The Big Read program offers faculty members, staff, and administrators the opportunity to join a network-wide conversation about vocation. Each year, NetVUE chooses a recent book on vocation for participating institutions to explore; the books are provided at no cost to the institution. The Big Read is designed to complement other NetVUE programming and can support a member institution’s participation in NetVUE events and grant initiatives. Guiding questions and supporting resources are provided to help integrate a discussion of the text into an institution’s ongoing vocational reflection and planning.
Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis
Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis by Norman Wirzba is the NetVUE Big Read selection for 2026-27 academic year. The book explores the concept of hope as an action that all can foster as we care for each other and our communities. Educators across campus—including staff, faculty members, and senior leaders—can use the book to explore belonging, environmental stewardship, forgiveness, economic struggle, beauty, and love. The book includes a variety of historical examples and personal narratives, alongside literary, theological, and ecological examples. Individuals across the diversity of NetVUE member institutions will find opportunities for rich vocational conversations through engagement with the book. Additional recommendations and resources for planning, running, and expanding the conversation are provided below.
During the fall or spring semester or over the summer, institutions are invited to read Love’s Braided Dance together. If your institutions would like to participate in the Big Read, but believe that this book is not the right fit for your current circumstances, you can also engage with one of the previous Big Read texts. In particular, if there is limited shared language or understanding of vocation on campus, institutions may want to consider starting with Living Vocationally: The Journey of a Called Life.
How to Participate
NetVUE will directly support member institutions that develop local campus projects related to this year’s Big Read. Toward that end, up to 20 free copies of the book will be supplied to a limited number of institutions that design a compelling program for faculty members, administrators, and staff to read the book in group settings (which may be hybrid ones). Member institutions are invited to apply by completing the application included here.
Each member institution may offer one proposal, which should be submitted by that institution’s NetVUE Campus Contact. To apply, the Campus Contact should send the application as an email attachment to Rachael Baker, NetVUE associate director, at rbaker@cic.edu. Questions regarding your NetVUE campus contact can be directed to Ashley Woodbeck, NetVUE office manager, at awoodbeck@cic.edu.
Proposals will be accepted throughout the year on a rolling basis. Proposals should be submitted at least four weeks before the campus project is expected to begin, in order to allow adequate time for project approval and shipping. Books will be awarded (and shipped directly in bulk to the Campus Contact) based on the proposal.
Planning Your Big Read Event or Program
The Big Read can be a standalone event for an institution, or it can be completed in support of other current vocational projects on the campus. The following questions may help as you plan your Big Read and consider how it aligns with your other goals and activities related to vocation.
Purpose and Framing
- Institutional Alignment: How does this book study connect with your institution’s specific needs, strategic plan, and overarching mission, particularly as it relates to vocation?
- Professional Development: How can this study contribute to the professional growth and development of your faculty, staff, administration, or board of trustees?
- Engagement with other Network Opportunities: How does this text connect to other NetVUE events in which you might participate this year? How could this text support applying for or implementing a NetVUE grant?
Planning and Implementation
- Who will help to plan or lead this event? Who on campus should be involved?
- What is the best structure to host a Big Read book study at your institution? How will participants be divided into appropriately sized and composed groups?
- What is the size and depth of your book study? Will it include institution-wide events, or will it be at a division or department level?
- When, where, and how will you launch the book study?
- What NetVUE resources will you incorporate into the book study plan?
Resources to Support Your Big Read
Starting Your Big Read Conversation
This book study guide offers some things to consider and possible discussion questions for your reading group. Please consider using it as a resource as you plan your on-campus conversations.
If you develop your own questions or activities around Love’s Braided Dance, please consider sharing them with Rachael Baker (rbaker@cic.edu) to be featured on this site for use by other institutions.
Big Read Webinars and Workshops
Please join us for conversations throughout the semester to discuss the 2026-2027 Big Read. Consider having your reading groups watch the webinars together, whether they do it as a live event or watch a recording of the webinar. Each webinar will be recorded and available to access shortly after the live event.
Big Read Webinar (2026-27), Part 1: A Conversation with the Author
with Norman Wirzba
September 16, 2026
In this webinar, we heard from Norman Wirzba as he reflected on Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis. He explored major themes from the book and the implications for creative and hopeful approaches to vocational discernment and development.
Big Read Webinar (2026-27), Part 2: Questions Across the Disciplines
with Mari Elise Ewing and Justin Klassen
November 4, 2026 | 4 pm ET
This webinar brings forward key questions that “Big Read” facilitators and participants may be asking as they read the book together. Some may have questions about the ecological nature of the book, others may wonder how the theological framework informs the chapters.
Big Read Webinar (2026-27), Part 3: Personal and Community Storytelling
with David Crowley, Tara Russey, and Jojin Van Winkle
February 3, 2027 | 4 pm ET
Personal and community stories are key pieces of Wirzba’s Love’s Braided Dance. In this webinar, we will dive deep into how stories can help us explore vocation. Presenters will explore artistic, scientific, and literary approaches to the stories shared in the book, and ways to hear, create, and listen to stories as part of the Big Read experience.
Supporting and Continuing the Conversation
Big Read book groups may want to supplement or extend their conversations with further reading. Additional resources that engage the content or themes from Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis include:
Vocatio: Called to Transformative Encounter
with Norman Wirzba
The day-to-day routines of educating rarely prompt or foster sustained and rigorous questioning of what an education is for. In the opening keynote of the 2026 NetVUE Conference, Wirzba asked participants to reconsider what a human being is and why educating is central to human development and fulfillment. Through an examination of connection, meaning, and purpose, Wirzba offered a hopeful vision for education that affirms the sacred character of this life—an affirmation that rests on developing what he calls a “sensuous intelligence” committed to creative and skilled engagement within our shared world.
Review of Norman Wirzba, Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis
by Jason Mahn
In this review of Love’s Braided Dance, Jason Mahn examines Wirzba’s assertion that love and community are necessary to create an environment conducive to hope. These values, as described by Wirzba, are often in contrast with our culture’s conventional definitions of success. Mahn applies the author’s argument to higher education and explores the implications for both university education and vocational discernment.
Agents of Repair
with Norman Wirzba
Wirzba’s research, writing, and teaching explore the overlap between theology and ecology, working to address major environmental issues such as climate crisis and food insecurity. In this conversation, we discuss aspects of agrarian living, freedom and fidelity, and the importance of kinesthetic learning. His emphasis on our relationship to the land as a relationship with others—as an expression of love—reminds us of the communal callings in every aspect of our lives. Vocation is a reflection of our rootedness in place and commitment to others, calling us to be agents of repair in the world.
Building Connections and Community through NetVUE’s Big Read
by Erin VanLaningham
In this introduction to the 2026–2027 Big Read, Erin VanLaningham presents the program as a way to facilitate connection on campus—not just by creating ways for the campus community to interact, but also through substantive discussions on vocation, calling, and meaning. She shares details on each NetVUE resource related to the Big Read as well as how the program benefits faculty members, staff, administrators, and students.
Hope, Resonance, and Work that Matters: Reflecting on Love’s Braided Dance
by Geoffrey W. Bateman, Tara Russey, Craig Mattson, and Anna Stewart
Vocation Matters has invited three colleagues from across the network to reflect on this year’s Big Read. In their reflections, they share powerful glimpses into what moved them and striking insights into what they found significant. In this way, they illustrate another key point from Wirzba’s opening chapter: “The most important thing” to do, he writes, “is to act on the conviction that your community needs you and is calling you to contribute in some way.”
If you are interested in support for next steps on your campus, consider requesting a NetVUE Big Read workshop. This workshop offers further opportunities for participants to explore their own vocations together and to think about the ways their understanding of vocation shapes their work in higher education. For more information about this free member benefit visit the Vocation Workshop Page. When applying, request the NetVUE Big Read Workshop.
Contact Information
Questions about the NetVUE Big Read may be directed to Rachael Baker, NetVUE associate director, at rbaker@cic.edu or (616) 632-1060.
To report a technical problem with the website, or to offer suggestions for navigation and content issues, please contact Madeline Smanik, NetVUE communications specialist, at msmanik@cic.edu.