Courtney Davis is committed to loving her students well. In her role as Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Azusa Pacific University, Courtney helps her students realize the importance between communication and its impact on their own work and participation in the world. In this episode of the CFWLA Podcast, Courtney chronicles her inspiration for work in the higher-education space, speaks on the piety that accompanies a robust theology of work, and unpacks the challenges educators face in this cultural moment.
COURTNEY BIO
Courtney Wong Davis, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of communication studies at Azusa Pacific University, where she teaches organizational, small group, and professional communication. Her research interests include organizational socialization and assimilation, specifically focused on organizational entry and exit, in addition to intergenerational communication and organizational identification. Her scholarship has been published in the Western Journal of Communication, Communication Quarterly, and The Handbook of Intergroup Communication. Having fully enjoyed her collegiate experience at the University of Southern California and doctoral work at UC Santa Barbara, Davis is passionate about teaching and mentoring both in and outside the classroom, equipping undergraduate students for their post-collegiate endeavors, and encouraging personal and professional growth in her students.
On Discerning Career Callings: (14:50-15:22)
“If God is sovereign, then he’ll have complete understanding and providence over all these pieces move. But (he) also ordains every single one of our days, the very mundane and ordinary ones, and the very mundane and ordinary conversations and layer the mundane and ordinary to some really extraordinary things, both vocationally and otherwise and the opportunities to do what we get to do. We just forget sometimes.”
On Embracing and Implementing a Theology of Work: (25:09-25:58)
“As those of us who get to teach and work in this space about a theology of work we’ve got opportunities to encourage those who might not be affirmed by the world and that is a way in which we get to articulate our set-apartness. To speak to the receptionist, because they are actually the great gatekeepers of organizations, they have so much more power than the fact that they don’t even appear on organizational charts. There are just so many people that you get to see and inherently value by seeing them that is more distinctive because of a more robust theology of work.
On Pushing Back Against Darkness in Education: (38:41-39:24)
“There is a lot of work to be done there, to say, ‘You guys, if your grades are the most important thing you’re getting out of this class, you’ve missed it and I’ve failed you.’ There is a real working-against-the-culture of the education system to say it’s not just about checking boxes, but you get to decide what you are taking with you. It turns out that your college diploma will get you five bucks and a cup of coffee. But education is what you can actually articulate and live out once you leave the university space.”
