LFP Update 13.4

November, 2018

Welcome to the LFP Update, an e-publication from the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts to keep LFP representatives and others informed about the activities of 1) Lilly Network institutions, 2)  present and former Lilly Fellows and, 3) the LFP office at Valparaiso University.

In this Issue:

• The 2018 Twenty-eighth Annual LFP National Conference
• The 2018 Nineteenth Annual Workshop for Senior Administrators
• Report from the LFP National Network Board October Meeting
• The Ninth Biennial Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Performing Arts for 2018
• Save the Date and Call for Papers: Regional Conference at Dordt College: The Prodigal Love of God
• Call for Nominations, The Eighth Biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award for 2019
• Note about network Communiqué Annual Newsletter
• Deadlines for Grants and Other Opportunities
• From the Colloquium at Our Blog, Exiles from Eden
• Facebook and Twitter

The 2018 Twenty-Eighth LFP National Conference  

The 28th Annual LFP National Conference, Robust and Receptive Ecumenism, convened at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, October 12-14, 2018. The conference explored how the increasing ecumenical diversity of our church-related institutions of higher education offers new opportunities to enlarge the scope of our teaching, research and institutional mission.  The conference heard from Dr Lisa DeBoer, Professor of Art at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California, who addressed the topic, “The Accidental Ecumenist."  Dr. Steve Harmon, Associate Professor of Historical Theology at Gardner-Webb University, presented “Receptive Ecumenism and the Construction of Christian Identity,”, and Dr. Daniel Keating, Professor of Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan, presented “Robust and Receptive Ecumenism: Challenges and Opportunities.”  Attendees also took in the hospitality and fall weather at Hope College and Holland.

We look forward to the twenty-ninth annual National Conference to be held in fall, 2019, at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.  The conference will address the theme, “The Character of the University.”  Look for more information in the spring.

The 2018 Nineteenth Annual LFP Workshop for Senior Administrators

On Thursday and Friday, October 11-12, 2018, at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, the Lilly Fellows Program held the Nineteenth Annual Workshop for Senior Administrators and welcomed participants from Network Schools to discuss the theme, "Hiring Faculty for Mission." Dr. Margaret Freije, Provost and Dean of the College at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Dr. Mark Sargent, Provost at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, convened the workshop and led the conversation. In addition, attendees engaged with Sister Susan Sanders, currently serving as president of the Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community and formerly holding several senior vice-presidential and academic leadership positions at Saint Xavier University and DePaul University in Chicago, and Darryl Tippens, University Distinguished Scholar at Abilene Christian University and Provost Emeritus of Pepperdine University.

The Twentieth Annual Workshop for Senior Administrators will be held at Baylor University in Waco, Texas in fall, 2019, on the tentative theme, “Our Students: Who Are They and How Do We Meet Them?” Check the website in spring, 2019, for more information on next year’s workshop.

Report from the LFP National Network Board October Meeting 

The National Network Board of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts met for its semi-annual meeting October 11-12, 2018 at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.  After considering proposals for Small Grants, Mentoring Programs, and Regional Collaboration and Conference Grants, the Board awarded grants to the following institutions: 

• Small Grants: Anderson University in Anderson, IN; Belmont University in Nashville, TN; Saint Xavier University in Chicago, IL; Salve Regina University in Newport, RI; Whitworth University in Spokane, WA; Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH; and Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, LA.
• Mentoring Grants: Anderson University in Anderson, IN; Concordia University Texas in Austin, TX; Salve Regina University in Newport, RI; and Sterling College in Sterling, KS.
  
  
• Regional Collaborations and Conferences: Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, "The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Challenges and Opportunities for the Catholic University in the 21st Century,” and Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN, "Church, State, and Nationalism: Problems and Possibilities."

The Board also accepted the proposal for membership in the National Network of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, to join the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. Welcome!

The National Network Board elected the following LFP Representatives to the National Network Board:

• Scott McGinnis, Professor of Religion, Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama
• Stephany S. Schlachter, Special Assistant to the President, Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois
• James R. Skillen, , Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan

The four-year terms of these Board members will begin with the National Network Board meeting in April 2019. We welcome these colleagues to the Board and thank retiring Board members Emily Griesinger of Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California; Michael O’Keeffe of Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois; John Pinheiro of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Linda Mills Woolsey of Houghton College in Houghton, New York, for their service to the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities.

The Ninth Biennial Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Performing Arts for 2018

On October 12, 2018, at its twenty-eighth annual National Conference at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts presented the 2018 Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Performing Arts to Professor Blis DeVault of Xavier University (Cincinnati) for her documentary film, A Slice of Pie: A Love Story.

A Slice of Pie: A Love Story is most deserving of this national recognition.  The jurors admired the way Professor DeVault crafted together the storytelling and film work, while remaining grounded in a life-giving sense of place and deeply Christian themes of love and abundance.  One juror wrote: “A Slice of Pie: A Love Story beautifully exemplifies Christian artistic vocation in the twenty-first century by exploring a young faithful couple who embody how Christ can dwell among us and minister to the poor and needy in a diverse and complex community.  Professor DeVault’s documentary elegantly chronicles this farm-to-table, pay-what-you-can, restaurant in Norwood, Ohio, and teaches us how it is still possible to live faithfully, love unconditionally and give generously in a world that grows ever more challenging.”

The Lilly Fellows Program also honored three finalists for the award: Matt Farmer of Hope College in Holland, MI, for Dieser Ort (This Place); Sr. Judith Royer of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA, for Voices of Justice; and Sam Smartt of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for A Name That I Admire. The prize committee was chaired by Mitchell Thomas, Professor of Theater at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA, and winner of the 2008 Meyer Prize in Performing Arts. Thomas also presented the prize.

The Arlin G. Meyer Prize is awarded biennially to a faculty member from a college or university in the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities whose work exemplifies the practice of the Christian artistic or scholarly vocation in relation to any pertinent subject matter or literary and artistic style. The 2018 Prize has been awarded to the author of a creative work that emerges from her practice of the vocation of the Christian performing artist, in accord with the principles and ideals of the Lilly Fellows Program.  In subsequent years, the Meyer Prize will honor those who practice in the fields of musical performance, non-fiction, visual art, and imaginative writing. The $3000 prize honors the late Arlin G. Meyer, Professor of English at Valparaiso University, who served as program director of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts from its inception in 1991 until his retirement in 2002.

Call for Nominations, The Eighth Biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award for 2019

The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts invites nominations for the eighth biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award for 2019. The biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award honors an original and imaginative work from any academic discipline that best exemplifies the central ideas and principles animating the Lilly Fellows Program.  These include faith and learning in the Christian intellectual tradition, the vocation of teaching and scholarship, and the history, theory or practice of the university as the site of religious inquiry and culture.

Works under consideration should address the historical or contemporary relation of Christian intellectual life and scholarship to the practice of teaching as a Christian vocation or to the past, present, and future of higher education.  Single authored books or edited collections in any discipline, published in 2015 to 2018, are eligible.  The committee will receive nominations of academic faculty, clergy, and others.  Authors or editors cannot nominate their own works.  A Prize of $3000 will be awarded at the Lilly Fellows Program National Conference at Baylor University, in fall, 2019. The deadline for nominations is March 1, 2019.

Further nomination information is coming in January, 2019. For more information, click here.

Registration Open: Regional Conference at Dordt College on “The Prodigal Love of God,” April 4-6, 2019

On April 4-6, 2019, Dordt College and the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service, in partnership with the Lilly Fellows Program, will host a conference titled “The Prodigal Love of God: Reencountering Dordt at 400 and Beyond.” Confirmed speakers include Marilynne Robinson, Richard Mouw, James K.A. Smith, Jemar Tisby, Paul Lim, Tish Harrison Warren, and Suzanne McDonald.

This year and next marks the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dort, the namesake of Dordt College. Many churches and communities have celebrated the quincentenary of the Reformation, but the Synod of Dort does not loom so large in the popular imagination. For some, even members of the Protestant tradition, Dort seems to leave us with a complicated historical legacy of arid doctrinalism.

However, the story of the Synod of Dort—its legacy and its place in the Christian tradition—is much broader and more generous than this. Dort should be remembered for its rigorous doctrinal disputes, but within those debates there are also profound theological truths that continue to inspire many ecumenical conversations across Christian traditions. In the Canons of Dordt, we encounter the prodigal love of God, who offers the blessing of the gospel “to all persons promiscuously and without distinction.” This theological message is something that has shaped and reformed Protestant communities for four hundred years. Through invited plenaries and panel discussions, our conference will feature conversations about the historical legacy and the future of Protestantism as well as the opportunities facing the global church in the decades ahead.

Registration for the conference is now open;  For Information, Click Here.

Note about the Network Communiqué Annual Newsletter

Beginning this year, the annual LFP newsletter, the network Communique, will become biennial, published every two years.

Deadlines for Grants and Other Opportunities

Grants:
The next series of programs that will receive funding are: Mentoring Programs, Small Grants, Network Exchanges, and Regional Collaboration and Conferences. Proposals for the programs are due September 15, 2019. 

Fellowship Programs:
The deadline for applications for the 2019-2021 Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowships in Humanities and the Arts is Wednesday, January 9, 2019.

Conferences:
Registration is now open for the Regional Conference at Dort College on “The Prodigal Love of God," April 4-6, 2019.

For more information, visit the LFP website.

From the Colloquium at Our Blog, Exiles from Eden 

To learn about the readings of the Graduate Fellows and Postdoctoral Fellows, please see Joe Goss's “From the Colloquium” post on the LFP-sponsored blog, Exiles from Eden.

Facebook and Twitter

As always, the LFP can be followed on Facebook and Twitter at @LFProgram and @Exilesfromeden.