On Wednesday 7 June the University of Divinity will host its annual Research Day.
The University of Divinity has a vibrant research culture with activities and seminars hosted throughout the year. The annual Research Day is an invitation for HDR students, honorary researchers and academic staff of the University come together to share papers and engage in discussion and research workshops.
Conference Schedule
Wednesday 7 June 2023, 9:30am-4:30pm AEST
All times given below are in AEST. Please convert to your local time-zone if necessary.
| 9:30am | Plenary | Albert Haddad – Gratitude disposition, spirituality, and workplace relationships and performance | ||
| 10:30am | Morning tea | ||
| 11.00am | Cathryn McKinney – The Authorised Soul: Integrated Supervisory Practice as a Hospitable Stance (Dance). | Mark Craig – Art and the Claim to what is True | Lachlan Davis – Genesis 47:13-26, a critique of empire? |
| 11.35am | Bernadette Miles – Spiritual formation and Teacher Identity/Formation | Laura Cerbus – The Beauty of the Body and the Ascension: a reclamation and subversion of physical beauty | Mick Pope – The inevitable Anthropocene: Human agency and Sabbath rest |
| 12.15pm | Philip Hughes – Communities of Meaning | Jane Lee-Barker – Humanity. The Christian, Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Dimension of Theological Anthropology with special reference to the concept of Theosis. | Richard Wilson – Moral Compromise in Capital Investment Markets |
| 12:45pm | Lunch | ||
| 1.30pm | Peter Kline – Enigmatic Spirituality: Spirit and Seduction in Kierkegaard and Laplanche | Sheilagh O’Brien – From a sin of the mind to a sin of the flesh: Biblical Prohibitions Against Idols and Wax Images in Early Modern Demonology | Glen O’Brien – ‘The Rust in the Wheat and the Dearth of a Dry Season’: Ned Kelly’s Victorian Apocalypse |
| 2.05pm | Sean Gilbert – First be filled, then control the outpouring.” St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the courage of affective embodiment | Jacob Joseph – Orthodoxy, the Gospel, and Cultural Superiority: An Indian Perspective. | Barbara Deutschmann – Eve Meets the Sisterhood: Bessie Harrison Lee, Early Australian Feminism and the biblical interpretation of Katharine Bushnell. |
| 2.40pm | John Dupuche – From Kerygma to Experience: A ‘Copernican revolution’ in the field of Spirituality | Tim Hender – A revised approach to the intellectual history of mainline denominations and movements | Kerrie Handasyde – Hadji in Syria: feminist biblical exegesis in disguise |
| 3.15pm | Michelle Eastwood – Liturgical Robes, Identity and Social Media | LIGHTNING TALKS (until 3.55) Wendy Elson – Silence and Audacity: Matthew 15: 21-28 as a parable of disability Kara Siaosi – “O a’oga a mea uma!”: A Samoan Educational Approach to weave Sexuality Education to the Christian Pedagogy of the Congregational Christian Church Samoa Elizabeth Ann Thompson – ‘Above us only sky’: Suicide, pastoral care, and no religion John Vayalilkarottu – Maximilian Kolbe and John Paul II: A Comparative Analysis Simon Wayte – The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus | |
| 3:45pm | Social end (drinks/book launch) | ||
| 4:30pm | End | ||
Full Conference Program
Location
We strongly encourage you to participate in the Research Day by joining in person in Melbourne, or at an interstate Zoom Hub gathering, hosted by a College.
Box Hill (Melbourne) – attend in person
The conference will be hosted at the University of Divinity’s St Paschal Campus at 90 Albion Road in Box Hill.
Interstate Gatherings – attend a Zoom Hub
Colleges located in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth have been invited to consider hosting a hub for participants in these city centres to gather as a Zoom hub. Please register your interest in joining a Zoom hub gathering in the registration form below. We will contact you once registrations close to confirm hub details. If no hub is available in your area, we will provide you with a Zoom link to join from home.
Plenary
Gratitude disposition, spirituality, and workplace relationships and performance
To be delivered by Professor Albert Haddad
Abstract
What is the effect of the Christian / spiritual virtue of gratitude on relationships and performance in the workplace? Gratitude based research has had a steady increase in the interest in the 21st century, however, not much of this research has focused on gratitude disposition in the workplace until recently. The interest began by looking at the gratitude disposition and spirituality, but since then most of the research has been focused on positive psychology perspective. This presentation has dual foci, the first is based on contextual biblical study on gratitude, and the second is based on empirical study of more than 70 participants of leadership development workshops in corporate Australia.
In Luke 17: 11-19, we find Jesus healing ten people with leprosy and telling them to go and present themselves to their priests. Only one of those who were healed came back to thank Jesus. He was a Samaritan and not a Jew. What is intriguing is what Jesus said in verse 19, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well” (NIV). So, is there a difference between healing and being made well? The former was a result of a miraculous act, and the latter was a result of faith linked to a gratitude disposition. This intrigue led me to embark on a gratitude contextual word study across the Bible. In many instances where gratitude disposition was present, the context was that of positive personal, social, spiritual, victorious experiences.
Further to the biblical contextual studies, the responses of 74 leadership development workshops’ participants to a gratitude questionnaire were collated and analysed. Seventy-four people with ages ranging from 20 to 70 years, 35 females and 39 males, 14 of them were single and 60 were in a relationship or married, working in various industries responded to the survey. Forty three percent of the respondents indicated that they have a faith or are spiritual, whilst 56% are either with no faith or not spiritual. The Trait Gratitude Scale (GQ-6) results indicated that those who have faith or are spiritual tended to have a higher gratitude disposition score than those with no faith or spirituality.
The presentation will discuss more data related to the gratitude contextual study and the empirical research showing the effects of gratitude on relationships and performance at work.
Prof Albert Haddad
University of Divinity
Professor Albert Haddad is the Dean of Academic Programs and Interim Head of the School of Professional Practice at the University. He has over 20 years experience in leadership roles in higher education, theology, and ministry and holds the degree of Doctor of Education from the University of Melbourne. Prior to joining the University, Albert […]
Register to attend
Registrations for the conference have now closed.
For any issues regarding registration, please email mnelson@divinity.edu.au