Session Descriptions

301: The Updated First-Year Experience: Courses, Resources & Hacks

Chuck Cox (CAS-LIT), Kelly Joyner (CAS-WSP), Sarah Marsh (CAS-LIT), Jessica Waters (Dean of UG Education and Vice Provost for Academic Student Services), Briana M. Weadock (AUx and FYA) & Stef Woods (CAS-CRGCS / AUx)

Location: MGC 315 – Wechsler

How has the new AU Core changed the first-year experience? What does the first-year curriculum look like? What’s it like to advise and teach on the ground? This interactive session aims to answer your AU Core questions and help you brainstorm how your unit can develop/refine courses and programming to complement students’ learning beyond Writing Studies, Complex Problems and AUx.

302: Responding to Sexual Violence Disclosures

Regina D. Curran (Title IX Office), Maya Vizvary (Health Promotion & Advocacy Center) & Jessica Young (CAS-HS)

Location: MGC 245

Research and campus data confirm: when it comes to disclosure, trauma survivors turn to people they trust. This presentation will review the evidence-based research around sexual violence disclosure. The presenters will contextualize the role of oppression in disclosure experience, help-seeking, and the recovery trajectories of survivors of marginalized identities. Attendees will learn skills for responding to disclosures in an informed and supportive way.

303: Creating Communities of Excellence & Caring in the Classroom & Beyond

Robin Adams (Center for Diversity & Inclusion) & Barbara Wien (SIS)

Location: MGC 200

How do educators foster a sense of belonging and community in our classrooms for the emotional well-being of students in a time of anxiety by linking to those most in need in our city?  Our workshop will explore strategies to engage, inspire, motivate, and support students to create a deeper sense of community at AU and across our city.

304: American University Arboretum & Gardens: Resource & Partner & Research Funding Opportunities

Cindy Brown (Smithsonian Institution, Horticulture Collections Management and Education), Stephanie DeStefano (Facilities Management), Michael Mastrota (Facilities Management) & Jesse Meiller (CAS-ENVS)

Location: MGC 247

In the spirit of the “&” model, AU’s Arboretum is partnering with other organizations to provide avenues for student learning and scholar-teacher and research funding opportunities. Collaborations underway between the Arboretum & Smithsonian Institution, Center for Environmental Filmmaking, and Department of Environmental Science will be featured. The session concludes with an interactive brainstorm focusing on creative ways to forge new opportunities.

305: On-Campus & Online: Locating Higher Education in the Digital Age 

Terra Gargano (SIS), Randy Nordby (KSB-FIN) & Michael Stanaitis (SIS)

Location: Library Mudbox

Regardless of whether one teaches online, the proliferation of online programs in higher education impacts our work as scholar-teachers in subtle, yet profound ways.  In this session, we investigate the extent to which in-person and online modalities of teaching can conflict with one another, complement one another, and act as force multipliers in the classroom.

306: Scholarship & Teaching: Two Intertwined Partners

Karen Baehler (SPA), Jeffrey Crouch (SPExS), Saif Shahin (SOC) & Chris Tudge (CAS-BIO)

Location: McKinley 101

This session focuses on the relationship between scholarship and teaching, as two intertwined dimensions of our activity as faculty. Research active term and tenure-line faculty from different fields will reflect on the ways their research impacts their teaching and vice versa. Beyond the interconnection between research and teaching, participants will also be encouraged to discuss the challenge of balancing teaching, research, mentorship, external grant applications, and publishing.

307: Bringing Your Teaching into Your Research

Aaron Boesenecker (SIS), Gregg Ivers (SPA-GOVT), Adrienne LeBas (SPA-GOVT), Cathy Schneider (SIS), & Patrick Thaddeus Jackson (SIS)

Location: MGC 328

This session will offer examples of and strategies for using classroom teaching as a way of grounding and advancing scholarly research. From classes that explore topics and techniques that the instructor plans to use in publications, to ways that classroom discussions can help to clarify one’s own thinking on those topics, will explore ways to connect their scholar and teacher roles.

308: Assessing Class Participation 

Elizabeth “Betsy” Cohn (SIS) & Shari Pattillo (KSB)

Location: McKinley 201

This session explores three aspects of assessing participation: (1) How do you quiet the dominating students and not discriminate against students who are less comfortable speaking in class (often minority, female, and international students); (2) How do you assess A or C level participation; and (3) How do you communicate your expectations to your students?

309: The Professional and Personal Rewards of Participating in a Faculty Learning Community (FLC)

Shawn Bates (SIS), Erica Hart (CAS-PSYC), Chelsea Horne (CAS-LIT) & Amanda Taylor (AVP for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion)

Location: MGC 303A

This session introduces FLCs: a model for faculty learning and development growing in popularity across campuses nation-wide. Participants from last year’s pilot FLC on Building Culturally Sustaining Classrooms will discuss how this format for faculty learning fundamentally changed their view on inclusive teaching, and engage the audience in a conversation about the potential of FLCs on other topics.

310: Pedagogical Implications of Our Information Ecosystem: A Brainstorming Conversation

Gwendolyn J Reece (LIB)

Location: MGC 324

We are in the attention economy.  Students currently coming of age have always had their information personalized, filtered by “black box” algorithms, and mediated through technologies that encourage continuous, shallow engagement. How can we help our students gain competence in navigating our complex and often compromised information ecosystem?  After some brief “scene setting,” this session will be a facilitated brainstorming discussion.