CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Stewarding Studentship: Christian Tradition and Faith-learning Integration in Graduate School
Editors, Robert H. Woods Jr., David Enns, and Elaine V. Fung
The Context: The journey for Christian students into graduate school presents multiple challenges. Beyond the pressures of intellectual rigor and imposter syndrome, students may enter an academic environment where faith is relegated to the private sphere, if not dismissed entirely. The integration of faith and learning has received minimal scholarly focus at the graduate level. Graduate students in private Christian institutions encounter few avenues for spiritual growth beyond attending classes, highlighting the need for faculty to intentionally embed faith-learning integration practices within their course design.[1] These challenges are even more pronounced for Christian students enrolled in secular institutions, where faith-learning integration is largely absent and Christian perspectives are often marginalized or silenced within academic discourse.[2] This underscores the urgency of cultivating spaces where theological reflection and intellectual rigor can coexist.
The Purpose: The proposed book is a space for Christian graduate students to share the ways they integrate their faith into their research, teaching, and leadership. While books like Professing Christ: Christian Tradition and Faith-learning Integration in Public Universities focus on such endeavors among faculty, this edited volume provides the graduate student perspective.[3] Together, the successes and challenges experienced by authors of this volume will generate ideas for weaving faith meaningfully into the graduate school experience for student generations to follow. The modern graduate experience, with its emphasis on individualism, runs counter to the biblical call for a burden-bearing community. This volume will augment formal academic training with practical wisdom and lived testimony from peers and mentors who have recently navigated this terrain. It seeks to equip current students with models and encouragement for integrating their faith into the daily reality of their graduate studentship.
The Approach: Chapters will be short (2500-3000 words) and provide a personal narrative that expounds intersections between your graduate student responsibilities and faith tradition. We encourage you to share your journey as an illustration and guide for others who desire to integrate faith and scholarship, teaching, and leadership. We will provide you with two sample chapters to demonstrate not only the tone, length, and content of the invited contributions but also the variety and breadth of experiences. These are not research papers or literature reviews, so sourcing and referencing should be kept to a minimum. Your chapter, written in accordance with our in-house style guide, should include the following elements in the order listed:
- Personal faith. Open with a personal statement about your faith tradition. How did your spiritual journey, your faith, affect your college experience, your decision to attend graduate school?
- Here’s how I pictured my personal faith would play out in graduate school. A theological, philosophical, or theoretical statement about your strategies for integrating Christian faith in your research, teaching, or leadership. Did you have any specific approaches, methods, or models for thinking Christianly or being a Christian scholar or practitioner? For being a faithful witness for Christ in your interactions with fellow students/professors, or campus community?
- At least one specific, clear, extended example of how your approaches, methods, or models described above in no. 2 have been applied along with any best practices that may have resulted. How did you apply or live out your faith in your classwork, in your research, in your teaching, or in your interactions with fellow students/professors, or campus community?
- An additional point of reflection, emphasis, or best practice about faith integration in the academy may be discussed, such as (optional, choose one): (a) identifying narratives about expectations and/or sanctions actually experienced at the department, college, university level; (b) creating a personal calculus for career, research, or teaching decisions; (c) cultivating student-advisor relationships that flourish; (d) building community/networks with other Christians; (e) developing a research agenda; (f) discovering what it means to be a great teacher who loves students.
- A brief conclusion that provides inspiration, encouragement, or a compelling charge for other graduate students.
The Audience: Chapters will be written for other Christian graduate students training or working in public or private institutions to encourage, stimulate, and guide them toward improved faith integration and faithful Christian witness in the academy. Undergraduate students considering graduate school will also find this book helpful, along with Christian professors who desire to better mentor and teach their students of faith. Encouragement is a key motive for the book. Another key motive is to help readers learn from the experiences of those who have successfully modeled faithful witness in the academy, providing them with practical, inspiring, and biblically informed models for their own journey.
Submission Schedule: Submit an abstract of 250-300 words by January 15, 2026, to rwoods@theccsn.com that demonstrates how your chapter addresses each the five sections of “The Approach” outlined above. Once approved, authors will then submit a chapter outline for on or before by March 15, 2026. Accepted chapters will be presented at a June 2026 workshop designed to help further the conversation on the subject matter and provide authors feedback for revisions. Final drafts of chapters will be submitted on or before August 15, 2026.
The Editors:
- Robert H. Woods Jr. (PhD, JD, Regent University) served as Professor of Communication and Media at Spring Arbor University for 20 years. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Christianity and Communication Studies Network (CCSN) (www.theccsn.com), a non-profit network providing faith-learning integration resources and training to faculty, students, and administrators in higher education. He is the editor-in-chief of the CCSN’s imprint, Integratio Press (integratiopress.com). Dr. Woods has served as the President of the Religious Communication Association (RCA) and was named Scholar of the Year by RCA. He is the recipient of multiple research and scholarship awards and the editor/author of over a dozen books. Dr. Woods is the co-author with Paul Patton on Everyday Sabbath: How to Lead Your Dance with Media and Technology in Mindful and Sacred Waysand co-editor with Jonathan Pettigrew on Professing Christ: Christian Tradition and Faith-learning Integration in Public Universities. His book co-authored with Kevin Healey (University of New Hampshire), titled Ethics and Religion in the Age of Social Media: Digital Proverbs for Responsible Citizens received the Book of the Year Award from RCA. He recently served as a visiting scholar at Trinity Western University. Connect with Robert: roberthwoodsjr.com.
- David Kenneth Enns (PhD, Liberty University) writes and pastors at the precarious intersection of faith and communication. His academic work examines how words cloaked in the lingo of faith can build bridges or erect walls in public life. He currently serves as Executive Pastor at GateWay Bible Church in Santa Cruz, California. Before entering doctoral work, David was known worldwide as “Dave the Horn Guy,” a performance artist whose act blurred humor and virtuosity, appearing on multiple Got Talent franchises, in sports entertainment, and at conferences across the globe. The through line is simple: every word, every honk, must earn its place. Through horns, hymns, and higher education, each chapter of his life has given him a singular lens on the power of words. David and his wife enjoy pickleball, backgammon, and life with their four young adult children. Discover more at davidenns.com
- Elaine Fung (ABD, Regent University) received an MA in Communication Studies from San Jose State University and a BA in Communication Studies from Biola University. She has been a Christianity and Communication Studies Network (CCSN) graduate fellow since 2023, and part of the founding team of the Christian Communication Scholars Society (CCSS), a professional society for Christian graduate students. Her research interests include leadership, organizational, and interpersonal communication. Elaine is an event coordinator for the Faith & Work Movement Global. She volunteers as a graduate student representative for the Training and Development division at the National Communication Association and is part of the planning team for the American Science Affiliation’s retreat for underrepresented early career professionals in science-related fields.
Notes
[1] Cameron Purper et al., “A Survey of Graduate Students’ Perspectives on the Integration of Faith and Learning,” Journal of Faith in the Academic Profession 2, no. 2 (2023): 61, https://cbuopenpublishing.org/index.php/jfap/article/view/45.
[2] Luigi Giussani, The Risk of Education: Discovering Our Ultimate Destiny, reprint (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2001); Neil Gross and Solon Simmons “The Religious Convictions of College and University Professors,” in The American University in a Postsecular Age, eds. Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda H. Jacobsen (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
[3] Robert H. Woods Jr. and Jonathan Pettigrew, eds., Professing Christ: Christian Tradition and Faith-learning Integration in Public Universities (Integratio Press, 2022).