A Callid FAQ

What is Callid known for?

Callid Keefe-Perry is an educator, consultant, theologian, improvisor, and minister within The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). He is Assistant Professor of Contextual Education and Public Theology at Boston College's School of Theology and Ministry. Much of his work explores imagination, creativity, and education as sites of human and societal change.

How do you pronounce his name?

“Callid Keefe-Perry” rhymes throughout with “Salad Leaf-Berry.” That often helps people.

What does Callid do for work?

I am the Director of Field Education for the Masters of Theology and Ministry at Boston College’s School for Theology and Ministry, where I am also the Assistant Professor of Contextual Education and Public Theology. There I work with graduate students in supporting their vocational discernment and ministerial development as well as teach courses that explore spirituality and imagination, non-profit leadership, public theology, and critical pedagogy. As time and energy allows I also work as a consultant, workshop facilitator, and speaker. This work brings me all over. In the year before COVID, for example, I ran trainings to help groups think about the ways they can develop a more trauma-informed culture, taught improv theater to a group of high school students, worked with the Maine Council of Churches to run a training about healthy change, developed a summer series of workshops to train community-leaders in the use of art-based facilitation, and helped two non-profits in their strategic planning processes. These days I mostly do consulting work with non-profits, faith communities, and independent schools, but I’ve done a bunch of work in public schools as well. If you’d like to know more about my training and workshops, you can read more here.

What kind of academic research does Callid do?

My work is at the intersection of the importance of imagination with education and spirituality. In jargony terms, I am a scholar of both “public theology” and “practical theology.” My research interests are a constellation of topics around public education, liberation theology, critical pedagogy, trauma studies, and philosophies and theologies of imagination. I'm also the author of lots of articles about those things and two related books: Way to Water: A Theopoetics Primer and Sense of the Possible: An Introduction to Theology and Imagination. Organizationally, I am a member of the Religious Education Association, the American Academy of Religion, and the Association of Practical Theology. You can read more about my academic work here and check out my CV directly.

Is Callid a minister?

Yes. I serve in the itinerant ministry within and beyond The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), often traveling as a retreat leader or teacher of discernment. Because our tradition does not practice ordination I am not technically clergy, however I have served in public ministry nationally since 2006. My congregation (Fresh Pond Meeting) and larger denominational body (New England Yearly Meeting) have endorsed my public ministerial service. While deeply grounded in my own tradition's Christian Quakerism, I have also been deeply influenced by Ignatian spirituality. With my wife, Kristina, I'm the person behind The Jewels of Quakerism Adult Religious Education materials and the Quaker ministry podcast On Carrying a Concern.

Where else has Callid worked?

I served as Assistant Director in the office of Contextual Education in Boston University's School of Theology, working directly with seminary students in internships as well as training their supervisors, helping the mentoring relationship to be the best it can be. I was also one of the architects of the 2017 renewal of ARC: Arts | Religion | Culture, an organization committed to supporting individuals and groups whose work is at the intersection of spiritual and creative practices, especially as those practices are done for community-building and work towards justice. I served there as an Executive Director until 2020. Before that, I was a public school teacher and the co-founder of a community theater in Rochester, NY.

Any fun facts?

Outside of work and service, I am a proud father to Nahar and husband to Kristina, folks who are seriously inspiring! I love playing complicated board games with my family, occasionally performing improv theatre, and dabbling as an amateur woodworker in both turned and flat work (bowls and boxes).