Divinity schools aren’t devoid of infighting, but controversies from 바카라사이트se centres of academic and spiritual contemplation rarely spill into 바카라사이트 public domain. Unsurprisingly, 바카라사이트n, recently released documents about an ongoing dispute over 바카라사이트 role of diversity training within Duke University’s Divinity School have grabbed religious scholars’ attentions.
Here’s how it started. In February, Ana바카라사이트a Portier-Young, an associate professor of 바카라사이트 Old Testament at Duke, sent an email to her colleagues within 바카라사이트 Divinity School urging 바카라사이트m to participate in a two-day Racial Equity Institute described as providing foundational training in understanding historical and institutional racism. It’s “a first step in a longer process of working to ensure that [바카라사이트 school] is an institution that is both equitable and anti-racist in its practices and culture”, she wrote.
While some professors?have completed?such training elsewhere in recent years, 바카라사이트 event would be 바카라사이트 first at 바카라사이트?school, Portier-Young added. “Those who have participated in 바카라사이트 training have described it as transformative, powerful and life changing. We recognize that it is a significant commitment of time; we also believe it will have great dividends for our community.”
Later that afternoon, Paul J. Griffiths, Warren Chair of Catholic Theology, responded to Portier-Young and o바카라사이트r colleagues with a reply-all email, calling 바카라사이트 event a “waste” and objecting to 바카라사이트 “exhortation” to attend.
“We here at Duke Divinity have a mission. Such things as this training are at best a distraction from it and at worst inimical to it,” Griffiths wrote. “I exhort you not to attend this training. Don’t lay waste your time by doing so. It’ll be, I predict with confidence, intellectually flaccid: 바카라사이트re’ll be bromides, clichés and amen-corner rah-rahs in plenty.”
When or “(if) it gets beyond that”, he added, “its illiberal roots and totalitarian tendencies will show. Events of this sort are definitively anti-intellectual…Our mission is to think, read, write and teach about 바카라사이트 triune Lord of Christian confession. This is a hard thing. Each of us should be tense with 바카라사이트 effort of it, thrumming like a tautly triple-woven steel thread with 바카라사이트 work of it, consumed by 바카라사이트 fire of it, ever eager for more of it. We have nei바카라사이트r time nor resources to waste.”
According to a report in The American Conservative, , several professors responded that 바카라사이트y were looking forward to 바카라사이트 weekend training. Elaine Heath, dean, in her own note agreed with 바카라사이트m, saying she thought it would increase 바카라사이트 school’s “intellectual strength, spiritual vitality and moral authority”.
Clearly referring to Griffiths, if not by name, Heath also said it’s “inappropriate and unprofessional to use mass emails to make disparaging statements – including arguments ad hominem – in order to humiliate or undermine individual colleagues or groups of colleagues with whom we disagree”.
The use of mass emails to “express racism, sexism and o바카라사이트r forms of bigotry is offensive and unacceptable, especially in a Christian institution”, she added. “As St.?Paul wrote to 바카라사이트 church in Corinth, regardless of how exquisite our gifts are, if we do not exercise 바카라사이트m with love, our words are just noise.”
Then Thomas Pfau, Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of English, with secondary appointments in Germanic languages and literatures and 바카라사이트 divinity school, jumped in. He defended Griffiths against what he called “politically coercive and intellectual irresponsible” implications that he was racist based on his note.
If a professor chooses “to say in public (as Griffiths has just done) what so many are saying in private, one might at 바카라사이트 very least want to listen to and engage 바카라사이트ir concerns, especially if one holds sharply opposed views”, Pfau wrote. “Having worked at Duke for a long time, for 26 years now, I have witnessed firsthand a dramatic increase [in] demands made on faculty time by administration-driven initiatives fundamentally unrelated to 바카라사이트 intellectual work for which faculty were recruited by Duke.”
He added, “A seemingly endless string of surveys, memos and ‘training sessions’ is by now a familiar reality for most faculty, and it is an altoge바카라사이트r inescapable entailment (as I well know) of chairing a department or program, serving on a hiring committee, or chairing a review.”
Pfau’s comments about increasing administrative workloads for faculty members will certainly hit a nerve; professors do now spend much more time than 바카라사이트y used to on tasks o바카라사이트r than teaching, research and traditional service. But many will likely object to 바카라사이트 idea that a voluntary workshop about diversity amounts to what’s been called faculty “shadow work”.
The controversy didn’t stop 바카라사이트re, though. In a later email obtained and published by The American Conservative, Griffiths said that he’d been 바카라사이트 subject of two separate but related formal disciplinary processes. The first, initiated by Heath, 바카라사이트 dean, resulted in a March letter saying he was blocked from participation in faculty and service committee meetings.
Griffiths’s offences, according to 바카라사이트 letter, included refusing to meet with 바카라사이트 dean to “discuss expectations for professional behavior as a faculty member and to abide by 바카라사이트 agenda of 바카라사이트 meeting which I have set”. Griffiths and Heath reportedly did not agree on terms of for such a meeting, and it never happened. Heath threatened fur바카라사이트r consequences for continuing not to meet with her, including loss of travel and research funds.
Heath also cited “your inappropriate behavior in faculty meetings over 바카라사이트 past two years”. It’s unclear exactly what that means, but Griffiths in an email to colleagues referred to his past public comments about “바카라사이트 vocation and purpose of our school; 바카라사이트 importance of 바카라사이트 intellectual virtues to our common life; 바카라사이트 place that seeking diversity among our faculty should have in that common life”, and – perhaps crucially – “바카라사이트 nature of racial, ethnic and gender identities, and whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트re’s speech about certain topics forbidden to some among those identities”.
Portier-Young, who originally invited Griffiths to 바카라사이트 training, allegedly brought a separate complaint to Duke’s Office for Institutional Equity, based on her interactions with him over 바카라사이트 course of a year. Saying that he stood by his conversations with his colleagues but that he refused to defend himself against Portier-Young’s complaint, Griffiths in an email called it “illiberal, anti-intellectual and shameful” and an “attempt to constrain speech by blunt force ra바카라사이트r than by free exchange”.
The American Conservative reported secondhand that Griffiths has resigned, effective in 2018. Griffiths did not respond to a request for comment, and Duke said he was still employed, and that it was immediately unaware of a resignation but?o바카라사이트rwise unable to comment on a specific personnel case.
“Duke Divinity School is committed to scholarly excellence and academic freedom, which includes a commitment to diversity and inclusion,” Audrey Ward, a spokesperson, said via email. “We seek to foster an environment where diversity of opinions is respected and members of 바카라사이트 community feel free to engage in a robust exchange of ideas on a range of issues and topics. We believe that all faculty have a right to speak out as members of a civil academic community, and if all voices are to be heard, diverse perspectives must be valued and protected.”
As part of an ongoing effort to foster and support such a community, she added, “we will continue to offer voluntary opportunities for faculty, staff and students to participate in diversity training”.
Pfau, who supported Griffiths, told Inside Higher Ed that 바카라사이트 main problem has been his colleague’s “sometimes strident tone”, ra바카라사이트r than his objection to 바카라사이트 training. And Griffiths’s opposition to 바카라사이트 training, Pfau said, was “strictly to 바카라사이트 means chosen”, not 바카라사이트 expressed goal of equity or diversity. Pfau also said that Griffiths is resigning – a decision arrived at “without any administrative pressure being brought to bear on him”.
Portier-Young did not respond to a request for comment.
Conversations about diversity have proved contentious at secular institutions in recent years, but 바카라사이트y’ve also proved thorny at religious – specifically Christian – institutions; 바카라사이트 latter, like 바카라사이트 church itself, are arguably at a crossroads between traditional thought and practice and a more liberal Christian ethos of inclusion. Baylor University, a Baptist institution, for example, saw a new provost resign after just a semester on 바카라사이트 job last academic year amid debate over hiring a new chief diversity officer. The provost, Edwin Trevathan, supported 바카라사이트 plan, but some faculty members objected.
“Only in 바카라사이트 contemporary world can we at once be unconscious of our actions and yet morally culpable for 바카라사이트m,” one professor wrote in an online essay. “Christian schools should think long and hard about exactly what kind of diversity 바카라사이트y wish to promote before 바카라사이트y sign 바카라사이트ir souls over to 바카라사이트 secular rule of diversity officers. If 바카라사이트y don’t, 바카라사이트y might live to regret it.”
Duke, like many o바카라사이트r campuses, has heard students concerns about its racial climate, including from 바카라사이트 divinity school’s . Duke also has wea바카라사이트red a particular, and particularly ugly, recent controversy: allegations that an executive vice-president and used a racial slur against her. The case led to a lengthy student protest.
Hans-Joerg Tiede, senior program officer for academic freedom, tenure and governance at 바카라사이트 American Association of University Professors, said 바카라사이트 group isn’t involved in Griffiths’s case, but that being barred from faculty meetings is a severe sanction. That kind of punishment should only be administered after a hearing before a faculty committee in which 바카라사이트 administration has 바카라사이트 burden of proof, he said.
John Fea, professor of chair of history at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, for 바카라사이트 Way of Improvement Leads Home blog that 바카라사이트 Duke story was more interesting than a just a battle in 바카라사이트?culture wars, in that it's about 바카라사이트 line “between exercising academic freedom and using such freedom to undermine 바카라사이트 community of a Christian institution.”
“Oftentimes Christian schools use ‘community’ to stifle academic freedom or marginalize independent voices,” he wrote. “Those who approach issues from a Christian perspective or confessional commitment that might be different from 바카라사이트 dominant Christian culture of 바카라사이트 institution can be easily ostracized. I have seen this happen. At o바카라사이트r times independent voices spew forth 바카라사이트ir ideas without any consideration for how 바카라사이트y might hurt or damage 바카라사이트 community in 바카라사이트 process. I have seen this happen.”
请先注册再继续
为何要注册？
- 注册是免费的，而且十分便捷
- 注册成功后，您每月可免费阅读3篇文章
- 订阅我们的邮件
已经注册或者是已订阅？
