As the fall semester gets underway at Perkins School of Theology, change is in the air.
After years of work, the updated curriculum is now in place; the new hybrid program has launched, and the first cohort of the Maestría en Divinidad (M. Div. in Spanish) program has started classes.
Here’s a quick overview of “what’s new” at Perkins this fall.
New Curriculum
After a years-long curriculum review process, the new curriculum is now in place this fall for Perkins’s M.Div. and M.A.M. degree programs.
The required number of hours increased, slightly, with the M.Div. degree now requiring 75 credit hours instead of the previous 73 credit hours. The requirements for the M.A.M. degree decreased slightly, from 37 hours to 36. Details of the new curriculum are online here.
One key change included removing the ½-2 credit hour requirement of spiritual formation coursework, with the goal of incorporating spiritual formation more organically into all coursework.
Students with 48 or more hours as of the end of Summer 2024 may continue in the previous curriculum. Details on the changes are online here.
The new curriculum is the result of years of work by the Curriculum Review Committee, led by its Chair, Rebekah Miles. She described the need for the curriculum review in this December 2021 essay. The curriculum review was the first in more than 15 years, with the previous review undertaken in the 2006-2007 academic year and led by Evelyn Parker.
Hybrid Program
A new hybrid program began this fall, combining online coursework with occasional in-person “immersions” at a variety of locations.
With the new format, the location of the immersions will rotate. The first three immersions will take place in Dallas on the campus of SMU, in Houston and, tentatively, in El Paso. Subsequent “Mobile Site” locations are still in development.
While many hybrid M.Div. and M.A.M. programs offer in-person sessions throughout the program timeline, the new hybrid format allows students to fulfill the in-person requirements in different locations around the country. The mobile element of immersions means Perkins will strategically offer immersion courses on a one-time basis at a host-church or host-ministry in diverse locations around the country.
M.Div. students are required to attend five weeklong immersions; M.A.M. will attend two.
“We’re revamping the hybrid program to make theological education more accessible for more students,” said Christina Rhodes, Assistant Dean of Enrollment Management. “With the new program, students attend in-person twice a year, for a week in January and a week in June. That allows them to continue their ministries and to be with their families in the fall and spring.”
Students in the new program will not join formal cohorts, but most will likely progress through the program with many of the same fellow students.
Leadership of the new hybrid program is a collaborative effort between the faculty, the Academic Affairs Office and the Office of Enrollment Management.
Maestría en Divinidad
The new Maestría en Divinidad (M. Div. in Spanish) program at Perkins is now underway, with 13 students in the first cohort beginning their studies.
Students in the hybrid program will take two courses each term.
“Our students in the MDiv in Spanish program will be part-time,” said Hugo Magallanes, Dean ad interim of Perkins School of Theology. “Many are serving local Hispanic congregations as pastors and have multiple responsibilities. But the integrity of the academic degree remains the same. It’s an academically rigorous program.”
The students began the fall semester with their first two courses: Introduction to Theological Studies and Research, taught by Dr. Denise DuPont, Professor of Spanish at SMU; and Interpretation of the Old Testament, taught by Dr. Julián Andrés González Holguín, a PhD graduate of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU.
All courses in the M.Div. in Spanish program will be taught in Spanish; a key benefit is that students participate in a cohort of Spanish speakers, with all readings in Spanish, and all writing exercises completed in Spanish. Students in the program who feel comfortable doing so will also have the option of taking some courses in English.
The current plan is to open another cohort in two or three years, depending on interest and enrollment. Students will have opportunities to participate in one-week immersion courses and to attend worship experiences in bilingual settings.
Magallanes credited the support of a Perkins alum, the Rev. David Martinez, Executive Director of Contextual Leadership Development at the Global Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM) in helping make the new program a reality.
“This is a unique offering with great potential to support and equip Hispanic pastors in their ministry,” he said.