2024 Arts-Based Pedagogy Roundtable

Important Dates

Application Opens: January 16, 2024
Application Deadline: March 6, 2024

Schedule of Sessions

Online Orientation: August 7, 2024; 3:00pm – 4:30pm ET
In-Person Gathering: September 19-22, 2024

Gathering Location

Kimpton Overland Hotel
Atlanta, GA

Leadership Team

Angela Hummel, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design
Ralph Basui Watkins, Columbia Theological Seminary

Participants

Shauna Hannan, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary of California
Tamisha Tyler, Bethany Theological Seminary
Myron Krys Florence, Union Theological Seminary (NYC)
Lis Valle-Ruiz, McCormick Theological Seminary
Nick Peterson, Christian Theological Seminary
Eric Thomas, General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church
Andrew Wilson, Mount Allison University 
David Dwon, Seattle University
Sheila Winborne, Northeastern University
Seth Gaiters, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Heather White, University of Puget Sound

Description

For many teachers, the arts are foundational to pedagogical philosophy and practice – this conversation is for these colleagues. This intensive conversation will be a gathering of scholars who understand themselves as artists or as creatives teaching religion and theology and who want to be inspired, challenged, and stretched by others who make regular use of the arts in course design. Habits, practices, and knowledges of creativity, imagination, and multiple art mediums will be explored. Central to the conversation will be the notions and practices of embodiment, generativity, experience, compassion, wonder, empowerment, and healing.

The hands-on experience will include workshopping of ideas, peer discussion, peer critique, artistic experiences, conversations with artists, a visit to an art space, and encouragement for working on and completing a personal syllabus project.

Participants will bring to the conversation a syllabus to be reimagined or a new course idea to be designed through an arts-based approach. This workshop is not for spectators or colleagues who have not claimed their teaching identity as artists and creators. There is an expectation of creative production during this experience.  

Key Questions

• What is the role of creativity and imagination in course design?
• What networks and conversation partners will support and strengthen arts-based approaches?
• How might an existing course be redesigned with an arts-based approach to teaching and learning?
• What artistic, creative, and imaginative experiences might be a fulcrum, foundation, or inspiration for designing a course?
•  What embodied and immersive experiences might add dimension and meaning-making to the course for deeper learning?
• How are learning activities or assignments that are embodied, imaginative, and foundation-ed by the arts, imagination and creativity developed and implemented?
• How can a creative process or artistic product be assessed or graded?

Participant Eligibility (10 participants by application)

• Participants who identify themselves as an artist or as creative and who routinely integrate the arts and creativity into their teaching and course design.
• Teaching religion, theology, or related fields in an accredited college, university, seminary, or divinity school in the United States, Puerto Rico, or Canada.
• Tenure-track, tenured, continuing term, and/or full-time contingency in any season of career; doctoral degree awarded by July 1, 2024.
• Job description or contract that is wholly for, or inclusive of, developing new curriculum or developing curriculum-related activities such as degree/non-degree programs, co-curricular programs, new initiatives, new courses, revamping old courses, establishing laboratories or experimentation for teaching.
• Collegial and institutional support for the integration of the arts into teaching and course design; institutional support and personal commitment to participate fully in all workshop sessions.
• Colleagues who will be actively teaching in 2025 and/or 2026 to be able to focus upon a project during the workshop that can be implemented in the teaching context.
• Colleagues are willing to give critique of the artistic and pedagogical work of other participants in an affirming and compassionate way; colleagues who are willing to be critiqued for the strengthening of their arts-based teaching.   

Application Materials

Please complete and attach the following documents to the online application:

• Application Contact Information form
• Cover letter:
  • An introductory letter that describes your teaching context and addresses why you want to be part of this collaborative experience, including what you hope to  get out of it, and what you might contribute to it. (Up to 500 words)
• Brief essay: 
  •      Essay Prompts (answer all prompts using 800 to 900 words or less; roughly 200 words per question)
    • What is your working definition of arts-based pedagogy?
    • Describe your teaching identity as an artist or as a creative.
    • Describe a creative or artistic lesson plan, learning activity, or assignment that you designed and incorporated into your current teaching. How was the learning experience for your students? How was the learning experience for you?
    • Briefly describe the course, learning activity, or assignment you will be creating or rethinking during the Roundtable.
• Academic CV (4-page limit)
• A letter of institutional support for your full participation in this workshop from your Department Chair, Academic Dean, Provost, Vice President, or President. Please have this recommendation uploaded directly to your application according to the online application instructions.