Oxford Society of Scholars

Call for Papers

June 22, 2013 Congregational Meeting

SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL MAY 15, 2012
Please submit proposals by May 15, 2013 and Final Drafts (upon proposal approval) by May 31, 2013.

Dear SOS Members,

Greetings and blessings to you and wishing you a wonderful spring season as we celebrate the life of our Creator! We have exciting news for all OGS graduates, students, and SOS members.

                                                                      TRACS ACCREDITATION

First of all we want to announce that: TRACS Accrediting Commission has granted us "Reaffirmation I" status with TRACS, which is a 10-year standing.

This is great news in so many ways and we are very grateful to Dr. Richard Humphrey, Dr. Loren Humphrey, Dr. Joshua Reichard, Dr. Richard Walters, Dr. Joann Phillips and others who worked so very hard to achieve this status with TRACS. Great work everyone!!!

SEND YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR AWARD

We are accepting recommendations for this award to an alumni who has, in the past year, given the most effort and support to OGS and has contributed to the mission of the school in significant ways. This individual would be one who has been supportive of the school and has excelled in their field of work and study. Please send written recommendations to jberryhill@ogs.edu electronically or you may mail your recommendations to the Dayton office. Deadline for recommendations is June 1, 2013. The Board of Regents will determine the final choice based on all of the information above and personal knowledge they may have of the individual’s work. Recipient must be present for the banquet to receive the award.

                                           LAST CALL FOR JUNE CONGREGATION PAPERS

In case some of you have a paper in the process already and would like to submit the proposal for approval, we have just a few days left to do so. In fact the first draft of a paper should be submitted to this office by May 15, 2013. We cannot accept any papers to be reviewed for the June meeting later than May 31, 2013 and that only in with prior proposal approval. So, get those in right away so we can plan a great forum in June with a wide variety of subjects to discuss. This makes for a stimulating and lively meeting of excellent minds, premier character and excellence in writing.

Remember, APA format only, 15 pages maximum (12 point, arial font, double spaced, including bibliography and cover pages). Your paper MUST be readable in 10-12 minutes and all papers must be READ, not just ‘talked about’. The Forum Panel will have prior knowledge of the content in order to critique the papers thoroughly and concisely.  Papers selected for presentation will be considered for publication in the Journal for the Sociological Integration of Religion and Society of Religion and Society(JSIRS).  Papers will be presented before a dais on the Oxford Graduate School campus on June 22, 2013.

Please submit the final copy of your paper to this office (after revisions following recommendations from the panel). We want to have those for the Forum Panel when they arrive at OGS for Congregation Weekend (or before). The forum begins Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. following the president’s report and the report from the Board of Regents.

We are excited about the proposals submitted thus far and hope to have two or three more ready for reading before the deadline. Blessings to all of you who are truly seeking ways to present the message of transformation through faith and practice of the Gospel of our Creator and Lord.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS IN THE WEEKEND PROGRAM

Friday afternoon, Dr. David Ward will be doing a workshop on Faith Learning Integration and Interdisciplinary Studies at 3:00 p.m. This is an important teaching. If you have not had the opportunity to enjoy this study, please make plans to attend.

                                          SPECIAL EVENTS OF FRIDAY NIGHT’S BANQUET

On Friday night, we will memorialize one member of the 1993 and one member of the 2003 graduating class and will be honoring all members of those year’s graduates. If you are a graduate of either of these years, please send some biographical information and a recent picture of yourself to me at jberryhill@ogs.edu or mail me your information at field office; 1574 Spot Efird Road, Malvern, AR 72104. Also, if you have some special blessing or comment to share about a fellow member of one of these classes, please submit that as well. We wish to make this a special time each year as we honor those who have proven themselves faithful in so many ways that we seldom have the opportunity to share.

BOARD OF REGENTS SOS HIGHLIGHTS

Several items concerning SOS were addressed during the March Board of Regents meeting. We will have time to discuss details about these items during Congregation; however, here are the items in ‘news form’.  LIFELONG SCHOLARSHIP AWARD (DLITT). The Board agreed that to continue this honorary degree was a valid effort and that to encourage continued scholarship and honor the life’s work of Society of Scholars members is a worthy function of the organization.  Society of Scholar members who have completed the Scholar’s Level of advancement in SOS and who have published works to submit, are eligible for consideration of the Lifelong Scholarship Award. (DLitt). Applications may be submitted as a written request along with 3 letters of recommendations and a $350.00 processing fee. It should be noted that there is NO GUARANTEE that an applicant will be awarded the degree. That is determined by, not only their scholarly works submitted, but the form in which they were submitted and their interaction with members of the review panel during the process of review. Any questions may be submitted to the SOS office. The process of submitting the materials and the review details will take several months for completion. All awards will be done at graduation in September.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SOCIETY OF SCHOLARS MEMBERSHIP

We are always delighted to have new members join SOS, but most particularly those who will be active and continue research and writing and attending OGS events. It was determined that an individual who had completed their doctorate in the past year from another institution, but who had worked in their field for more than 5 years could be nominated. The consideration was that those recent graduates might be more inclined to continue writing and research having just completed their degree rather than trying to restart their writing after several years post graduation.

Author Guidelines

Papers should be no more than 15 pages in length, double-spaced, conforming to APA 6th edition guidelines. All papers will be peer reviewed.  Papers selected for presentation will be considered for publication in the Journal for the Sociological Integration of Religion and Society (JSIRS).  Papers will be presented before a dais on the Oxford Graduate School campus on June 22, 2013.

You must be a current member of the Oxford Society of Scholars to submit a paper.  Current membership forms are available online at www.ogs.edu/web/research/sos or by contacting Oxford Graduate School at 423-775-6596.