QLHE: Complicating the Narrative

Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings in Higher Education series presented:

Complicating the Narrative:
Being more neighborly in our pedagogy and our praxis

Tuesday, December 20, 2022
7:30-9 pm, eastern

Grounded in a well-known TEDTalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and their own experience as rural people, Jennifer and Andy raise up the “dangers of a single story” and some ways to help our students do the same in the stories they tell.

Presenters:
Jennifer Elam
https://pendlehill.org/product/art-as-souls-sanctuary/
PhD Psychology
University of North Carolina
Retired School Psychologist
Writer and Workshop Leader

Andy Stanton-Henry
https://esr.earlham.edu/faculty-staff/andy-stanton-henry/
Master of Divinity
Associate Director
Quaker Leadership Center
Earlham School of Religion

Moderator:
Trayce N. Peterson
MA student/instructor
Human Rights Practice
University of Arizona

Bios:
Andy Stanton-Henry is a writer, Quaker minister, chicken-keeper, and distraught Reds fan. He holds degrees from Barclay College and Earlham School of Religion, and is a doctoral student studying Open and Relational Theology. He carries a special concern for rural leaders, leading to his recently published book Recovering Abundance: Twelve Practices for Small-Town Leaders. Andy has also trained in spiritual direction, labyrinth facilitation, conflict transformation, and entrepreneurial ministry. He currently serves as associate director of the Quaker Leadership Center at Earlham School of Religion. A native Buckeye, Andy now lives in East Tennessee with his spouse, Ashlyn, their blue heeler Cassie, and their laying hens.

Dr. Jennifer Elam began her study of psychology in 1969 and served in many settings until her retirement in 2014. In 1995, Jennifer was led to go to Pendle Hill for a four-week internship and ended up staying, studying spirituality, and working in Quaker ministry for 25 years. She is presently following leadings to use her life-time of work in psychology, spirituality and social justice to develop classes/workshops, using creative media – writing/poetry, dance and visual art – as led by Spirit for healing. Currently, she offers a workshop called “Mediating Trauma through Creative Expression” with Gloria Stearns-Bruner. In June of 2022, her third PH pamphlet called “Hillbilly Quaker” was published and she is now leading workshops on “Identities.” She is feeling called to interfaith ministry.

Jennifer grew up on farms in Kentucky but her parents could not make a living. At age 11, her family moved to Chicago on what was then called the “hillbilly highway” so that her parents could work in factories for 20 years. When the pandemic hit, Jennifer was in KY working on estates settlements as both her parents had died, six days apart. Figuring she could no longer go back and forth from PA to KY, she moved back. At this time, she is working on what the future holds for herself and the farm that has been in her family since the 1790’s.