Academic Learning Communities
The Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE) is calling for participants for Academic Learning Communities for 2024-2025.
Academic Learning Communities Spring 2025
Calls for Faculty Participants
1. Writing Across Emory: Introduction to Multimodal and Multigenre Pedagogy”
Convener: Vani Kannan, Associate Teaching Professor & Director of Writing Across Emory
With the shift from writing- to communication-intensive courses, faculty at Emory have developed innovative multimodal and multigenre approaches to teaching and learning. This ALC aims to ground our approaches to multimodal and multigenre pedagogy in place/land-based, anti-racist, decolonial understandings of communication and education. Participants will be invited to workshop their class activities, assignments, and/or syllabi; critically reflect on their own writing and communication practices; and engage in hands-on multimodal activities. There will also be opportunities to receive feedback on assignments and activities from undergraduate and graduate tutors in the Emory Writing Center.
This ALC welcomes faculty (all ranks), staff, and graduate instructors across disciplines who are developing “W” classes, revising their assignments or syllabi to include more multimodal/multigenre activities/assignments, and/or broadening their own scholarly and creative work. Participants will be invited to apply for modest stipends for pedagogical materials; join a Writing Across Emory advisory committee; and present at a public-facing campus event during the Fall 2025 semester.
This ALC will meet in person. There will be additional guest speakers who are not yet listed here, and additional optional workshops.
Session 1, Thursday, January 23, 1-3pm
Rooting in Land/Place: Emory, Atlanta, and the Southeast
Guest speaker: Dr. Ben Miller (Associate Teaching Professor, Writing, and Executive Editor of Atlanta Studies)
Optional: Thursday, February 6, 1-3pm
Dr. Todd Craig on-campus book talk, K For the Way: DJ Rhetoric and Literacy for 21st Century Writing Studies (plus evening talk at For Keeps Books)
Session 2, Thursday, February 27, 1-3pm
Embodied & Digital Inquiry: Field Notes, Collective Slideshows, and Infographics
Session 3, Thursday, March 27, 1-3pm
Archives, Zines, and Project/Syllabus Redesign
Guest speakers: Dr. Marina Magloire (Assistant Professor, English) & Dr. Julian Currents (Postdoctoral Fellow, Writing)
Session 4, Thursday, April 17, 1-3pm
Multimodal & Multilingual Reflection: Revisioning through Collage
Particulars
- The Seminar will meet in person on the Atlanta Campus on January 23rd, February 27th, March 27th, and April 17th from 1:00-3:00pm.
- Each meeting will include hands-on activities and discussions based on relevant readings and shared experiences of seminar participants.
- Possible outcomes of the Academic Learning Community include contributing pedagogical resources for the Writing Across Emory website.
- Up to 20 participants will be accommodated including faculty, graduate students, post docs, and staff from across the university.
Application Deadline is Monday, December 10, 2024.
Selections will be announced by December 16, 2024.
2. “Teaching for Student Flourishing: Building Character in the Classroom”
Conveners: Brad Hawley, English, and Emily McLean, Biology
The American Association of Colleges and Universities has described a liberal education as one that “empowers individuals with core knowledge and transferable skills and cultivates social responsibility and a strong sense of ethics and values.” And yet for many of us the development of virtue in our students often takes a back seat to content and skills.
In this Academic Learning Community, we will discuss the role of cultivating ethical thinking and character development in our classrooms. In what ways should ethics be part of a liberal education? How do we teach it? Which virtues do we try to model and cultivate in ourselves and in our students? How?
Session Topics
Session 1: In what ways should ethical development be part of a liberal education?
Session 2: What are ‘intellectual virtues’ and how do we develop them in our students (and ourselves)?
Session 3: What other character traits, ethical practices or virtues might we give our students the chance to work on? How so?
Session 4: How do we help students develop the virtue of compassion through cognitive and emotional empathy?
Particulars
- The Seminar will meet in person on the Oxford College Campus on January 27th, February 17th, March 17th, and April 14th from 3-4:30pm.
- Each meeting will be a facilitated discussion based on relevant readings and shared experiences of seminar participants.
- Possible outcomes of the Academic Learning Community include: a reflection about the role of virtue development in the classroom at Emory, a “Quick Start Guide” to integrating virtue development into the classroom or sample syllabi from courses that have integrated virtue development into the class curriculum.
- Up to 20 participants will be accommodated including faculty, graduate students, post docs, and staff from across the university.
Application deadline is Monday, December 10th.
Selections will be announced in late December.
3. “Creating a Culture of Peace: Fostering Respect and Embracing Difference through Value Creation Education”
Session Topics
- engage faculty, graduate students, post docs, and staff in collaborative explorations of innovative research and teaching topics;
- bring guest speakers to campus to enhance the curriculum and learning; and/or
- help disseminate important research discoveries and innovative learning strategies to the broader community.
Particulars
- The Seminar will meet from 5:30-6:45pm on January 28, February 18, March 18, and April 15 and will include pre-workshop readings which will be available over winter break.
- Possible outcomes of the Academic Learning Community include: the development of an annual two-day workshop for faculty and doctoral students that teach across all the Emory schools and/or other annual workshops.
- Each meeting will balance presentations by the facilitator or invited speakers with group discussions of relevant readings and presentations by seminar participants.
- Up to 20 participants will be accommodated and will include faculty, graduate students, post docs, and staff from across the university.
Fall 2024 ALC Calls for Participants
Education Abroad: Inclusive and Equitable Student Programming
Conveners Kenya Casey, Deputy COO, Task Force for Global Health, & Hong Li, Teaching Professor, Chinese, REALC
This Academic Learning Community, designed for Emory faculty and staff who lead and support global activities, highlights proven strategies for inclusivity within international education, ultimately asking the question: “What role can faculty/staff play in helping to curate spaces for transformational identity development within international education?” As leaders of education abroad programs, faculty members' commitment to equity, diversity and inclusivity is critical to the well-being of the program's most marginalized students. Accordingly, this community will highlight opportunities, challenges and solutions related to international education at multiple stages throughout the process:
- Outreach, Partnerships, and Marketing
- Pre-departure / Orientation session
- In-country
- Post-trip / Reflection
Topics for the 4 sessions
- Faculty-led programs: Focus on recruitment, retention, and the examination of various modules and practices.
- Role of language and cultural competence: Integrate into all types of programs, including the Pre-departure Identity Toolkit.
- Strategies and best practices for supporting students while abroad: Implement reflection exercises, engaging local resources, mental health, etc.
- Engage returnees: Encourage reflections, recruitment, and sharing of experiences.
Particulars
- The Seminar will meet sometimes in person, sometimes hybrid, and sometimes online from 12:00 noon-1:30 on the following Fridays: September 13th, October 11th, November 8th, and one more time (TBD) once the ALC starts.
- Possible outcomes of the Academic Learning Community include
- Enhanced Understanding of Inclusivity and Strategies for Equitable Program Design: Participants will develop a deeper understanding of inclusive practices in international education and their impact on student engagement and program design. They will identify proven strategies to create equitable and inclusive international programs, addressing the needs of marginalized students.
- Collaborative Leadership Skills: Participants will cultivate collaborative leadership skills necessary for fostering partnerships and engaging in discussions that promote inclusivity within global activities.
- Comprehensive Program and Student Support: Faculty and staff will learn to create supportive structures across all phases of international programs, including effective pre-departure and orientation sessions that prepare students for diverse cultural environments, best practices for providing in-country support that fosters inclusion and addresses the needs of all students, and strategies to encourage meaningful post-trip reflections that integrate learning experiences and promote ongoing dialogue about inclusivity.
- Each meeting will balance presentations by the facilitator/s or invited speakers with group discussions of relevant readings and presentations by seminar participants.
- Up to 20 participants will be accommodated and will include faculty, graduate students, post docs, and staff from across the university.
The deadline for application is Friday, August 30. Selections will be announced in early September.
Data tools for promoting equitable outcomes in courses
Convener: Chris Beck
The overall goal of this Academic Learning Community is to build on the work of the “Data-Driven DEI at Emory” ALC that took place in Fall 2022, with a special focus on DEI in the classroom. Multiple colleges and universities across the country have developed data tools for use by faculty to better understand the students in the courses as well as the outcomes of students in their courses. The goal of these data tools is to promote equitable outcomes for all students in courses. Based on the experience of faculty and administrators from other institutions, it is important to develop these data tools in-house through intentional discussion of what data are available and what tools might be helpful in affecting change. In addition, these discussions should include consideration of what training should be made available or required of faculty to have access to these tools and leverage the findings to implement change in their classes. In this ALC, we will start by reading articles about how different institutions have used data tools to bring about change at their institutions. Then, we will consider tools developed at other institutions to determine how their structures could be adapted for Emory to be most useful for faculty. The final session will consider the faculty supports that are needed for using potential future data tools for the biggest impact.
Topics and tools to be addressed include
- Using data tools to promote equitable outcomes in courses
- Understanding degree pathways to determine critical courses for progression to a degree
- Course dashboards
- Assessment Toolkit and Course Equity Reports
- Canvas Gradebook Analyzer
- Faculty Supports – Implicit bias, data privacy, and inclusive teaching
Particulars
- The Seminar will meet with a hybrid format from 12:00 noon -1:30 pm on the following Fridays: September 20, October 4, October 18, November 1, November 15, December 6. Lunch will be provided for in-person participants.
- Possible outcomes of the Academic Learning Community include: defining priorities for data tools to develop for Emory, specifications for those tools, and guidelines for faculty implementation of new tools.
- Each meeting will balance presentations by the facilitator with group discussions of relevant readings and exploration of data tools by seminar participants.
- Up to 20 participants will be accommodated and will include faculty, graduate students, post docs, and staff from across the university.
Reading Israel/Palestine and Academic Freedom in the Classroom
Conveners: Pamela Scully and Rick Doner
The goals for the ALC
- To provide a learning space for faculty who would like to learn about Israel/Palestine from an historical and empirical standpoint.
- To provide a space to discuss issues of academic freedom and politics in the classroom. We come at this from different disciplinary and political perspectives, but in the context of learning about Palestine and Israel, we think this offers an opportunity to learn about key themes in the conflict and to grapple with the opportunities and limits of politics in the classroom.
Readings
- Ian Black, Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017
- Paolo Freire, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, selections;
- Teresa Piacentini, “An uncomfortable classroom: The power of politics in pedagogy,” Jan 31, 2023, LSE Blog
- Other pedagogical readings as emerge
Academic Learning Communities are informal seminars that are intended to
- engage faculty, graduate students, post docs, and staff in collaborative explorations of innovative research and teaching topics;
- bring guest speakers to campus to enhance the curriculum and learning; and/or
- help disseminate important research discoveries and innovative learning strategies to the broader community.
Particulars
- The Seminar will meet on six Fridays from 3:00-4:30pm; 9/6; 9/20; 10/4; 10/18; 11/1 and 11/15.
- Each meeting will balance presentations by the facilitator or invited speakers with group discussions of relevant readings and presentations by seminar participants.
- Up to 15 participants will be accommodated and will include faculty and any staff who are teaching, from across the university.
Academic Learning Communities (ALCs) are seminars that provide opportunities for faculty to discuss topics related to their research, teaching, and intellectual lives. These seminars meet 4 to 6 times a semester for 1.5 hours and include common readings that are posted on Canvas. Each ALC comes with a $2000 stipend.
- Conveners are responsible for identifying topics and readings, uploading readings to Canvas, and communicating any specifics about the ALC to participants.
- CFDE staff are in charge of recruiting/organizing participants, reserving rooms, and providing snacks.
ALCs can focus on research, teaching, or areas of more general interest in higher education. Past ALC topics include: “Academic Integrity and the Changing Landscape of Higher Education,” “Building a Community of Healthcare Simultation Educators,” and “Creating Relational Accountability Through Indigenous Studies.” The goal of an ALC is not only to develop a more robust intellectual community at Emory around a topic but also to develop some “output.” For example, as a result of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning ALC, we built a better relationship with IRB on SoTL projects, and as a result of the Mass Incarceration ALC, we pulled together resources on faculty and graduate students who research and teach about incarceration in the south onto one webpage.
Proposals include:
- Your topic
- A preliminary list of faculty members you would like to invite
- Whether you would like to lead your ALC in Fall 2024 or Spring 2025
- How many sessions you would like (from 4 to 6 in a semester)
- What format your ALC will be in: in person, Zoom, or hybrid
- What each session would focus on
- Ideas for readings
- “Goal” or “output” for the ALC
Previous Academic Learning Communities
Archived descriptions of Previous Academic Learning Communities between 2012 and 2023 are available for review.