Upcoming Webinar
Building Community through NetVUE’s Big Read: Using Love’s Braided Dance on Your Campus
In recent years, many of us working in higher education have expressed the need for connection and community. NetVUE’s Big Read program offers an easy and impactful way to build both, using a recent book on vocation for meaningful communal reflection. This year, NetVUE has selected Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis by Norman Wirzba to spark conversation. Through the Big Read program, campuses can request up to 20 copies of the book for use in professional development, book groups, and campus initiatives. You can find the application form on the Big Read website, which asks your Campus Contact to submit a brief description of how your institution will engage in this discussion.
Love’s Braided Dance explores the concept of hope as an action that all of us can foster as we care for each other and our communities. Educators across campus—including staff, faculty members, and senior leaders—can use the book to explore belonging, environmental stewardship, forgiveness, economic struggle, beauty, and love. Wirzba offers a variety of historical examples and personal narratives, making literary, theological, and ecological connections in his discussion. Many may recognize Wirzba’s name and message; he was the opening plenary speaker at the 2026 NetVUE Conference.
As part of the initiative, NetVUE will host webinars over the course of this year to support and enhance this community-building experience, along with making available a discussion guide and other curated resources for this work. The first webinar—see full details below—will feature an interview with Norman Wirzba about the book. For more details and discussion resources, visit the NetVUE Big Read website. If this book does not seem right for your context, campuses may choose another title from past Big Read selections.
NetVUE Big Read Webinar (2026-27), Part 1: A Conversation with the Author
An Itinerary of Hope for Higher Education
To help NetVUE institutions engage in the Big Read on their campuses, some of the webinars that NetVUE has planned this year will focus on Love’s Braided Dance. To launch both the Big Read and the 2026–2027 webinar series, Norman Wirzba will join us on Wednesday, September 16, at 4:00 p.m. Eastern (3:00 Central, 2:00 Mountain, 1:00 Pacific). Rachel Pickett, NetVUE webinar coordinator, will host the 60-minute webinar, in which Wirzba will reflect on Love’s Braided Dance, exploring major themes from the book and the implications for creative and hopeful approaches to vocational discernment and development.
The webinar is open to anyone at a NetVUE member institution at no cost, but registration is required. Register for the webinar and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Please consider using the webinar as a starting point for further campus conversations about this year’s Big Read.
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