1 Jay Case: Students Are Not Simply Thinking Beings:  Cultivating Desires for Quaker Principles
When they first arrive in our classrooms, many of our students are convinced that the main reason they are in college is to acquire training for a job.  This conviction, arguably, looms as the greatest obstacle for those of us who wish to cultivate Quaker principles in our students, such as the testimonies of equality, peace, integrity and simplicity.

Thus, we should further consider how our students have been formed and what college has to do with that formation.  We may not recognize that many of the structures and practices of modern higher education have been built upon an assumption that humans are primarily thinking beings.  That often puts professors in the business of disseminating information, teaching problem solving, and developing skills of critical thinking.  While these are important tasks, those of us with Quaker convictions understand that humans are more than thinking beings.

Humans are also beings who desire, for good and for ill.  How, then, do desires function within our pedagogy?  Many desires are formed by habits, dispositions and practices that are thought to be meaningful.  If we are to encourage students to desire faith, service and compassion, we need to think more carefully about how to develop meaningful practices, habits and dispositions within our classroom and the wider campus community.

Jay R. Case is a Professor of History at Malone University.  His scholarly interests lie in American religious history, particularly the history of evangelicalism.  In 2012 he published An Unpredictable Gospel:  American Evangelicals and World Christianity, 1812-1920, with Oxford University Press.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 1999 and his B.A. from Taylor University in 1984.  He has been a member of Jackson Friends Church since 2000.                    

2 Steve Chase: Educating For Beloved Community: Cultivating Creative Maladjustment Within Ourselves and Our Students
“Seek first the Kingdom of God” was a core conviction of prophetic Judaism, the early Jesus movement, and the early Quaker movement. Being faithful for early Friends meant waging a nonviolent “Lamb’s War” to resist the corrupt kingdoms of this world and to build up what they called God’s “Peaceable Kingdom.” Many modern Quakers remain true to this spiritual vision and resonate powerfully with Martin Luther King’s prophetic call to join together and help foster the “Beloved Community.”

The Eco-Justice Working Group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has recently called on all Quakers and people of goodwill to become an active part “of a Great Turning toward peace, justice, ecological balance and more durable, local economies.” Are we prepared to repent and change the road we travel from the Empire Way to Martin’s Way? Are we prepared to make this spiritual orientation central to our calling as educators–no matter what discipline we teach, and no matter whether we teach on Quaker or non-Quaker campuses? If so, how can we cultivate what Martin Luther King called “creative maladjustment,” an outlook so necessary to taking faithful and effective action to heal and transform the world?

Steve Chase is the author of Letters To A Fellow Seeker: A Short Introduction To The Quaker Way, a member of the Putney Friends Meeting in Vermont, and the Director of Antioch University New England’s environmental studies master’s program in Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability. His dissertation, Activist Training In The Academy, has provided the curriculum framework for The Change Agency, a non-academic activist training organization in Australia.

3 Tracey Hucks:  Becoming ‘Quakerly’: The Legacy of Social Justice and its Challenges
Social justice at Quaker institutions has always been in a dialogical relationship with the wider society.  Throughout major historical moments in American history, Quaker institutions struggled to maintain their commitment to tolerance and community while seeking to deepen their ties to social justice.  In contemporary contexts, what does it mean for institutions with Quaker roots to live and learn in a multicultural educational environment?  And what have been the challenges to sustain a commitment to co-existence across difference?

Tracey Hucks teaches in the Department of Religion at Haverford College.  Her current research involves the study of African-derived traditions in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and offers a historical, literary, and ethnographic account of religious identity in colonial Trinidad.  Her book, Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism examines the history of Yorùbá religious practice among African Americans in the United States and was published in 2012 with the University of New Mexico Press in the Religions of the Americas Series.

The Seth and Mary Edith Hinshaw Fellowship provides up to $2,000 for research using the resources of the Friends Historical Collection at Guilford College to study an aspect of southern Quaker history. The fellowship is sponsored by the North Carolina Friends Historical Society to encourage research and use of the Friends Historical Collection. The recipient may be asked to present his/her research and findings at the Society’s annual meeting.

See http://libguides.guilford.edu/fhc/fellowships for more details.

We invite applications from a range of backgrounds: dissertation, post- doctoral, and non-academic. We anticipate that the most competitive applications will involve innovative projects of the many concerns to which Friends have turned their attention, including literature, women’s issues, family history, and race relations, as well as religious doctrine and controversies. Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria: • demonstrated understanding of the applicability of our particular holdings to the anticipated project. • probability that the project will result in a product that will advance the worlds’ understanding of the multiple dimensions of religion. • evidence of the applicant’s prior familiarity with and effective use of similar collections.

Application deadline for the 2013 fellowship is February 15, 2013. Applicants should send the following materials as PDF attachments to archives@guilford.edu and also mail a print copy to Gwen Gosney Erickson, Friends Historical Collection, Guilford College, 5800 West Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27410:

• a three-to-five page statement of research goals, including what progress has been made to date; a statement of how this project will further greater understanding and/or scholarship by placing Southern Quaker history in the context of your subject area, an assessment of how Guilford’s materials can further its progress, and an estimate of when the project is expected to be completed.

• a current vita or resume • if applicant’s background does not include published work, include a writing sample • the names and addresses of three references who are familiar with both the field in which the applicant proposes to work, and with the applicant’s work. Please inform your references that they could be contacted. • permanent and any temporary addresses (e-mail and postal) and phone numbers

This issue of QHE gathers uniquely Quaker voices to address some of the greatest challenges facing higher education today. Potentially disruptive innovation and financial crises are forcing most, if not all institutions, to reexamine our missions and the manner in which we carry them out. All the essays in this issue grew out of presentations at the June 2012 conference of the Friends Association for Higher Education. The authors respond to these challenges from a Quaker perspective, exploring what we might have to contribute to the discussion.

FAHE member schools will have representatives on hand to meet with area high school students and their families.  In attendance will be Young Friends from PYM monthly meetings, as well as other students from Friends schools and independent schools in the Philadelphia region.

Our theme is “Holistic Education: To What End?”

We offer these queries:

• As distinctly Quaker institutions and educators, what are we educating our students for?  What does Pendle Hill have to do with Athens?
• In what ways do Quaker testimonies and practices facilitate a holistic approach to education?  How might our students imagine higher education as something more than the acquistion of a professional skill set?
• How are Quaker testimonies and practices expressed within the classroom and beyond at our instituions?
• Whether we teach at institutions that are private or public, or are affiliated with Friends or not, how do we challenge and engage students who represent a broad spectrum of intellectual talents…from the academically-disengaged to the academically-focused and gifted?
• What is or can be a distinctively Quaker educational experience, no matter what branch of the Religious Society of Friends one’s institution or an individual might represent?  Why might a Quaker education matter to those who are not part of the Friends tradition?
• How do we live and learn together within our campus communities?

For more information on the submission process, and to offer your proposal, please follow this link.

For the month of September, FAHE is on display in the foyer of Friends Center, our administrative home in Philadelphia.

Thanks to all the admissions staff from our member institutions who sent us their stuff!

It includes two articles on the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s Internship Program, two articles addressing the value of and challenges posed by study abroad experiences, and a review of David Zarembka’sbook, A Peace of Africa: Reflections on Life in the Great Lakes Region.

Our theme is “Holistic Education: To What End?”

We’ll be accepting proposals for presentations later in the fall.