Previous NetVUE Big Read Selections

This post explores how attention enables individuals to engage meaningfully with both internal reflection and external realities. The author encourages educators to cultivate attentiveness in themselves and their students as an important pedagogical practice.

This post introduces Living Vocationally: The Journey of the Called Life by Charles Pinches and Paul Wadell. Drawing on theological and philosophical sources, the book emphasizes attentiveness, humility, justice, and hope as essential virtues for vocational discernment.

This post explores how first-year writing courses can serve as a critical space for cultivating attentiveness. Drawing on Living Vocationally, the author frames attentiveness as both a pedagogical goal and a spiritual discipline.

This plenary address was part of the NetVUE 2021 UnConference.

This post critiques the practice of “colorblind” mentoring in higher education, arguing that ignoring race and systemic inequities undermines trust and effectiveness in faculty-student relationships, particularly for students of color. Meaningful mentorship must acknowledge the lived experiences and community cultural wealth that students bring with them.

This post explores how integrating vocational reflection into a gateway English course deepens students’ engagement with literary studies and fosters a sense of purpose through scholarly dialogue. By pairing literary analysis with texts on vocation and justice, students are invited to consider how literature can illuminate personal and communal callings.

This post explores how Patrick Reyes’ The Purpose Gap employs counter-storytelling to challenge dominant vocational narratives and affirm the lived experiences of marginalized communities. Reyes’ narrative strategy not only disrupts deficit-based assumptions in educational discourse but also invites educators to reimagine vocation as an inclusive framework for student formation.

This webinar focused on how the vocation of citizenship encourages individuals to engage actively in their communities, prioritize the well-being of the collective, and help to shape a more inclusive and sustainable future. The discussion explored how advocacy for justice, moving beyond markets and meritocracy, and caring for public health relate to the calling of citizenship for the common good.

In this conversation, Geoffrey explore strategies for mentoring queer students and discuss how to build inclusive practices in vocation work, both in classrooms and across campus. By taking action in local environments, listening for shifts in professional pathways, and honoring all facets of identity, educators can help individuals and communities to flourish. As part of the practice of vocational exploration, “walking the talk” by connecting to community groups and organizations can build resilience and foster relationships with those on the margins, supporting the well-being of all.

This post features an interview with Robert Pampel, whose essay in Called Beyond Ourselves: Vocation and the Common Good argues that college campuses can serve as “common good places”—intentional environments that foster student discernment and communal flourishing. Pampel reflects on how the physical and intellectual design of campus life can support vocational exploration, especially when rooted in justice, connection, and purpose.

This post explores the intersection of self-compassion and vocational discernment, drawing on psychological research and classroom practice to argue that self-compassion is essential for sustaining meaningful, purpose-driven lives. By integrating self-compassion into pedagogy, educators can help students build resilience, reduce burnout, and engage more authentically with their vocational journeys.

How does experience with trauma inform, and transform, our vocations? Thompson explores how suffering shapes us and how our vocational frameworks might integrate sadness. Throughout this conversation, Thompson expands our views of the world—via digital platforms, interfaith friendships, and the communal experience of sadness alongside joy. Thompson poignantly captures what it means to be called to “this” rather than “that,” and how to accept the callings we didn’t expect or choose.

Mahn proposes the term voxistential to reconnect the concepts of vocation and existentialism, emphasizing the need for deeper, more honest reflection on purpose and calling—especially when things are uncertain or difficult.

In this blog post, Mahn reflects on the emotional toll and burnout experienced in education, especially when ideals of work clash with realities such as apathy and systemic injustices. The post suggests that naming one’s despair and imagining hope can offer a form of quiet resistance and renewed purpose.

Living with chronic illness can profoundly disrupt one’s vocational path and sense of identity. In her post, Thompson emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the grief of relinquished callings while also embracing new narrative threads that offer meaning and purpose.