蒂•琼斯 happy her career path led her to Ashland University as an assistant professor of religion
蒂•琼斯 didn’t start thinking about being a professor of religion until she was working on her doctorate.
“I wanted to do disabilities awareness training in religious communities, 教导学生负责任地阅读圣经, 但这里面没有工作,琼斯说。, Ph.D., who joined the Ashland University 宗教 Department this academic year as an assistant professor.
琼斯说 she doesn’t have any regrets that her career path led her to being a college instructor, 尤其是在非盟.
“这里就像一个小家庭，”她谈到这所大学时说. “每个人都非常支持我. 感觉人们真的很在乎.”
彼得·斯莱德博士.D., chair of the AU 宗教 Department, said the department is excited to have her onboard.
“She has already brought a lot of new life to the department,” Slade said. 学生们已经想上更多她的课了.”
Her enthusiasm and her gift of making everyone feel comfortable in her classes are some of the reasons AU students enjoy her courses so much, 斯莱德说.
As a young girl growing up in England, Jones really wanted to be a veterinarian.
“But I knew that wasn’t going to happen because I’m not scientifically-minded,琼斯说。, who loves animals so much that she and her partner have two horses, 六个猫, 10只鸡和一只宠物青蛙——大多是救援动物.
她写的大部分是博士论文.D. dissertation for Georgetown University was spent in an Ohio field with one of her horses.
“没有任何干扰，”她说. “I lived in a friend’s trailer, just me and my animals and I just wrote. 我写了大约九个月. 我6月份开始写，2月份提交.
“I didn’t have a place to live and the dog I had was too old to travel back to England, 一个朋友让我住在她的拖车里,琼斯补充道.
把她对动物的热爱融入到教学中, 琼斯说 she redesigned her World 宗教s classes this semester to include studying religion through animals.
“人们喜欢谈论动物, so it’s a safe way to construct arguments about religion that’s not too controversial,”她说。.
除了两门世界宗教课, Jones is teaching an advanced Hebrew Bible class and an Exploring the Bible course online through the university’s Correctional Education program.
She began her AU career last semester teaching two Introduction to the Bible classes and two World 宗教s classes online for CE students.
“We were wanting someone who could teach World 宗教s and the Bible, 她两样都带来了,斯莱德说, 谁也是英国人. “这是一种不同寻常的技能组合.”
作为额外的奖励, Jones also brings a lot of knowledge in disabilities studies in religion and in the Bible. That was her primary research topic for her undergraduate thesis at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, 她还在哪里获得了硕士学位. She has had several articles on the subject published and plans to write a book based on her undergrad thesis.
“I did a lot of practical work with people with disabilities and realized that religious spaces weren’t necessarily too accommodating for the people who I worked with,琼斯说. “I realized that the people who were leading congregations were preaching and teaching the Biblical text in a way that was representing broader, 能干的文化.
“I was going to try to help people read Biblical text about disabilities in a different way,她接着说. Then shaking her head in disbelief added: “That’s a lofty goal as an undergrad.”
That interest in people with disabilities came as a teen through a work experience. The UK requires students in ninth grade to do a work experience to try to figure out what kind of job they want to do when they grow up, 琼斯说.
Knowing a veterinary experience wasn’t a practical option for her, Jones decided to work at a school for disabled students at her mother’s suggestion. 琼斯说 she loved it and even grew close to one of the students there, 还有他妹妹, 还在和他们联系.
“我想成为一名特殊教育老师, but in the UK it makes sense to get a degree in a subject and then do your teacher training,琼斯说. “我最感兴趣的主题是宗教, 所以我想我应该拿个宗教学位, 然后接受特殊教育训练.
“我一直在研究宗教,琼斯补充道。, who believed she could help bring more changes for people with disabilities doing broader awareness training in education than in a classroom with disabled students.
尽她所能, 琼斯说 she tries to integrate studies of disabilities in the Bible in her classes and hopes to teach a seminar course on the topic at some point.
“Something that I do that is an easy way to break it in is students are familiar with the miracle stories with Jesus, so I ask them provocative questions like: ‘Jesus cures someone who didn’t ask to be healed, 这是负责任地使用权力还是社会想要的?’”琼斯说.
因为她太享受了, 琼斯说 she doesn’t plan to change the career path she has found herself on as a religion professor, which included short stints as an adjunct at the University of Dayton, George Mason and United Theological Seminary in Dayton while working toward her doctorate at Georgetown. On the day she graduated from Georgetown, 琼斯说 she received the job offer from Ashland.
“Landing this job felt like a miracle because it’s so hard to get a higher education job,琼斯说. “A couple of my friends in the same career sphere haven’t gotten jobs, and to be in a place where your colleagues care about your well-being beyond your performances is really, 真的很不错.”
