Faculty lecturers
Dr. Trevor Bechtel and Carrie Phillips
Trevor Bechtel, associate professor of religion and honors program director, and Carrie
Phillips, archives and special collections librarian, will present the Presidential
Scholarship Competition lecture.
Bechtel earned a Ph.D. in theology from Loyola University in 2008. He was ordained by Chicago Community Mennonite Church for work as a theologian in 2012. He also holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Manitoba (religious studies, 1993) and Canadian Mennonite Bible College (theology, 1991)
In addition to teaching courses in contemporary theology and Bible, Bechtel has team-taught the Organizations and Information Technology course for Bluffton's graduate programs in business with Phillips. This course encourages students to think openly and critically about the ways technology, the internet, social media and other information-based innovations affect their professional and personal lives.
Their work on this course has provided them with a laboratory of innovation in which to investigate cutting edge social technologies. This year's civic engagement lecture brings together their curiosity with the way social network users create their virtual identities with their other work.
For Bechtel, the connection is to his work thinking about what it means to be human between our technology and our animals. For Phillips, the connection is to her work in the analog world caring for the traces of physical identity left behind in the manuscripts and archives she curates on a daily basis.
Phillips earned a master of library and information science degree from the University of Washington's Information School in 2006. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in computer science from Bluffton University, where she graduated in 1999.
Phillips is a member of the Association of College and Research Libraries, the American Library Association, the Midwest Archives Conference, the Society of Ohio Archivists and the Ohio Preservation Council. She tweets (@crp4) and blogs (http://uncertainrunner.tumblr.com/) about her professional work, her personal life with husband Steve, daughter Claire, and shih-tzu Marcy, her love of running and other interests.
Bechtel is a member of the Society of Christian Ethics, the American Academy of Religion and the Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholars Network. He tweets (@marpeck) and blogs (http://limature.disseminary.org) about his work, his life with wife Susan and cat Neko, his love of music, animals and other interests. He maintains a personal brand website at http://trevorbechtel.com.
Phillips and Bechtel blog for this project at http://curatingidentity.com/.