2014 Scholars

January

Dr. Stella Rock (England),

Stell Rock has been travelling to and writing about Russia for years, mostly focusing on the Orthodox Christianity she first encountered on an ecumenical pilgrimage to Kiev, Leningrad and Moscow in 1988. Her doctoral and post-doctoral work has focused on the academic study of 'popular' Russian Orthodox Christianity, the related topic of the dynamic relationship between prescribed/proscribed Christianity and Christianity as it is lived, and the relationship between Christianity, prejudice and identity. A much-expanded version of her doctoral research was published in 2007 (paperback 2009) as Popular Religion in Russia: 'Double-belief' and the Making of an Academic Myth (Routledge: Abingdon and New York) and most recently she has contributed chapters on pilgrimage to Catherine Wanner (ed.), State Secularism and Lived Religion in Soviet Russia and Ukraine (Oxford University Press: Oxford, anticipated publication date 2012) and Vera Shevzov's and Amy Adams' forthcoming volume on Marian veneration in modern Russia . She has also written numerous articles for academic journals and publications such as History Today, Russian Life and the online Open Democracy.

Currently Stella is working on a monograph about the revival of Orthodox Christian pilgrimage in post-Soviet Russia, within the broader context of a pan-European increase in pilgrimage and heritage tourism. The scholarship at Vaughan Park will allow her to devote some much needed thinking and writing time to chapters exploring pilgrims' motivations for seeking out the sacred in specific physical locations.

 February

The Rev. Colin Patterson (Durham)

The Rev. Colin Patterson is Assistant Director of Bridge Builders, a British organisation that helps churches to handle conflict constructively (www.bbministries.org.uk).

Colin started his working life as a secondary school chemistry teacher in the West of England, before offering for ordination in the Anglican Church. After serving in parishes in Blackburn and Darlington, he was a full-time lay training officer in the Diocese of Durham for twelve years, at a time when the Diocese was trying to develop new patterns of ministry. It was a job that frequently required him to be a facilitator and mediator as well as a trainer. He now plays those roles throughout Britain, leading ecumenical training courses for people in positions of church leadership, and working for healing and reconciliation in local churches.       

Colin has a special interest in how human beings learn. His focus at the moment is the learning of wisdom, which he sees as undervalued in an information-saturated society. Hence he offers training that tries to inculcate a habit of learning by reflecting on personal experience. The challenging goal – for himself and for those he trains – is to act with the peace of God and manage oneself carefully, in circumstances where emotions run high.  

For some time, Colin has been researching how the New Testament presents Jesus as a model for facing conflict.   During the month of residence at Vaughan Park, Colin will begin to write a book based on his study of the four gospels. The book will explore what it meant for Jesus to learn obedience through what he suffered: how, when experiencing typical human emotions, he chose to respond constructively in each new circumstance. Colin hopes to produce a book for pastors that will provide fresh light on the person of Jesus, along with a practical framework for growing in wisdom.

February at Vaughan Park will be part of a three-month sabbatical, and Colin is looking forward to renewal and refreshment as well as study and writing. He is particularly pleased to be able to spend time in New Zealand, because it is the country where his wife, Rosie, grew up. The two of them will be touring New Zealand together during January 2013.

 June

Professor Richard Hartwig

Being an academic is an adventure.   After getting over the first hurdles, you can study, write and often teach whatever you want.   You get paid to read and write books and articles and get rewarded for foreign travel.   What a great gig!   I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend nine years of my life living, studying and teaching in Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Australia—plus shorter periods in the Portuguese Azores, Spain, Turkey and now New Zealand!  

I studied German and Government as an undergraduate at Southern Illinois University and concentrated on Latin American Politics as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.   I worked on a Master's thesis in Argentina and carried out my dissertation research in Colombia.    After teaching at a number of universities in the United States, I moved to Monterrey, Mexico--first as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Monterrey and then as a professor at Monterrey Technological Institute (ITESM).   I remember the shock of getting my first batch of term papers from the students and realizing that I was supposed to correct their Spanish!   In the Fall of 1993, I moved to the safer and more predictable environment of Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK).  

While writing my doctoral thesis, I became a fan of a philosopher of the social sciences named Paul Diesing.    My book Roads to Reason:   Transportation, Administration and Rationality in Colombia is organized around   Diesing's five/six types of rationality.     I continue to use Diesing's framework of analysis in the Technology & Society class I teach at TAMUK.    During my years as an academic gypsy, I taught American Government, Latin American Politics, Public Administration, Public Policy and International Relations.   My newest class is “Drugs, Violence and Politics in Mexico and Colombia”.  

All American academics want to save the world.   My modest contribution is a plan to reform the United Nations Security Council called the Regional/Economic Proposal (REP).   The proposal originally appeared in an article entitled “Squaring the Circle:   A Regional/Economic Proposal for Reform of the United Nations Security Council”, in the May 2008 issue of Critical Currents, the on-line journal of the Swedish Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.   While at Vaughan Park, I will be writing on this topic and trying to interest the government of New Zealand in the idea.

 October

The Rev. Canon Mark Pryce

Canon Mark Pryce is Bishop's Adviser for Clergy Continuing Ministerial Development in Birmingham diocese, UK. Mark grew up in Wales and rural Shropshire , and was ordained in Lichfield Cathedral in 1987 , close to Bishop Selwyn's tomb! Before his work in the professional development of clergy Mark served in two inner-urban parishes in the West Midlands, and was for twelve years fellow and Dean of Chapel at Corpus Christi College Cambridge. He has published and taught extensively in the areas of Christian spirituality, gender and poetry, and is currently researching the role of poetry in reflective practice among clergy. His Literary Companion to the Lectionary and Literary Companion for Festivals offer poems to accompany the liturgical cycle of the church, and during his stay he will be continuing to work on poems and creative writing as a way of unfolding Scripture, published in a series co-authored with James Woodward and Paula Gooder: Journeying with Mark, Journeying with Luke, and Journeying with Matthew.

markpryce@birmingham.anglican.org

 November

Claire Anstice

People's Warden at St Michael and All Angels Christchurch.   Claire is studying spiritual direction with Spiritual Growth Ministries Aotearoa New Zealand.