A time of refreshment and vacation

Thank you for for your interest in the 2009 Midwest Faculty Conference! The event was very successful. We have posted a photo slideshow from the conference online, and we will soon be sharing additional photos and audio as well. Below you can read about the “confamication,” our nickname for this wonderful “CONference FAMIly vaCATION.”

The 2010 Midwest Faculty Conference will be held June 19-25, 2010, with featured speaker Dr. Kenneth Elzinga, Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia. We invite you to contact us for further information. You may also wish to subscribe to the Lamp Post, the quarterly chronicle of InterVarsity Faculty Ministry, to stay informed about next year’s plans as they are announced.

The fourth annual Midwest Faculty Conference¹, New Opportunities in the Academy: A Mission Possible, will be held at Cedar Campus, June 20-26, 2009. We are pleased to announce that our featured speaker will be Dr. John Sommerville, Professor of English History, Emeritus, at the University of Florida, and member of the Faculty Ministry Advisory Council.

¹ This event encompasses much more than the word conference can possibly contain, so a new word has been added to the lexicon. “Confamication” captures the fact of it being a stimulating conference, a restful vacation, which can both include and be a delight to the whole family. And it is a welcoming place for singles, couples and children as well.

About C. John Sommerville

C. John Sommerville is most recently the author of The Decline of the Secular University (Oxford , 2006). Two more books will soon be appearing on related subjects, from Baylor University Press and Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishers. He is Professor Emeritus of English History at the University of Florida, but his interests have also included the history of the media (How the News Makes Us Dumb) and of attitudes toward children (The Rise and Fall of Childhood). His nine books and 30-some articles are on a wide variety of topics. After doing graduate work at the University of Iowa, Sommerville began his teaching in the Western Civilization program at Stanford University, before moving to a permanent position at the University of Florida. A Member of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton and Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions, he also recently contributed to the Pew Younger Scholars’ Mentoring Program.

Registration

Registration for the 2009 Midwest Faculty Conference is now closed. However, registration for our 2009 West Coast Faculty Conference is still open. You can also email us if you’d like to be notified about future Midwest Faculty Conferences or other faculty events in the Midwest.

Fees

Registration fee: $150 per adult

Adult fees for room and board
Family cabins (with private bath) – $455 per adult
Lodge rooms – $345 per adult
Tent/RV sites – $235 per adult

Child fees for room and board
Children 13 and older – $185 per child
Children 2-12 – $125 per child
Children under 2 – $60 per child

More information about housing options is available from the Cedar Campus website.

Schedule

Updated Schedule! Registration for the conference will begin at 2pm on Saturday, June 20, and the conference will end the morning of Friday, June 26. Click here to download a detailed schedule as a PDF.

Travel

Flying? Check out flights into Pellston Regional Airport,, located at 1321 N. US Highway 31 in Pellston, or into Chippewa County International Airport in Sault Ste. Marie, MI.

After you reserve your flight, send your flight information to Nancy Vuolo, so that we can arrange to have someone pick you up and drive you to Cedar Campus.

Driving? If you are driving, maps and directions are available from the Cedar Campus web site.

Housing

Cedar Campus features a variety of housing options for singles, couples, and families, including cabins, rooms in the lodge, and campsites for tents and RVs. More information about housing options is available from the Cedar Campus website.

What To Bring

Cedar Campus has an excellent list of what to bring and (perhaps more importantly) what not to bring. You can read it here.

Families & Children

Those who choose to bring their families to this conference will enjoy a wonderful experience of being involved in a variety of activities together.

Click here to read about parents’ experiences with their children at the Midwest Faculty Conference.

Seminars

An additional aspect of the week are the elective seminars offered as part of the evening program. These seminars will reflect the wide variety of disciplines and interests of those who attend the conference.

Seminars offered in the past have included:

• Practicing Spiritual Disciplines
• Challenges and Opportunities for Women Faculty: A Christian Response
• Naturalism and Some Implications
• Best Practices: Discover How Others in Our Midst Are Being a Redeeming Influence among the People, Ideas, and Structures of Higher Education
• Memoir Writing
• Contemporary Art and Religious Thought
• The Theme of Vocation in the Life and Writing of Dorothy Sayers
• Genesis 1-2: Literature, Theology, and Science
• “Everyone can do it”: Art Workshop with Hands-On Lessons and Discussion
• Faculty Wives Discussion
• Evangelicals, Politics, and Christian Public Discipleship
• This is my Father’s World: Christian Worldview in Light of Scientific Advances

These seminars provide added value to the conference experience, and most people participate even though they are all optional. Perhaps you too might have a topic, question, activity that you would enjoy leading. If so, let us know.

Further Information

A summary and photos from the 2008 Midwest Faculty Conference is available. You can also read reflections from past Faculty Conferences.

Cedar Campus is an InterVarsity conference and training center, located in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, forty miles east of the Straits of Mackinac. You might be interested in knowing more about this beautiful place in God’s creation via a brief history.

West Coast Faculty Conference

Attention West Coast Faculty: Faculty Ministry is also offering a West Coast Faculty Conference at InterVarsity’s Campus by the Sea. Click here to register and for additional details.

Questions?

If you have any questions, email us at info@facultyministry.org

Photo credits: Cedar Campus; Heather Duncan; Stephen Thomas