LFP Update 16.2

May 2021

Welcome to the LFP Update, an e-publication from the Lilly Fellows Program 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 2021 LFP National Conference
• The 2021 LFP Virtual Consultation for Senior Administrators
• Introducing the 2021-2023 Lilly Postdoctoral Fellows
• Save the Date: Regional Conference at Valparaiso University
• 2021 LFP Virtual Consultation for Senior Administrators
• Call to Apply for Lilly Network Grants
• LFP National Network Board Actions in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021; Welcomes to Eastern University as a Member of the National Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities
• Update on Lilly Faculty Fellows Program
• Update on the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program
• Upcoming Deadlines for Grants
• Facebook and Twitter

The 2021 LFP Annual National Conference: Science, Faith, and the Common Good

The 31st annual LFP National Conference, Science, Faith, and the Common Good, will take place on the campus of Boston College, October 8-10, 2021. Registration is now open.

At this year’s Lilly Fellows National Conference, we will come together to explore the fruitful ways in which science and religious faith can mutually enrich one another. Although there has been a long history of animosities between science and religion, in this conference we will hearken to voices witnessing to their compatibility and cooperation. We will ponder how this reinvigorated conversation and cooperation can benefit the common good of humankind – what Pope Francis called “care for our common home.”

This theme is most appropriate, as the Lilly Fellows Program has begun a new stage of its mission. Branching outward from many years of conversations focused on the humanities and arts, the Lilly Fellows Program is now developing new models for integrating faith, higher learning and research in the fields of the natural sciences, social sciences and professional disciplines through its Faculty Fellows Program.

At the same time, Boston College has inaugurated its Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, using science and technology to search for solutions to society’s most pressing challenges, while educating the next generation of science leaders in the areas of energy, health and the environment. These are the goals of its new interdisciplinary initiatives and undergraduate majors in “Global Public Health and the Common Good,” and “Human Centered Engineering.”

Speakers include Stephen M. Barr, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware; Thea L. James, Vice President of Mission and Associate Chief Medical Officer at the Boston Medical Center, and Nancey Murphy, Senior Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary

Registration is now open. For more information and to register, click here. The Registration Deadline is August 24, 2021.

The 2020 Workshop for Senior Administrators: Mapping Institutional Mission: Where Does Mission Live on Your Campus and Why Does It Matter?

Immediately preceding the National Conference will be the Twenty-First Annual Workshop for Senior Administrators on the topic, Mapping Institutional Mission: Where Does Mission Live on Your Campus and Why Does It Matter? The Workshop will be held at Boston College, October 7-8, 2021. This Workshop for Senior Administrators will help participants explore how church-related mission is embodied and institutionalized in particular individuals, groups, practices, and buildings on their campuses. Mission does not exist in the ether, nor is its embodiment static. Ours is an opportune moment, in light of the disruptions of the past year and a half, both to explore the contours of mission in our institutions and to reflect on how mission has informed our approaches to, and been influenced by, the challenges and opportunities we have engaged during this time. The workshop will help participants begin to map “geography” of mission on campus and explore how it affects the ways mission is expressed and enacted in campus structures, activities, objectives, and programs. Attendees will see and understand their campuses in new ways. Together we will identify aspirations, common and extraordinary challenges, strengths, and opportunities around mission. Our discussion will allow space for participants to reflect on what recent circumstances revealed about the resiliency of their missional geography. Participants take concrete strategies to address challenges and opportunities back to their institutions. The workshop will be convened by Patricia O’Connell Killen, Provost Emerita of Gonzaga University, and Caroline Simon, Provost Emerita of Whitworth University, both in Spokane, Washington. The workshop will also include a variety of panelists.

The Workshop is offered at no cost to senior administrators at Lilly Network member institutions. Each Institution is eligible to register one senior administrator (president, vice president, academic dean, provost, or equivalent). One participant from each school will be reimbursed for travel costs up to $600. Meals and hotel accommodations will also be paid for by the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. Additional participants from member schools will be on a waiting list until August 24, 2021, and will be enrolled as slots become available.

Download a Workshop Flyer here.

Registration is now open. For more information and to register, click here.

Introducing the 2021-2023 Lilly Postdoctoral Fellows

This year, the Program received 70 completed applications from prospective candidates in humanities and arts disciplines vying for a Postdoctoral Fellowship. A selection committee of Valparaiso University faculty winnowed the number of candidates to five finalists who were interviewed online. We are extremely pleased to announce that Abigail Gomulkiewicz and Amanda K. Ruud have accepted the offer of the Lilly Postdoctoral Fellowship. 

Abigail Gomulkiewicz is a historian whose work focuses on Protestant values and the negotiation and creation of post-Reformation identities in early modern England. Her project, The Ambitious Age: The Value of Cloth and Clothing in Early Modern Britain, explores how political economy and morality were intertwined. The project examines the shifting meaning and significance of innovation, creativity, and novelty during Britain’s formation into a maritime power with an extensive trading network and overseas territories in North America, the Caribbean, and India. Abigail’s other research interests include remembrance culture and the lived experience of religious belief, particularly through material culture. Her work combines written sources with objects and historical reconstruction. She has published articles in Gender & History and Material Religion. Abigail received her Ph.D. (2021) from the University of Cambridge.

Amanda K. Ruud is a scholar and teacher whose work focuses on rhetorical poetics and the visual arts in early modern English poetry and drama. Her current project, Shakespeare’s Speaking Pictures: Rhetoric, Visual Art, and the Poetics of Mourning in Early Modern England examines why Shakespeare’s works feature scenes of description, visual display, or engagement with visual art at moments of loss and mourning. The project argues that Shakespeare drew on motifs from both classical rhetoric and elements of Renaissance visual culture (such as such as memento mori images and writings about sculpture) in order to address the aesthetic and philosophical challenges of representing grief and make space for mourning within larger narrative trajectories. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2020 with support from the USC Visual Studies Research Institute and the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute. Her work appears in Philological Quarterly and The Routledge Companion to Adaptation and is forthcoming in The Shakespearean Death Arts: Hamlet Among the Tombs (Palgrave Shakespeare Studies).

Save the Date: “Regional Conference at Valparaiso University: Religion, State, and Nationalism: Problems and Possibilities”

On April 8, 2022, Valparaiso University, in partnership with the Lilly Fellows Program, invites you to a special symposium, “Religion, State, and Nationalism: Problems and Possibilities.” The symposium will take place in three sessions, with the first focusing on problems, the second on possibilities, and the third on integrating issues of faith, nationalism, and the problems of historical memory into undergraduate curricula.

Description: Today’s world is witnessing to new configurations of alliances and conflicts between religious institutions and the state. Religion is a key player in rewriting nationalist narratives that underpin state policies. In the United States, evangelical Christians influence state policies and contribute to nationalist agendas. The Orthodox Church is a leader in the resurgence of nationalism in post-Soviet Russia and the rehabilitation of the mythological past of “Holy Russia” that contributes to the state’s ideological agenda. Analysts express concern that religion will fuel the flames of nationalist isolationism and increase the possibilities for international incidents of polarization, violence, and war. Critics call for the complete separation of religious organizations from the state. In some places of the world, cooperation between religious institutions and the state can become a positive force at the local and international levels. Religious leaders can consult the state and contribute to the formation of national identity that is inclusive and does not pose a threat to international peace.

Confirmed panelists:

Antoine Arjakovsky, Collège de Bernardins, Paris
Scott Hibbard, DePaul University, Chicago
Atalia Omer, University of Notre Dame, South Bend
Robert Saler, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis
Dorian Llywelyn, S.J., Santa Clara University
Slavica Jakelic, Valparaiso University
Timothy Larsen, Wheaton College
Philipp Gollner, Goshen College
Samuel Graber, Valparaiso University

The 2021 LFP Virtual Consultation for Senior Administrators

On March 23, 2021, the Lilly Fellows Program hosted a second virtual consultation for senior administrators at Lilly Network Schools on the topic:  Racial Injustice and Church-Related Colleges and Universities. The LFP is still gathering information from that consultation which we will make available to participants in late May or early June. Because of the positive feedback we have received from this virtual consultation and the one held in fall 2020, we anticipate making this a regular event once or twice a year.

Call to Apply for Lilly Network Grants

The Lilly Network received a five-year grant of $2.5 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. in 2018 to support activities on Network campuses that connect Christianity and church-related mission to the academic vocation. We invite Lilly Network member schools to submit grant proposals in order to take advantage of these funds by September 15, 2021. Proposals can be submitted for the following:

• Grants for faculty development and mentoring ranging from $3,000 to $12,000.
• Grants for Mentoring Programs for $12,000.
• Grants for Regional Collaborations and Conferences for $12,500.
• Grants for Network Exchanges for sharing best practices at $25,000.

LFP National Network Board Actions in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021; Welcome to Eastern University as a Member of the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities

The National Network Board of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts met for its fall meeting on October 10, 2020 and its spring meeting on April 17, 2021. Both meetings were held online. After considering proposals for Small Grants, Mentoring Programs, and Regional Collaboration and Conference Grants, the Board awarded grants to the following institutions: 

• Small Grants:  Azusa Pacific University, Belmont University, Dordt University, East Texas Baptist University, Indiana Wesleyan University, McMurry University (2), Northwest Nazarene University, Sacred Heart University, Saint Louis University (2), Saint Xavier University, Samford University, Seton Hall University, St. John’s University, The University of Scranton, University of Dayton, University of Pikeville (2), and Westmont College.

• Mentoring Grants:  Loyola Marymount University and Mount St. Mary’s University
  
• Regional Collaborations and Conferences:  Azusa Pacific University, Indiana Wesleyan University, St. Mary’s University, Sterling College, and Taylor University.
  
• Network Exchange Grants: Hope College.

Twelve of the Small Grants were fast-tracked to take place in spring 2021 as they dealt with issues pertaining to COVID-19 or to race, antiracism, or racial justice.

The Board approved Eastern University in St. David's, PA, for membership in the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and University. A big welcome to Eastern University.

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

• Alison Noble, Associate Provost and Professor of Chemistry, Messiah University, Mechanicsburg, PA.
• Caryn Riswold, Professor of Religion/McCoy Family Distinguished Chair in Lutheran Heritage and Mission, Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa
• Alicia Cordoba Tait, Beirne Director and Professor of Music, Center for Catholic Studies, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas.

We welcome these colleagues to the Board and thank retiring Board members Carol Hinds at Mount St. Mary’s University and Mary Strey at Central College for their service to the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities.

Update on the Lilly Faculty Fellows Program

This summer, we will be celebrating the successful completion of Cohort 1 of the Lilly Faculty Fellows Program. Eight teams from Asbury University, Calvin University, Eastern Mennonite University, Grove City College, Northwest Nazarene University, Roanoke College, Sacred Heart University, and Saint Xavier University completed a two-year program that included four conferences and a one-year campus project. Cohort 1 was led by Mary Strey at Central College and Patrick Byrne at Boston College. We will also kick off Cohort 2, which has seven teams from Belmont University, Benedictine University, Dordt University, Georgetown College, Messiah University, Seton Hall University, and University of Dayton and will be led by Stephany Schlachter at Lewis University and Susan Felch at Calvin University. These interdisciplinary cohorts bring together mid-career faculty from across the university, including STEM, professional fields, social sciences, humanities, and the arts for four conferences and culminate in faculty fellows leading a one-year project of their design on their campuses. We will have a call for applications for Cohort 3 in Summer 2022. Click here for more information on the Lilly Faculty Fellows Program.

Update on the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program

Over the past two years we received 48 nominations from 25 Lilly Network schools in 2019 and 40 nominations from 25 schools in 2020. From these 88 nominations, 60 nominees applied, and a selection committee of 8 interviewed 16 finalists online in April 2021. Over the course of the two-day interview process, we came to know the remarkable individuals who made it to this final stage of this process. We will be announcing shortly the composition of the Twelfth Cohort of Lilly Graduate Fellows, who will be mentored by Martha (Marti) Greene Eads at Eastern Mennonite University and Charles Strauss at Mount St. Mary’s University.

A very special thanks to all of you who nominated your students for this highly competitive fellowship.  Your hard work keeps this program vital, as does the education and formation that our Fellows receive at your institutions. Again, thank you.

Cohort 11, mentored by Jane Kelley Rodeheffer of Pepperdine University and Mark Ruff of Saint Louis University has been active in online colloquia throughout the academic year. They will participate in a summer conference at Pepperdine University in August 2021. Cohort 10 of the Lilly Graduate Fellows, which completed its three-year program in 2020, postponed its final conference until this summer; it will meet in Indianapolis, Indiana, in July 2021. Cohort 10 is mentored by John Ware of Xavier University of Louisiana and Lisa DeBoer of Westmont College. Cohort 10 will be joined by Cohort 9 (mentored by Doug Henry of Baylor University and Gretchen J. Van Dyke of The University of Scranton) at the National Conference at Boston College in October for reunion conferences.

Deadlines for Grants

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, 2021. 

For more information, visit the LFP website. 

Facebook and Twitter

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