Learning From COVID-19
Three Perkins faculty were featured in an article in Baptist News on how seminaries have adapted to train ministers how to lead in new ways, both online and in-person. The article highlighted the course on “Digitally Mediated Ministry” taught by Robert Hunt and Marcell Silva Steuernagel, and how the pandemic has informed the teaching of Alyce McKenzie. Read the article here.
Faculty Awards
The Annual Report to the Committee on Faculty Supplemental Account of Honors and Awards reported the following awards received by Perkins faculty staff in the 2020-2021 academic year.
- The 2021 Sam Taylor Fellowship award recipients are Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Professor of Pastoral Care and Pastoral Theology, and Jack Levison, W. J. A. Power Professor of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew.
- Ted Campbell was the invited guest speaker at an event on “The Intersectionality of Science and Religion: A Comparative Discourse between a Scientist and Theologian” sponsored by the International Center of Faith, Science and History at Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, N.C., on October 17, 2020. The fellow speaker was former North Carolina Governor James G. Martin.
- Susanne Scholz, Professor of Old Testament, served as the regional Society of Biblical Literature President of the Southwest region from March 2020 to March 2021. She was awarded the SMU Center for Teaching Excellence “Pedagogical Partner Up Grant;” she worked with four other SMU colleagues as a “pod” on a project, “Active Learning and Student Engagement Strategies,” focused on methods of improving student engagement in the classroom, in both virtual and in-person modalities.
Mark Stamm in Podcast
Mark W. Stamm, Professor of Christian Worship, appeared in Episode 17 of “Methodantics,” a video podcast produced by Sid Davis, Director of Music and Fine Arts, and Justin Bair, Associate Director of Worship and Music, at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston. The series looks at “Why we do what we do in traditional worship in the United Methodist Church?” The episode featuring Stamm covered the liturgical year and how it came about. Watch the podcast here. Stamm also wrote the first two blog posts, on youth worship leadership, for the Reboot Youth Ministry Project. “Believe it or not, once upon a time, I used to work with youth groups,” he said. Stamm has written four additional blog posts that will appear throughout the rest of the summer. In addition, in February, Stamm taught an online, 4-week adult education series at First United Methodist Church in Richardson, titled “The Shape & Place of Worship: Historical, Theological and Pastoral Considerations.” Later in the spring, he taught an online adult formation series at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, titled “The Great Fifty Days, Eastertide Celebration.” That program was hosted by Transfiguration’s Rector, the Rev. Dr. Casey Shobe, and Associate Rector, the Rev. Rebecca Tankersley (M.Div. 2015.) Check out the series here. He also preached and taught (online) at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Plano, Texas, where the Rev. Leslie Stewart (M. Div. 2014) is the Vicar. The sermon, “The Whole City Gathered About the Door,” focused on Mark 1:29-39; the class following was “Called to Prayer: Exploring Our Vocation.”