Doctoral Programs Host Dr. Matt Ashley for Kickoff Event

Dr. Stephen Chapman and Dr. Ross Wagner hosted a kickoff event Wednesday, September 13 for their two-year, $30,000 Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning grant.  The grant is designed to promote pedagogical formation, and involves doctoral students and faculty in religion and theology.  The Ph.D. program, known as the Graduate Program in Religion (jointly administered by the Department of Religious Studies and the Divinity School), and Th.D. program (offered by the Divinity School) will share this funding and combine efforts to enhance their teacher training initiative.

Professor J. Matthew Ashley of the University of Notre Dame was our guest for the evening. Prof. Ashley received his PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has served as Chair of Notre Dame's Department of Theology and Director of Graduate Studies. Among other interests, he has written about and developed courses on science and theology. He has been a Henry Luce Fellow in theology, and he received a Fellowship for Teaching Science and Religion from the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. He recently secured funding for a "Consultation on Teaching Catholic Theology in the Next Decade," which he also organized and chaired, and which brought together forty department chairs and graduate program directors from Catholic universities across the country.

Professor Ashley spoke on "Training College and University Teachers of Theology and Religion for the Twenty-First Century." Following his presentation, there was a time for questions and conversations.