Papers by Elisabeth Vasko
Feminist Theology, Dec 17, 2012
This article adopts Edwina Sandys’ Christa as a hermeneutical lens through which to expose new di... more This article adopts Edwina Sandys’ Christa as a hermeneutical lens through which to expose new dimensions about the interplay between aesthetics and redemption in the Christian tradition. Contemporary theological aesthetic discourses have ignored ugliness and its causes, especially the patriarchal ways in which Christian tradition has been used to sanctify violence against women. The issue of gender injustice takes on a heightened significance in light of recent claims surrounding the beauty of the cross. As a subversive aesthetic feminist representation, Christa exposes the patriarchal dimensions of such constructions and calls for a new vision of aesthetics – one that begins with women’s experiences of suffering and salvation.
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at L... more This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected].
Teaching Theology & Religion, 2014
The authors respond here to each other's essays published in this issue of the journal. In “H... more The authors respond here to each other's essays published in this issue of the journal. In “Holding Us Accountable,” Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko respond to Karen Teel's essay, “Getting Out of the Left Lane.” In “Challenges and Convergences,” Karen Teel responds to the essay “Teaching Race” by Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko.
Societas Ethica’s Annual Conference, 2016
Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 2017
This article examines the stigma surrounding mental health, drawing out implications for Christia... more This article examines the stigma surrounding mental health, drawing out implications for Christian theological anthropology and ethics. As I argue, the stigma surrounding maternal madness engenders the sociocultural and religious veiling of affective and sexual difference within Western Christian milieu reflecting a heteropatriarchal framework for articulating the value of bodies, emotions, and control. In practice and theory, this framework places mothers with affective mood disorders outside of economies (structures and practices) of care and goodness. Such logic veils the ways in which maternal madness calls us to embrace the transformative power of grace as dis-ease through (a) welcoming unpredictability within God, self, and others; (b) resisting easy fixes; and (c) actively discerning the politics of emotion.
Teaching Theology & Religion, 2017
Civic learning and teaching, a form of critical and democratically engaged pedagogy, is utilized ... more Civic learning and teaching, a form of critical and democratically engaged pedagogy, is utilized in an upper-level undergraduate sexual ethics course to leverage public problem solving around the sexual violence on a mid-size Catholic collegiate campus. Through the course, students, faculty, staff, and community members work together to deepen understanding of the causes and consequences of sexual violence within society and the local community in order to evaluate and design programming for bystander intervention, education, and sexual violence prevention advocacy. After a discussion of the application of civic teaching and learning to sexual violence, the course module describes the learning outcomes and assignments used to assess them. See as well Donna Freitas's response to this essay, “The Risk and Reward of Teaching about Sexual Assault for the Theologian on a Catholic Campus,” published in this issue of the journal.
The Journal of Religion, 2014
Given the difference in research performance in various scientific fields, this study aims to wei... more Given the difference in research performance in various scientific fields, this study aims to weight and valuate current indicators used for evaluation of scientific productions (publications), in order to adjust these indicators in comparison to each other and make possible a more precise evaluation of scientific productions. This is a scientometrics study using documentary, evaluative, and survey techniques. The statistical population consisted of 106 top Iranian researchers, scientists, and scientific and research managers. Then their research résumé information was gathered and analyzed based on research questions. In order to compare values, the data gathered from research production performance of the population was weighted using Shannon entropy method. Also, the weights of each scientific production importance according to expert opinions (extracted from other works) was analyzed and after adjustment the final weight of each scientific production was determined. A pairwise matrix was used in order to determine the ratios. According to the results, in the area of engineering sciences, patents (0.142) in the area of science, international articles (0.074) in the area of humanities and social sciences, books (0.174), and in the area of medical sciences, international articles (0.111) had the highest weight compared to other information formats. By dividing the weights for each type of publication, the value of each scientific production compared to other scientific productions in the same field and productions of other fields was calculated. Validation of the results in the studied population resulted in very high credibility for all investigated indicators in all four fields. By using these values and normalized ratios of publication indicators it is possible to achieve precise and adjusted results, making it possible to feasibly use these results in realistic policy making.
Teaching Theology & Religion, 2014
While a number of scholars in the field of Christian theology have argued for the importance of t... more While a number of scholars in the field of Christian theology have argued for the importance of teaching diversity and social justice in theology and religious studies classrooms, little has been done to document and assess formally the implementation of such pedagogy. In this article, the authors discuss the findings of a yearlong Scholarship of Multicultural Teaching and Learning (SoMTL) study, which examined student learning and faculty teaching regarding race and white privilege in two theology classrooms. After a brief overview of the study's design and execution, we reflect upon our findings and draw out implications for pedagogical practices. In particular we discuss students' emotional responses to the material and the role of cognitive dissonance in student learning with respect to racial inequality via social structures. See a companion essay in this issue of the journal (Karen Teel, “Getting Out of the Left Lane: The Possibility of White Antiracist Pedagogy”) and responses by the authors of both essays, also published in this issue of the journal (“Responses: Toward an Antiracist Pedagogy”).
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2012
This article offers a reflection upon the process of intercultural collaboration in light of a gl... more This article offers a reflection upon the process of intercultural collaboration in light of a global feminist theology immersion pedagogy project, which brought together young scholars from Kenya and the United States. The authors use dualistic categories arising in feminist theological discourse to discuss the ways in which they negotiated difference in the context of intercultural research and collaborative learning. Obioma Nnaemeka’s nego-feminist stance, a feminism of negotiation, provides a way forward for intercultural feminist collaboration as it corresponds to the cultural, practical, and methodological insights of the immersion experience.
Feminist Theology, 2012
This article adopts Edwina Sandys’ Christa as a hermeneutical lens through which to expose new di... more This article adopts Edwina Sandys’ Christa as a hermeneutical lens through which to expose new dimensions about the interplay between aesthetics and redemption in the Christian tradition. Contemporary theological aesthetic discourses have ignored ugliness and its causes, especially the patriarchal ways in which Christian tradition has been used to sanctify violence against women. The issue of gender injustice takes on a heightened significance in light of recent claims surrounding the beauty of the cross. As a subversive aesthetic feminist representation, Christa exposes the patriarchal dimensions of such constructions and calls for a new vision of aesthetics – one that begins with women’s experiences of suffering and salvation.
ion because life, in its fullness and in its pain, is both physical and spiritual. As Emilie Town... more ion because life, in its fullness and in its pain, is both physical and spiritual. As Emilie Townes argues, conversations about human flourishing and human suffering must be rooted in “concrete existence (lived life).” In other words, theology must be developed in conversation with the concrete context and knowledge of particular communities. As Townes contends, theological discourses that remain at the “thinking http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007.pdf (accessed on August 8, 2008). In this context, to engage in rhetoric that articulates the problem of faith in terms of secular unbelief is to trivialize the suffering of millions and to distance the responsibility of the Church in seeking the dignity of all persons. 4. Gutiérrez, “Theological Language,” 194. 5. Ibid. 6. Emilie M. Townes, In a Blaze of Glory: Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), 48. 7. Ibid., 49. Townes argues that theory should never be divorced from praxis. It must ...
ed volume Theologies of Failure (2019)
Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 2017
This article examines the stigma surrounding mental health, drawing out implications for Christia... more This article examines the stigma surrounding mental health, drawing out implications for Christian theological anthropology and ethics. As I argue, the stigma surrounding maternal madness engenders the sociocultural and religious veiling of affective and sexual difference within Western Christian milieu reflecting a heteropatriarchal framework for articulating the value of bodies, emotions, and control. In practice and theory, this framework places mothers with affective mood disorders outside of economies (structures and practices) of care and goodness. Such logic veils the ways in which maternal madness calls us to embrace the transformative power of grace as dis-ease through (a) welcoming unpredictability within God, self, and others; (b) resisting easy fixes; and (c) actively discerning the politics of emotion.
forthcoming JSCE 37.1 (2017)
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Papers by Elisabeth Vasko
forthcoming JSCE 37.1 (2017)
forthcoming JSCE 37.1 (2017)
In Beyond Apathy, Elisabeth T. Vasko utilizes resources within the Christian tradition to examine the theological significance of bystander participation in patterns of violence and violation within contemporary Western culture, giving particular attention to the social issues of bullying, white racism, and sexual violence. In doing so, she constructs a theology of redeeming grace for bystanders to violence that foregrounds the significance of social action in bringing about God’s kingdom.