The Lilly Fellows Program National Network holds its annual conference each fall on one of the Network campuses. Official representatives of all the Network colleges and universities meet to consider a significant issue of faith and learning, exchange ideas and practices regarding their mission, and foster the whole range of Network programs and activities. Some of the events may be open to the public; for further information contact the host school of the upcoming conference.

2009 Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts Nineteenth National Conference

Calvin College
Grand Rapids, Michigan
October 2-4, 2009
Practicing Cosmopolitanism
For more information, click here.

Future National Conferences

2010 Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, Indiana

2011 Samford University
Birmingham, Alabama

Previous LFP National Conferences

2008 - Seattle Pacific University
Seattle, Washington
Beauty: What's Justice Got To Do With It? was the theme for the eighteenth annual national conference of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, held at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA, on October 10-12, 2008.  The Conference was coordinated by Dr. Susan VanZanten, Professor of English and Director of the Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development, Seattle Pacific University.

 The plenary addresses were as follows:

Nicholas Wolterstorff
Faculty Emeritus at Yale Divinity School
"Beauty and Justice"

E. Christine Chaney
Associate Professor of English, Seattle Pacific University
"Beauty and Truth"

Benita Wolters-Fredlund
Assistant Professor of Music, Calvin College
"Beauty and Suffering"

In conjunction with the National Conference, the LFP sponsors a workshop for senior administrators of Network institutions. These workshops are arranged within the National Network. The nineth annual Lilly Fellows Program Administrators Workshop immediately preceded this year's conference at Seattle Pacific University on October 9-10. This year's theme, Campus Diversity and Institutional Mission, featured Dr. Margee Ensign and Dr. Gilberto Hinojosa. For more information, click here.

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2007 - Mercer University
Three Mirrors: Reflections on Faithful Living: The Legacy of Robert Shaw, Flannery O'Connor, and Martin Luther King, Jr
Ann Howard Jones - Teaching America to Sing:  The Legacy of Robert Shaw
Christina Bieber Lake - Vocation Through Limitation: Flannery O'Connor's Life of Faith
Andrew Manis - With and Without Honor: The Prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King,Jr. and American Response

2006 - Xavier University
A Blessed Heritage: The Contributions of American Church-Related Higher Education
Rhonda Jacobsen and Douglas Jacobsen - Protestant Universities and American Experiences: Vanity, Variety, Vision
David O'Brien - Higher Education: Catholic and/or American:  The Contribution of Catholic Higher Education to the American Experience  
Walker Gollar - The Role of Midwestern Christian Education in the Abolition of Slavery

 2005 - College of the Holy Cross
Keeping the Faith: Four Religious Perspectives on the Creation of Tradition
William J. Abraham - Tradition and Change in Methodism
Alan Avery-Peck - Creating an Authentic Faith: Traditions and Traditionalism in Judaism
Margaret Bendroth - Liberating Reformed Tradition:  The Challenge of Christian Vocation in the Twenty-First Century World
John E. Thiel - Faithfulness to Tradition: A Roman Catholic Perspective

2004 - St. Olaf College
"fling yourself farther": Metaphor, Faith, and Learning
Gregg Muilenburg – The Cretan Glance: Toward a Theory of Metaphorical Responsibility.
Julia Kasdorf – ’Same, same!’: Pleasures and Purposes of Metaphor
John Ferguson – Performative presentation of the Magnificant

2003 - Pepperdine University
Christianity and Liberal Learning: Revisiting the Connection
Jeanne Heffernan – Liberal Learning and the Light of Faith: An Initiation into Wholeness
Roger Lundin – ‘What We Have Loved’: Memory and the Heart of Learning
Christopher Parkening and Jubilant Sykes –Performative presentation

2002 - Valparaiso University
Vocation, Liberal Learning, and the Church-Related Academy
Father James Heft – The “Gentleman” and the Christian
Peter Mercer Taylor – JS Bach: Influences on His Music
Stephanie Paulsell – Life Work

2001 - Rivier College
“What, Then, Must We Do?” Social Justice, Service, and Religious Mission in Higher Education
Stephen Webb - Beyond Politics: Possibilities for Transformation in the Post-Secular University
Rebekah Miles - That’s All a Mule Can Do: Rethinking Work and Vocation in American Culture
Regina Shearer – Performative presentation

2000 - Loyola Marymount University
Moving Images: Film, the Sacred, and Higher Education
Richard Blake - Uncovering the Sacred: Substance and Style in the American Film
Fredrick Barton - Cultural Revelation and Historical Obfuscation: The Potentials and Dangers in Cinema as a Tool of Education
Tony Bui - Conversations with the director of Three Seasons

1999 - Valparaiso University
From Hellenistic to Pluralistic: Christianity and the Religions of the World
Paul J. Griffiths - Seeking Egyptian Gold: A Fundamental Metaphor for the Christian Intellectual Life in a Religiously Diverse Age
Antonie Wessels - The Role of Storytelling in Interreligious Dialogue
Nelly Van Doorn-Harder - Sharing the Gold: The Dialogues of Life and Action

1998 - Saint Mary’s College / University of Notre Dame
Athens and Jerusalem: Sacred Learning and Secular Culture
Nicholas Wolterstorff – Tertullian’s Enduring Question: What Does Athens Have to Do with Jerusalem?
Michael Buckley - Science and Religion: Antinomy, Dependence or Coordination?
Libby Larsen - The Canticle of Mary: A Setting for the Magnificat

1997 - Baylor University
The City of God Revisited: Church and State in the Twenty-First Century
Kent Greenawalt - Religious and Secular Arguments in Liberal Democratic Discourse
Eileen Barker - Religious Pluralism and America’s Public Philosophy
James M. Dunn - Christian Citizenship and Political Advocacy

1996 - Valparaiso University
Nurturing Souls: Scholarship and the Christian World View
Jeanne Knoerle - Love of Learning and the Desire for God
Richard Mouw - Christian Scholarship: The Difference a World View Makes
Robert VerEecke - Dance and Religion: Reforming the Sacred Circle

1995 - Valparaiso University
Nurturing Souls: Learning and the Sciences of Human Development
Sharon Daloz Parks - Led Where We Did Not Plan To Go
Mary C. Boys - The Grace of Teaching
David Morgan - The Role of Images in Religious Education

1994 - Valparaiso University
Nurturing Souls: Teaching and the Arts of Formation
Arthur F. Holmes - Teaching as Formation
Mary K. Oyer - The Nurturing Spirit
Shirley H. Showalter - Teachers Teaching Teachers: What We’ve Learned

1993 - Valparaiso University
Communities of Learning
Parker J. Palmer – “Only Connect”: On Living and Learning in Community
Barbara Doherty - The Diversity of Spiritualities in the Community of Learners
Walter M. Wangerin, Jr. – “Saxifrage” - A Story of, from and for One Christian Community

1992 - Valparaiso University
Spirituality and Higher Learning
Bernard McGinn - The Letter and the Spirit: Can Spirituality Be an Academic Discipline?
John Steven Paul - Lord, Hear and See Our Prayer: Artistic Performance as Expression of Personal Spirituality
Roberta C. Bondi - Re-Envisioning the Rational: Loving, Praying and Thinking

1991 The Inaugural Conference - Valparaiso University
Christianity and the Academic Vocation
Lawrence Cunningham - Gladly wold he Lerne and gladly teche: The Catholic Scholar in the New Millennium
Frank Burch Brown - Teachers, Mediums and Magi: Christian Educators in Humanities and the Arts

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