HU Undergrad Students at the Stone Campbell Journal Conference 2024

By Ashanti Poindexter

Avery Hawkins holding her 1st place certificate

We congratulate recent Harding graduate, Avery Hawkins, Computer Science major, for winning the undergraduate student paper competition at the Stone Campbell Journal Conference 2024. On April 13, 2024, Avery attended the Stone Campbell Journal Conference in Northeast Tennessee at Milligan University. Her award winning paper was entitled: “Following Christ in 21st Century America: How Christology of Kenosis Informas Anthropology and Discipleship for our Current Moment.” All three undergraduate finalists presented excellent papers and demonstrated high levels of expertise in theological studies. Avery was only the second Harding student to win this competition at the undergraduate level.

Avery heard about the conference through Dr. Scott Adair in his Christology class. After she submitted her paper, she later learned that she was a finalists and would be invited to present as a finalist at the conference. Avery reported that the experience was great: “It was good to hear from other students, and hear other scholars present their work. It made me want to continue to pursue scholarly research and writing.”

Avery currently is working at Dillards Corporate Office in Little Rock, Arkansas. We are proud of Avery for her accomplishments!

PJ Welch

PJ Welch is a senior from Little Rock, Arkansas, and majoring in Electrical Engineering. At the Stone Campbell Conference, PJ co-presented research with Dr. Tim Westbrook as part of the Educational Ministries and Leadership study group. Her research was entitled: “To Be Free in Their Own Minds”: Understanding Racialized Experience through the Lens of Faith Crit.” Her interest in this topic came from previous research she did through the McNair Scholars Program about the experience of black students at private Christian institutions.

After meeting with Drs. Westbrook (Harding University) and Larissa Malone (University of North Caroline Wilmington) about adding to her work, PJ agreed to collaborate with them and explore her data with an additional theoretical framework of a new branch of Critical Race Theory called FaithCrit. Dr. Malone and Dr. Qiana Lachaud from Georgia State University, coined the term “FaithCrit” in their article “FaithCrit: Toward a Framework of Religio-Spirituality in Critical Race Theory.”

PJ says her research is ongoing, and eventually she will want to publish it in some form.

PJ heard about the Stone Campbell Journal Conference through Dr. Westbrook. She says, “The conference was very educational and eye-opening. Hearing about Christianity from different standpoints was nice.”

After graduation, PJ plans on working at Southwest Power Pool in Little Rock, Arkansas, a company that helps manage the power grid.

We congratulate PJ for an excellent presentation, and we wish her the best in her new career and ongoing research!