Teaching with an MDiv

 On Sunday, I was looking through Philosophy job postings to see if there was anything my spouse should know about.  I came across this posting for Claflin College:

Claflin University invites applicants to apply for a tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion position in the Department of Humanities. The department seeks an innovative and visionary scholar with an active research and teaching agenda in ethics or philosophy, spirituality, religious studies, and theology. Desired further areas of research and/or teaching competency include the philosophy of race and gender, American and Africana/African-American studies, feminist philosophy, social justice, human rights and philosophy of law. The candidate’s research should be of interest to the wider campus and greater Orangeburg community. The department welcomes applicants pursuing interdisciplinary engagement and we are deeply interested in social justice, inter-religious and multi-faith dialogue and comparative projects. He/she will teach courses in these areas and provide guidance in developing the curriculum and departmental programs, advising students and other duties within the scope of this position.

The successful candidate must possess experience in college level teaching and advising. The candidate must have earned either the Master of Divinity degree or The Master of Theological Studies along with the Ph.D or Th.D. in a relevant religious studies field from an accredited institution. Demonstrated experience in teaching philosophy and religion is required. Candidates with experience in the United Methodist Church are preferable.

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Back to me.  At first I thought, hey, cool, maybe having an MDiv will open up more teaching doors for me.  And yes, I realize if I want more teaching doors to open, I should be getting a different kind of theology degree.

On Monday, I went back to look at the job description again and realized that they wanted an MDiv along with a doctoral degree.  It's the kind of job posting where I wonder how many positions they're trying to fill with just one person and one teaching job.

I'm thinking back to my grad school days, where a friend picked up grad level art classes along the way; she could now teach undergrad art classes too, and she has done so occasionally.  Looking back, I realize I could have easily picked up an additional 18 credit hours in an additional subject, which might have opened up an additional door or two.

Of course, back then, we didn't pay by the credit hour.  For those of us on a graduate stipend, teaching classes as a TA, we paid one graduate rate for tuition, a ridiculously low rate of several hundred dollars, and then we could take as many credits as we wanted to attempt.

Still going forward, let me keep that in mind.  Let me see what might be possible.