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January 01, 1970

Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D.

About Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D.

Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D., is the fourth director of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. She grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sharing a home with family and extended family dedicated to public education. Her father was a school psychologist and her mother was a stay-at-home mom who, as a volunteer organizer, greatly influenced the school board of the city of Philadelphia. Lynne holds a BS in Agriculture from Murray State University, a MA in Christian Education from Scarritt Graduate School, and a PhD in Religious Education and Womanist Studies from Union Institute. Lynne, as a United Methodist clergy person, served on the staff of the Riverside Church (NYC) where she redesigned the family education program. From 1999 to 2019, she was on the faculty of Drew University Theological School (Madison, New Jersey) as Professor of Religious Education.
Lynne’s first book was a children’s book entitled All Quite Beautiful: Living in a Multicultural Society. Her second book was a publishing of her doctoral dissertation entitled Dear Sisters: A Womanist Practice of Hospitality. Her books written in collaboration include: Being Black/Teaching Black: Politics and Pedagogy in Religious Studies and Black Church Studies: An Introduction. She also, for a brief time, wrote for the Huffington Post.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dear Lynne,

    As the person at Phillips Theological Seminary responsible for co-curricular student engagement, I am building in components of theological reflection upon our (g)local realities through visits to Tulsa’s Greenwood Rising Museum and to Oklahoma City’s First Americans Museum. In fact, as a test run, I am accompanying a group during a regional gathering of the Religious Education Association to these museums this summer. As you develop conversation with Dr. Williams about making more significant connections between the kinds of reflection we do in theological classrooms and the kinds of learning available through museums, I would love to know what connections you’ve discovered. And, likewise, I will send my findings to you. Thank you for this timely write up!

    Reply

    • Anne

      I am so glad that you are including and experimenting with museums in your teaching.
      Yes, please let me know what you learn.

      peace
      Lynne

      Reply

  2. Hey, Lynne,
    I liked your post about including museums into the curriculum as places of learning. I am a seminary teacher at a Lutheran Seminary, we’re close by the Oriental institute of the U of C. Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.
    I was wondering how to best work with a secular institution on theological seminary education?
    The colleagues at the Oriental Institute are partly known to me as scholars but the museum is their window to the larger public.
    There are many avenues into the museum content.
    I do use iconography in a Psalms class, they have a lot of cylinder seals on display.
    They do cover Egypt as cultural space which invites to work on questions of social location in theological studies.

    I am curious what you think.
    Klaus P. Adam

    Reply

  3. Anne,

    We are investigating, learning, and pondering ways we might make use of museum education and create resources with museum education as the focus. I am glad to hear that you are, already, working to incorporate museums into your teaching. Yes, please let me know about your experience and learning.

    Lynne Westfield

    Reply

  4. Klaus,
    I would suggest that you include your question of “how best to work with a secular institution” in the planning conversations.
    Many curators and archivists are not, as we are, experts in religion/theology. They depend upon our expertise for interpreting certain religious aspects of culture, artifacts and objects.
    Knowing your own expertise will make for a good partnership with the museum colleagues.

    peace
    Lynne

    Reply

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