Caryn Riswold

NetVUE’s podcast Callings has released a new episode, which features an interview with Caryn Riswold, professor of religion and the McCoy Family Distinguished Chair in Lutheran Heritage and Mission at Wartburg College. An accomplished classroom teacher, Caryn is also the author of four books, including Feminism and Christianity: Questions and Answers in the Third Wave (2009), Two Reformers: Martin Luther and Mary Daly as Political Theologians (2007), and her most recent publication, ReEngaging ELCA Social Teaching on Abortion (2024). She is also a NetVUE Scholar, and her essay “Vocational Discernment: A Pedagogy of Humanization” appeared in the first volume of NetVUE’s Scholarly Resources Project, In This Time and at This Place: Vocation and Higher Education (2015).

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Ethos and Vocation

The post examines the connection between vocation and rhetoric, particularly focusing on the concept of ethos. Reginald Bell, Jr. reflects on his father’s influence on his ethos, contrasting it with modern religious figures promoting materialism. He emphasizes the importance of an ethos rooted in love and encourages educators and students to embody this kind of ethos as a way to foster positive societal change.

This post is the first in a series of four that explores the relationship between vocation and rhetoric, focusing on how ethos, logos, pathos, and mythos offer a fresh perspective for creatives, educators, and scholars to conceptualize their professional and personal callings.

Reginald Bell, Jr.

In February 2020, I found myself in the pulpit in Phoenix, Arizona, ready to deliver the message of a three-night revival. My father—a significant influence in my life and vocation—had flown in with my mother from Birmingham, Alabama, to support me and to introduce me on the revival’s second night. Among the many things he said during his introduction, one statement resonated deeply and has stayed with me ever since. “My son’s biggest problem his entire life,” he said, “is that he always thought he was me, Reginald Bell, Sr.”

This statement reflects more than our father-son dynamic; it also represents how ethos is transmitted, often subconsciously, from one generation to the next. It made me ponder how much my father has shaped my own ethos, and how, as educators, our ethos invariably influences those we teach.

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Christi Belcourt on Art and Activism

The final episode of this season’s Callings podcast introduces listeners to Christi Belcourt, a Métis artist, whose painting “Reverence for Life” appears on the cover of the most recent volume from the NetVUE Scholarly Resources Project. In her interview with Erin VanLaningham and John Barton, Christi reflects on this painting and many others—as well as other facets of her life’s work—as powerful points of departure for insights into her own personal vocation as a visual artist and a community and environmental activist.

The final episode of this season’s Callings podcast introduces listeners to Christi Belcourt, a Métis artist, whose painting “Reverence for Life” appears on the cover of the most recent volume from the NetVUE Scholarly Resources Project. In her interview with Erin VanLaningham and John Barton, Christi reflects on this painting and many others—as well as other facets of her life’s work—as powerful points of departure for insights into her own personal vocation as a visual artist and a community and environmental activist.

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Teaching Trans Vocation

First and foremost, our trans students must experience our classrooms as hospitable spaces that integrate their entire selves, explicitly embracing their gender and sexual identities as meaningful sites of knowledge.

In the final chapter of Leslie Feinberg‘s 1993 novel, Stone Butch Blues, Jess Goldberg, the novel’s trans protagonist, attends a lesbian and gay political rally in New York City. As Jess listens to the speakers testify to the oppression they have experienced, she realizes, “This is what courage is. It’s not just living through the nightmare, it’s doing something with it afterward. It’s being brave enough to talk about it to other people. It’s trying to organize to change things.” This encounter sparks Jess’s queer calling, one that allows students who read the novel to see their gender and sexual identities as playing important roles in the discernment of their vocations.

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‘Tis the Season: Advent, Justice, and Calling

Is the Advent season for anything other than waiting for Christmas day? I propose that it can challenge us to the continuous and transformative work of justice in our world.

Photograph by the author

“I’m not ready for Christmas.” This was my immediate thought in early November when I noticed that several houses were already displaying Christmas lights on their porches and in their front yards. At this moment, I was reminded of why I love Advent: it’s all about waiting.

A liturgical season in the Christian tradition, Advent begins on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving and extends to Christmas Eve. It’s a season of anticipation, during which we recall the humble birth of Jesus the Savior in Bethlehem. Within cultural Christmas practices, advent calendars are popular—those countdown calendars to Christmas that offer daily gifts or goodies. In the church, the Advent season appears unsensational, especially when compared to the twinkle of lights on trees, the array of musical concerts, and festive gatherings with family and friends. But is it? Is the Advent season for anything other than waiting for Christmas day? I propose that it can challenge us to the continuous and transformative work of justice in our world.

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Our Call to Trans Flourishing

We must continue to transform our campuses and communities into more just and humane places so that our transgender students can flourish and lead magnanimous lives.

This past year saw a dehumanizing anti-LGBTQ+ legislative season in many states across the country, which has threatened our transgender students’ well-being and limited their vocational exploration. To support their vocational journeys, we as educators need be more fully responsive to the particular challenges that they face. As we accompany them, we must continue to transform our campuses and communities into more just and humane places so that our transgender students can flourish and lead magnanimous lives.

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Contemplating the Contours of Calling through Geographical History

In an era of recognizing the importance of geography and heritage, such as through indigenous land acknowledgments, we can learn a great deal about ourselves, each other, our world, and our vocations through our senses of place. This post considers what geographical history might teach us about vocation, particularly the systematic and individual influences at play. 

Photograph by the author

As the fall semester gets underway, many students are returning to familiar spaces on their campuses, while new students are navigating unfamiliar terrain. This time of year also illuminates the divisions between “town and gown,” even though many leaders in both communities value bridge-building. As recently highlighted by the pandemic, the physical, economic, and relational health of our communities near and far are closely intertwined. In an era of recognizing the importance of geography and heritage, such as through indigenous land acknowledgments, we can learn a great deal about ourselves, each other, our world, and our vocations through our senses of place. Grounded in my dissertation research on the Appalachian region, this post considers what geographical history might teach us about vocation, particularly the systematic and individual influences at play. 

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The Problem with Colorblind Mentoring

Colorblindness often perpetuates racism by giving it a cover. It does not sufficiently address the fact that racist attitudes are part of a larger racial system, a situation that Eduardo Bonilla-Silva has called “Racism without Racists.” In this post, I briefly consider some recent work about how colorblindness negatively impacts mentoring.

Malcolm X described an early encounter with an English teacher as marking one of the major turning points in his life. In response to Mr. Ostrowski’s inquiry about what the young man was considering as a possible career, young Malcolm surprised himself by saying, “I’ve been thinking I’d like to be a lawyer.” The “reddish white man” with the thick moustache told him that he needed to be realistic and suggested Malcolm go into carpentry.

This excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X is included in the first edition of Leading Lives That Matter in a section that addresses the influence of advice from others when considering vocation (“To Whom Should I Listen?”). The scene makes a reader cringe to imagine the situation and its implications, and the take-away seems clear. Thankfully, young Malcolm did not listen to the advice.

The strategy of “colorblindness” arose in part as a way to deal with the racist attitudes of the Mr. Ostrowskis of the world. In a “colorblind” society, as Omi and Winant in Racial Formation in the United States put the point, “racial inequality, racial politics, and race-consciousness itself would be greatly diminished in importance, and indeed relegated to the benighted past when discrimination and prejudice rules” (p. 22). But this imagined remedy often perpetuates racism by giving it a cover and does not sufficiently address the fact that racist attitudes are part of a larger racial system, a situation that Eduardo Bonilla-Silva has called “Racism without Racists.” In this post, I want to briefly consider some recent work about how colorblindness negatively impacts mentoring.

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