Woodbrooke is pleased to announce the four Eva Koch scholars for 2018.
Barbara Luetke (Salmon Bay (Seattle); North Pacific Yearly Meeting) – The Kendal Sparrow
Barb is writing a historical novel focused on Elizabeth Fletcher, a young, sheltered farm girl, who first met George Fox in Kendal, England in 1652. Unsure as to whether she can learn to preach and bring hope to others, the illiterate maiden joins a small band of itinerant ministers and eventually finds her own style as a Quaker preacher, traveling as part of the Valiant 60 to Oxford, and later to Dublin and Cork. Embellished from personal journals and letters of the time, the story of Elizabeth Fletcher, Thomas Holme, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Leavens, Edward Burrough, and Jane Waugh should appeal to those interested in early Quaker history, young adult Friends, and little-known Quaker women of the era.
Barb is a convinced Friend with an academic background in Deaf Education (so, of course, her novel has a deaf character and includes what was known about deaf education and sign language at the time). She has written seven books and published over a hundred research articles in her field, and serves as an international consultant on the techniques used at Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children, where she is employed. As the mother of four daughters, she is motivated to bring our Meetings the stories of the first Quakers, many of whom were under 30 years of age and some of whom gave their lives so that we can worship as we do today.
Rosie Carnall (Sheffield LM) – Philosophy for Communities
Philosophy for Communities (P4C) is a methodology for creating a community of enquiry to think and reason together. Originally used in schools (Philosophy for Children), it is also a valuable approach for adults to participate in rigorous dialogue about questions that matter. Rosie is interested in the potential for P4C to be used by Quaker meetings to create opportunities for deep discussion. She will be exploring ways to encourage its use, including development of a Quaker P4C resource pack.
Rosie is a freelance facilitator and trainer, with particular interests in conflict and creativity. Since discovering the Philosophy for Communities methodology she has trained as a P4C facilitator and is keen to develop its use with adults in a variety of settings. Rosie is a lifelong Quaker. She has recently completed an MA in Creative Writing.
Matt Alton (Cambridgeshire AM, currently attending Croydon LM) Young Adults and the future of Quakerism
What will British Quakerism look like in the future? What might change about governance, membership, demographics, worship, property ownership and other aspects of our faith? Many authoritative voices have had their say on these questions, however young adult Friends have not collectively been given a major platform to give their views since Young Friends General Meeting’s 1998 Swarthmore Lecture. In the context of commitments and action on inclusion and diversity, Matt will use focus groups to ask young adult Friends the above questions, and for their thoughts on concrete actions Local Meetings and individual Friends can take to help them fully engage in Quakerism and have the best chance of creating the future they envisage.
Matt is a lifelong Quaker and his main Quaker community is Young Friends General Meeting. He completed his sociology degree in 2017 and is currently employed in childcare. He is a member of Young Friends General Meeting’s Outreach Committee and the Steering Group of the Engaging Young Adult Quakers Project. He is a very ‘engaged’ Quaker and is interested in giving space to different understandings of what that can mean.
Nim Njuguna (Harrow LM) – Becoming Quaker Diversity Champions
Using self-exploration interviews with Friends, Nim is seeking to explore current Quakers’ experiences of marginalization and privilege using Bayard Rustin’s experiences as a case study. He will explore how the intersections of oppression and privilege rooted in the past can control and shape our world view today, creating ongoing inequities that impact us all. He will attempt to identify how each of us may respond individually, or collectively, through racial justice lens to becoming Quaker Diversity Champions both within our Quaker Meetings and the wider society.
Nim is a former Baptist minister and associate chaplain at Anglia Ruskin University and Open University tutor. Nim is a V&A Museum Champion, teaches spiritual direction at the London Centre for spirituality and for SPIDIR, and is a visiting tutor at Hackney Community College. He is a Quaker Prison Chaplain. He is involved with Big Voice London, a youth project on law and democracy supported by the Supreme Court and serves as a lay member of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee interviewing panel for selecting potential magistrates. His 1994 PhD thesis was on racism, marginalization, the church of England and the Labour Party.
Nim supports subsistence farmers in Kenya through Nakuru Environmental and Cultural Trust, a UK based Charity.
About the Eva Koch Scholarship
The Eva Koch Scholarship runs each year with the aim of providing Friends with an opportunity for a short period of reflection, research and writing. This work does not need to be overly ambitious or too narrowly academic, but rather, preference is given to small-scale and original projects that contribute to the life and self-understanding of the Quaker community.
