Addenda 3.9 (September 2020)



2020 Society Grants:
Congratulations to Our Awardees!

The Grant Evaluation Committee has announced the winners of the 2020 Annual Global Scholars Grant. I invite you all to praise God for his abundant grace. As we are all aware, 2020 has been a difficult year for academic research and conferences. Given the circumstances, a cloud of uncertainty seemed to hang over this year’s grants. This announcement by the Grant Evaluation Committee is, therefore, a testimony of God’s grace and another milestone in the history of our Society.

I wish to acknowledge the immense sacrifice and commitment of the Grant Evaluation Committee. We were blessed to have an excellent team of international scholars serving on this committee: Dr. Luka Dinshak (Chairman), Dr. Mary Ma, Dr. Grace Etuk, Dr. David Miao, Dr. Sidia Diaouma and Dr. Pramod Ramteke. Thank you all for a job well done!

The successful applicants for this year’s awards are: Elizabeth Olayiwola of Kwara State University, Nigeria; Christy D. Moran Craft of Kansas State University, USA; Michael Linville of Indiana Wesleyan University, USA; Andrew Mendy of the University of The Gambia; Alexander E. Timothy of the University of Calabar, Nigeria; Joseph Gaima Lukulay of the United Methodist University, Freetown, Sierra Leone; Isaac Daama of the University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon; Lucas Freire of Mackenzie University, Brazil; Dorothy Oluwagbemi-Jacob of the University of Calabar, Nigeria; Mara Nestor Tamba of Université Général Lansana Conté de, Conakry, Guinea; Peter Cimala of Comenius Institute of Prague, Czech Republic; Luka Carrol Domkat of the University of Jos, Nigeria and Ross Jansen-van Vuuren of Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada.

Winners, we congratulate you and pray that God will use you immensely to have a missional and redemptive influence for Christ in the world. The Society is determined to walk with you and partner with you to be the salt and light of this generation. We regret that not everyone who applied was selected. If your application was not successful, please do not be discouraged. In the years ahead, we hope to increase the number of recipients and serve more scholars.

The purpose of these grants is to enable Society members to be better equipped to fulfil their calling in academia. Through these grants, our members will develop greater acumen in teaching or ministry skills, advance the integration of faith and scholarship in their disciplines and increase their ability to provide leadership in higher education. All this would not be possible without the faithfulness and commitment of a few special people who have stood by us through thick and thin and have provided the funds for our programs. Thank you, dear partners and friends. May God bless the growing family of the Society of Christian Scholars.

Prof. Osam Edim Temple
Society
Executive Chair

 

The Addenda Minute
Brief Reflections on Faith and Scholarship:
Spiritual Formation

Christian scholars who seek to have redemptive influence acknowledge their dependence on God and their need for spiritual formation and growth. They recognize the intertwining of academia and the spiritual life as the pluralistic university is filled with countervailing ideologies and idols that compete to shape their thoughts, words and actions.

Being attuned to the Holy Spirit is crucial for discernment and resistance, and thus practicing the spiritual disciplines in community with other believers refreshes and sturdies the soul. Such formation is not a journey to be attempted alone but with other fellow travellers, bearing one another’s burdens. Growing together in Christ by the power of the Spirit leads to wisdom, understanding and the strength to teach, research and offer our lives in service to our institutions and communities.

Where might you be on your journey of faith with Christ in the Spirit? Have you tried to “go it alone” or have you found others with whom you can journey together and invite others? Here are some resources for the journey, and don’t forget to explore our Member Directory or join a Webinar to find others to journey with.

We Are Listening!

A few months ago, over 100 of our members completed a feedback survey! We received many compliments along with insightful suggestions. One member said that the Society has helped her “be more intentional about starting conversations with those I meet as I move around campus.” Among the new ideas, another member encouraged us to offer Zoom meetings where members could get to know more about each other. Explore all Society feedback here, including the demographic background of feedback participants such as academic discipline, gender, and more. 

In next month’s Addenda we will address how the Society is responding to your feedback.

Society News

Tell a Colleague: Free 30-Day Trial Memberships!
Members have often suggested offering trial memberships––a “try before you buy” option––to give prospective members a risk-free opportunity to explore our Society. This option is now available on our newly updated public page (make sure you’re logged out of the member site to visit this new page). Don’t let your colleagues miss out on all that our Society offers. Invite them to join today and encourage them to click on “Free Trial Membership” at www.SocietyofChristianScholars.org.  

Society Member Adding French-Language Resources

Dr. Augustin Ahoga (Benin), former IFES Francophone Africa Regional Secretary and member of the founding planning team of the Society of Christian Scholars, sees a way to make our Society better. And he is doing something about it!

Although the Society currently has over 600 resources in its library and is slated to grow by at least 100 resources yearly over the next three years, we have only a few French-language resources.

Dr. Ahoga is assembling a team of Francophone African scholars to populate the Society library with Francophone resources. This endeavour, however, will be unique. Although Ahoga and his team will include French-language resources from around the world, the primary focus will be on resources written by Francophone Africans! 

As Dr. Ahoga says, “Most Francophone African scholars read only books written by those not born or raised in Francophone Africa. These authors don’t know Francophone Africans, and their respective needs, as Francophone Africans do.” 

We look forward to becoming a particularly strong depository for the work of Francophone African scholars, so as to benefit not only Africa but also the rest of the world. After all, we can all gain from access to the generally overlooked but high-quality academic contributions of Francophone Africans. 

Do you see an opportunity in the Society to serve? A chance to make the Society better? An insightful way to serve your local colleagues and, by extension, those around the world? If so, email Executive Committee member Dr. Keith Campbell, at kcampbell@SocietyofChristianScholars.org, and he will connect you with the appropriate Society representative.

Society Resources

New Editorial Services Guidelines
Although our team of editors has not been swamped by requests, our group of satisfied users has included a small number of members who really like our help! In fact, eight scholars have each submitted four to eight papers to Editorial Services in our first 18 months of operation.
 
To ensure that we can respond promptly to new clients, henceforth Editorial Services will guarantee Society members only three edits per membership year, although we will still assist with additional papers if staff availability permits. Keep in mind that at market rates, the value of three edits significantly exceeds the cost of a full membership in the Society!
 
We look forward to serving many more Society members with their editorial needs.

A Call for Book Reviewers
In coordination with several upcoming webinars in 2021, IVP Academic Press has made several books available for review by Society members. We still have one book left: The Spiritual Practices of Jesus by Catherine J. Wright. If you’re interested in providing a review (up to 1,000 words) of this book, please contact Dr. Stephen Garrett (sgarrett@global-scholars.org) for further details. Reviews will be highlighted and published in a special section of our Society Member Site.

INCHE Webinars: Two Ways to Continue the Conversation
Continue the conversation on the topics addressed in webinars in two ways:

1. Online at the society member site online groups.

2. Small group Zoom-based discussions with members of our partner, the International Network for Christian Higher Education (INCHE).

Further information about the Society/INCHE partnership is at: https://inche.one/partnerships. Further information about the small group discussions including dates, times, resources, and small group registration will be posted soon at: https://inche.one/events.

Please note that the registration deadline is 25 September for the first two post-webinar discussions on Dr. Katanacho’s webinar. 

Upcoming Events and Webinars

Webinar: The Spiritual and Intellectual Journey of a Palestinian Christian Scholar
Dr. Yohanna Katanacho

Thursday, 17 September 2020 at 1400 GMT

On Thursday, 17 September 2020 at 1400 GMT, Dr. Yohanna Katanacho, Academic Dean at Nazareth Evangelical College, will discuss his faith journey as a Palestinian Christian scholar. He began as an atheist who despised the idea of God and hated his Jewish neighbors. Then, he met Christ and was transformed into a messenger of faith, hope and love. 

Dr. Katanacho has addressed complex faith questions in the Palestinian context, such as the land of Israel, justice and peace (in his 2013 book The Land of Christ: A Palestinian Cry); the relationship between Israel and the church; Romans 9-11; and reading the Old Testament as a Palestinian Christian. He has written or contributed to dozens of books in English and Arabic; his most recent book is Reading the Gospel of John Through Palestinian Eyes (2020). He is also actively involved in peacemaking in the region.

Register TODAY and share the below URL with your colleagues. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear about Dr. Katanacho’s exciting story as a Palestinian Christian scholar and peacemaker.

Register here: https://scshub.net/webinars/the-spiritual-and-intellectual-journey-of-a-palestinian-christian-scholar-thursday-17-september-2020-at-1400-gmt/

Next round of IFES “Engaging the University” e-course about to begin
September, October 2020

IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) offers a three e-course series called “Engaging the University”, designed to help you think biblically and critically about your context and your calling in the university setting.

The first (brief) course can be completed at your own pace; the second and third courses involve work with a facilitated cohort and are offered twice a year. Course 2 will begin on 5 October. So to become eligible to participate in this valuable experience, now is the time to register at www.ifesworld.org/en/university and complete course 1! 

Webinar: Building STEM Teacher Capacity through the Practical Education Network
Dr. Heather Beem

Thursday, 15 October 2020 at 1400 GMT

Investing in teacher development is crucial to address the global education crisis, as over 250 million children are not learning basic skills (UNESCO, Global Monitoring Report, 2013/14).

The Practical Education Network (PEN) improves learning outcomes by building teacher capacity in West African schools. PEN’s teacher training program is infused with MIT-style learning-by-doing to enable hands-on science regardless of resource constraints.

On Thursday, 15 October 2020 at 1400 GMT, Dr. Heather Beem, MIT graduate and CEO/Co-Founder of the Practical Education Network, will deliver a presentation on how PEN empowers teachers to engage their students in hands-on science projects. PEN’s materials blend constructivist learning with design training to allow participants to discover key concepts and harness them to engage in projects relevant to their daily lives, all within the structures of traditional education programs. Within the presentation, Heather will weave in a few examples of how her faith and her role as an engineering faculty member at Ashesi University also feed into this work. 

Register here: https://scshub.net/webinars/building-stem-teacher-capacity-through-the-practical-education-network-thursday/

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Addenda Volume 3.9 (September 2020)
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