Earlier this summer, we sent a short survey to all members of the Emerging Scholars Network. This was the first time that we have ever done something like this, and we would like to make it an annual practice. There were three purposes for our survey:

• To find out how well ESN members were advancing in their academic careers
• To learn if ESN was fulfilling its mission to identify, encourage, and equip future Christian scholars to be a redeeming influence in higher education
• To discover how we could better serve ESN members

There was one additional objective, too: to provide ESN members who were entering a new stage of their career with some concrete resources to help them in their professional and spiritual development. We offered a free book to any ESN member who had recently made a transition (e.g. completed a degree, gotten a job, earned tenure). We chose a selection of books that covered pragmatic advice for completing your graduate degree (Getting What You Came For) and succeeding in the first year of faculty life (Life on the Tenure Track), spiritual resources for being a Christian intellectual (Habits of the Mind) and practicing the crucial discipline of Sabbath keeping (Keeping the Sabbath Wholly), and resources for living a life consistent with God’s call on you (The Call) and integrated in its belief and behavior (Fabric of Faithfulness).

Survey Results

ESN members are advancing in their academic careers. Out of about 300 respondents, 61% (178) had made some sort of academic transition in the past year — beginning or completing a new degree, landing a job, earning tenure, etc. A total of 47 had been hired as either a full time or part time faculty member, and 9 had earned tenure.

Further, the ESN members making transitions included groups that have been historically under represented in the academy. About 44% of those advancing in their careers were women, and 23% were of non-White ethnicity. Both of these figures were behind general college enrollment (which is 57% and 30% non-White) (Source), but on par with the demographics of doctoral recipients (Source) InterVarsity is committed to multiethnicity as a representation of the image of God, and part of ESN’s vision is to see Christian scholars raised up who represent the diversity of God’s people. (For more information about InterVarsity’s commitment to multiethnicity, visit our Multiethnic ministries website and see our commitment to Biblical multiethnicity).

Humanities and education disciplines were dominant among our respondents. Philosophy, English, education, and history were the most common disciplines among all of those completing the survey. There was also great variety geographically: respondents came from 118 different colleges and universities and 5 different continents. (Apparently, we have work to do in South America and, alas, no researchers based in Antarctica completed our survey.) The University of Illinois had the most representatives in the survey, with Harvard, Wheaton, Biola, Cornell, and Baylor right behind.

Our Members’ Top Requests

Members reported that ESN was helping them in a variety of ways (for example, 47% reported that we had pointed them to valuable resources), but ESN still needs to do much more to help our members flourish. Among ESN’s Four Questions, “How do I navigate the various stages and transitions of an academic career?” was the top concern for respondents, but only 1.4% reported that ESN had helped them in that area.

The survey asked ESN members about a variety of new resources and activities that we were considering for this year. Here are the top requests from our members, in roughly the order they were ranked:

1. Practical resources for navigating an academic career
2. Resources for integrating your faith and academic vocation
3. Opportunities to meet other ESN members
4. Articles about spiritual formation in the academy
5. Expansion of our mentoring program
6. Events based on the ESN’s Four Questions

Taking ESN to the Next Step

What are we doing to address your requests?

First, we will be publishing more resources this year that relate to succeeding in your academic career, integrating your faith and academic discipline, and growing spiritually in the academy. We will also be providing some tools and suggestions to connect you with other ESN members. As you have probably noticed by now, we have changed the format of our newsletter to better feature new articles and resources from our website. You can also subscribe to our website’s RSS feed if that is your preferred delivery method.

Second, we are launching an Emerging Scholars blog. This was one of the options listed on our survey that we asked you to rate, and, frankly, it wasn’t one of the most requested. However, there are some very good resources that are already being published online by both secular and Christian organizations, and we think that a blog will be the most effective way to direct you to the best of them. We will also be using it to feature new writers for our website and “first thoughts” about issues confronting Christians in higher education.

Finally, though this was planned well in advance of the survey, the singlemost valuable resource for you will be “Flourishing in the Academy,” ESN’s Day Ahead event at Following Christ 2008. It will focus directly on the questions of emerging scholars like yourself. We will have plenary addresses from established Christian scholars like Mary Poplin, Ken Elzinga, Marc Baer, and Ron Potter, and there will be break-out sessions led by Christian scholars addressing the pragmatic questions of flourishing and succeeding at each stage of the academic career.

Following Christ 2008 will continue December 28 through 31, where the speakers will include N. T. Wright, Francis Collins, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, MaryKate Morse, and Jeff Van Duzer. Following Christ will also feature disciplinary tracks, chaired by professors of those disciplines, where you will have the opportunity to discuss those disciplines and the integration of faith within them in greater depth. Check out the Following Christ website for more details, and stay tuned for updates about Flourishing in the Academy. We hope that you will join us there!

To learn more about Following Christ 2008, register for the conference, and apply for scholarships, please visit the Following Christ website. If you were not one of the ESN members who completed the survey but would like to have your voice heard, contact Micheal Hickerson.

Photo Credit: Wessex Archaeology