Launched in 2004, the Academy of Christian Scholars serves Christian faculty at the University of Minnesota by helping them discover how their teaching and research can honor Jesus Christ and better serve students and society. Further information is available at 612-378-1935 or by e-mailing miller@umn.edu.
Faculty Coordinating Committee
• Dr. Harold Miller, Chair (Former Dean of Continuing Education, University of Minnesota, and Provost, Northwestern College)
• Dr. Christopher Macosko (Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota)
• Dr. Paul Capel (Adjunct Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota)
• Dr. John Deen (Associate Professor, Department of Veterinary Population Medicine)
• Dr. Bryan Dowd (Professor, Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota)
Programs
Christian Faculty Network
As a ministry of support for Christian faculty on campus, the Christian Faculty Network was launched in the 1980s by Faculty Commons (formerly Christian Leadership Ministries), the faculty ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Since 2004, the Academy of Christian Scholars has become an active co-sponsor. Further information about monthly meetings can found at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~cfn/index.html.
Faculty Profiles in Faith
Christian faculty at the University of Minnesota embody a fundamental calling to serve Jesus Christi by serving colleagues and students. Many are available to mentor students who want to integrate their faith with their coursework and campus experience. Click here to discover their faith stories and much more about their lives and their research: http://www.maclaurin.org/professors.php
Research and Course Development Projects
The Academy continues to sponsor a number of largely faculty-driven projects that advance scholarship in light of a Christian perspective. Currently-funded projects include: 1) a new course being prepared for the Program in Human Rights and Health and 2) research on the relative health outcomes of patients in faith-based hospitals.
Dialogical Pluralism Project
Members of the Academy are persuaded that scholarship and teaching is invigorated and renewed when we thoughtfully acknowledge the diversity of intellectual frameworks (worldviews), including theistic perspectives, in academic life. In February 2007, the Symposium on Civic Engagement and Moral Education was co-sponsored by the University’s Office for Public Engagement and featured a dialogue among Dr. Richard Bernstein (New School for Social Research), Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff (Yale), and Dr. Mark Bauerlein (Emory).
The Project also conducts faculty lunch table conversations over fundamental questions concerning academic purpose, and will relaunch these in Summer 2008.
Christian Faculty Development
Helping Christian faculty bring the mind of Christ to bear on their research and teaching is an on-going process. The Academy sponsored a Fall 2005 conference on Christian faculty mentoring that honored the life and scholarship of the late Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering Rutherford Aris. On October 25, 2008, Dr. Dallas Willard, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, will conduct an all-day Christian faculty development workshop.
Rutherford Aris University of Minnesota Christian Faculty Mentoring Award
The award honors a University of Minnesota Christian faculty member who embodies the call to mentor students and colleagues with the grace, dignity, and intelligence commensurate with a follower of Christ. Rutherford Aris, for whom was award is named, was a Christian friend to countless faculty colleagues and students, many of whom have since achieved major scholarly successes. The $1500 cash award is to be used as follows by the awardees: $1000 for the student or students who are being mentored by the awardees and $500 to be used for meals with mentees.
Past awardees have included:
• Dr. Christopher Macosko, Professor of Chemical Engineering (2005)
• Dr. Theo Stavrou, Professor of History (2007)
