Details and FAQs on the COVID-19 Response website.
One of our goals as a Center is to engage SU faculty in conversation around the deeper questions of academic practice, based on national and international research into higher education. Events are open to ALL SU faculty.
The Chairs' Community of Practice is open to all current department chairs and chairs-elect, plus program directors and directors-elect who have faculty reporting to them directly (for example for performance reviews).
We gather twice per quarter.
Further details and how to register are available on the Community of Practice page here.
Facilitated by Holly Slay Ferraro and David Green
Tuesdays | 2:00–3:00 | Zoom link will be provided upon registration
Wednesdays | 11:00–12:00 | Zoom link will be provided upon registration
Come together with fellow faculty as a “community of practice” for small-group conversation about whatever’s on your mind.
Maybe you want to talk about self-care and health or life–work balance while isolated at home; perhaps you’re interested in sharing new work routines you’ve developed or how you’re supporting your students to do the same; or maybe you simply want to pick up some binge-watching or reading-for-pleasure recommendations to help you wind down at the end of the day.
A community of practice (Wenger, 1998) is an informal gathering of individuals in similar roles who are spread out across an organization, rather than in frequent contact with one another. We’ve been using this model with department chairs since 2011; now that we are less frequently in contact due to the COVID-19 crisis, the model now applies to faculty in general, too.
In the community of practice model, you – as participants – decide what topics are important to you right now, and we organize you into small groups based on those interests.
The Center for Faculty Development's role is simply to facilitate the process and to collate any notes for distribution – if you decide to keep any.
We’ll run a few of these sessions and then get your feedback on whether they’re working for you. If they are, then we’ll keep them going for the rest of the quarter. You’ll need to register to receive the Zoom link, but you don’t have to register for every session.
Facilitated by David Green
Thu, May 7 | 2:00–3:30 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
Spring is often the time when faculty are preparing their files for promotion or tenure, or are reflecting on their work to date to help clarify their summer projects.
Yet depending on our career stage, our scholarly agenda can pose a variety of challenges. For many newer scholars, it can be hard to step back and identify exactly what we’re doing – and why it matters. For more seasoned researchers, in contrast, we often find our passions have shifted to new topics, or that we need to reinvent ourselves as scholars in somewhat different academic fields than where we began.
Difficulty in describing our research arc can affect our chances of winning grants, of being promoted, or simply of feeling in control of our own scholarship. It can lead us to take on projects that don’t exactly align with our expertise or intellectual curiosity, and to missing out on those that do.
In this session, we’ll provide a space for you to think through your own “Personal Intellectual Project”—the big-picture encapsulation of your different scholarly topics and agendas. For newer scholars, can you sense its form yet? Do you recognize the parameters you want to set to keep it manageable? For more experienced scholars, has your intellectual project evolved since you last considered it? What has changed and what remains the same? What projects might reignite your enthusiasm?
Through a structured process and through interdisciplinary small-group conversation over Zoom, you’ll be better placed to advocate for yourself and your scholarship and will have a clearer vision of viable and enticing scholarly topics for the future.
Be sure to have a copy of your up-to-date CV with you for the session.
Optional Follow-up Session
Attendees who would like to check back in on this topic can do so in a later discussion and debrief.
Thu, May 21 | 2:00–3:00 | Zoom
Co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Center for Faculty Development, and the Center for Digital Learning and Innovation; facilitated by Holly Slay Ferraro
Mondays: May 11 and June 1 | 12:45–1:45 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
Your courses focus on race, gender, sexuality, or other issues where students encounter new ideas that run counter to master narratives. And now you’re teaching during a global pandemic, an environment where race, gender, class, and more are thrust onto the national stage. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed as you contemplate teaching polarizing content during this time of crisis.
In this Community of Practice, we will share questions and ideas with others who are also teaching hot-button topics. A Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998) is an informal gathering of individuals in similar roles who are spread out across an organization, rather than in frequent contact with one another. The Center for Faculty Development has been using this model with department chairs since 2011; this model is particularly beneficial now since faculty are less able to meet and share best practices.
Our explorations could range from opportunities to challenges faced at every stage of the teaching cycle. Through a community learning approach, we could extract lessons on how to manage resistance, communicate across differences, and integrate current events.
Using the strategies we co-create in this Community of Practice, you will be better able to prepare your students for discussing hot button topics themselves by pushing them to learn and grow in a way that’s appropriate for living through a global crisis.
Co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Center for Faculty Development, and the Wismer Professor for Gender and Diversity Studies; Facilitated by Holly Slay Ferraro
Wednesdays: May 13, May 20, June 3 | 2:00–3:15 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
The Center for Faculty Development, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Wismer Professor for Gender and Diversity Studies are excited to announce the launch of an affinity group for tenure-track faculty of color. The purpose of convening the group is to provide a space for the collective exploration of the impact of race, power and privilege on the academic life of colleagues immersed in teaching, scholarship, and service at pre-tenure stages of their careers.
Why create a group for tenure-track faculty of color? There are three primary reasons. First, the Task Force on Diversity and Inclusive Excellence report recommends boosting our capacity to retain talented minoritized faculty and facilitate professional development opportunities. Second, research on affinity groups indicates they enhance participants’ agency and optimism, while providing access to beneficial information and support. Third, from our own conversations with members of the Seattle University community, we know that faculty of color need a space where they can discuss their unique experiences in a supportive environment with peers who are similarly situated.
This professional development opportunity aims to empower tenure-track faculty of color to build community, share experiences, and pursue their academic life with more confidence and agency. We hope that this caucus process gives participants the space to determine “what solidarity could look like for...as people of color committed to the work of social, racial, and gender justice” (Kad Smith, Compass Point) at Seattle University.
Co-sponsored by the Office of Sponsored Projects and the Center for Faculty Development; facilitated by Holly Slay Ferraro, David Green, and Jenna Isakson
Thu, May 14 | 4:00–5:00 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
What happens to our scholarly and creative efforts when our lives have been significantly disrupted?
Clearly there is no single “right” answer to this question: individual contexts require individualized strategies and orientations to help us find our own balance in an unbalanced world.
Perhaps for you, scholarship pales into insignificance compared to supporting your students, caring for relatives and for yourself, and/or home-schooling your children; it’s a luxury you need to let go of. Or maybe time spent on scholarship provides you a welcome reprieve from email, social media, and the news – a chance to get comfortably lost in ideas and projects. Alternatively, you may be someone for whom scholarship is a form of healing, enabling you to think and write your way through the present trauma to new realizations and a deeper appreciation of what matters to you most.
Whatever your stance – and whatever your discipline, career stage, rank, or research funding – we invite you to join us for this happy-hour conversation to share and explore the myriad approaches to scholarship that are enabling you to stay grounded in the age of COVID-19.
In addition to creating a space for you to share with colleagues, staff from the Office of Sponsored Projects and Center for Faculty Development will be on hand to reflect on “nuts-and-bolts” approaches to addressing the challenges associated with timelines and/or research funding when so many factors are beyond our collective control.
Outside the session, we’ll share a few resources that provide contrasting perspectives on scholarly productivity in a time of crisis as well as resources for managing a sponsored project through this new environment.
Remember to bring your own beverages and snacks!
Co-sponsored by the Faculty Ombudsperson, the Center for Faculty Development, and the Center for Community Engagement (CCE); facilitated by David Green and C. McKenna Lang
Fri, May 15 | 2:00–3:30 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
The arrival of COVID-19 presents us with unprecedented stresses that tax our cognitive capacities and flexibility – just at the point when we need them the most. Faculty and department chairs are reporting that this global crisis means more emailing, more rapid communications than ever done before, and more virtual meetings.
Our channels of communication have necessarily shifted and now bring with them new stressors. Research tells us that email has a negativity bias: if we think our message is positive, it’s received as neutral; if we think it’s neutral, it’s read as negative (Goleman 2013). Meanwhile virtual meetings sap our energies and concentration more swiftly than happens in person (Jiang, 2020).
Under these circumstances, it’s not surprising that we may be experiencing greater communication challenges. At the same time, this transformational moment may be providing an opportunity to connect in new ways and to acknowledge our shared humanness.
So how do we resolve our inevitable miscommunications? How do we connect with colleagues compassionately to deepen understanding and move forward constructively? How do we bridge differences to increase learning and respect?
In this session, co-sponsored by the Faculty Ombudsperson, Center for Faculty Development, and Center for Community Engagement, we’ll experiment with using Marshall Rosenberg’s model of nonviolent communication (also called “compassionate communication”) – a four-stage process for engaging with one another to rebuild trust through listening empathically and expressing ourselves honestly. Rooted in social justice, NVC prioritizes respect for differing worldviews. While the model appears straightforward, it requires practice and care – as well as asking us to unlearn our cultural norms in communication. The rewards can be significant, and when effectively used, this carefully developed communication method can lead to smoother and more productive teamwork.
Optional follow-up session
Attendees who would like to check back in on this topic can do so in a later discussion and debrief.
Fri, May 29 | 2:00–3:00 | Zoom
Co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Center for Faculty Development, and the Wismer Professor for Gender and Diversity Studies; Facilitated by Holly Slay Ferraro and David Green
Fri, May 29 | 3:30–5:00 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
As we’ve entered into the COVID-19 crisis, some professors have expressed concerns about rigor being sacrificed for flexibility and care for students. Others have announced gratitude for the current turmoil unveiling the problems of rigor.
Rigor has as many meanings as professors who seek to instill it into their courses. For some, it means creating challenging courses where few, who exhibit extraordinary effort, can be successful (in terms of high grades). For others, rigor is the creation of courses that stretch students to consider perspectives they have not considered before taking the course. For others still, rigor is a pretext for perpetuating discrimination and inequality. For them, the word is synonymous with academic hazing designed to replicate taken-for-granted disciplinary biases and prejudicial assumptions.
In this candid conversation, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Center for Faculty Development, and the Wismer Professor for Gender and Diversity Studies create space for frank and honest dialogue on rigor. We begin the discussion with a brief look at the research on rigor and open it to faculty perspectives and concerns.
Co-sponsored with the Office of Sponsored Projects; Facilitated by David Green and Jenna Isakson
Mon, Jun 15 | 3:00–4:00 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
In sessions during Spring Quarter, we heard that many faculty had decided to shelve their scholarship and research until the summer so they could focus their energies on pivoting their classes to a remote format and supporting their students.
We also know from the research that a combination of camaraderie and accountability help faculty move their scholarship forward – at whatever pace suits them. As a result, we’ve been launching Faculty Writing* Groups since 2007 (see below for our expansive definition of “writing”), and this year, we are unusually launching summer groups to provide you additional summer support if it would help you. These groups are intentionally interdisciplinary so that you remain the expert in your own field throughout; you set your own goals for your own individual scholarship, with encouragement from your group members.
By the end of this session, you will be grouped with two or three other colleagues from across campus and will be ready to meet with your group independently and regularly to help you achieve more in your research and scholarship – and with less stress.
Full details about the model can be found by following this link to our webpage on Faculty Writing Groups.
*“Writing:” When we say “writing,” we are using the definition from the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity: “Writing” means absolutely everything you do to lead to a final scholarly product – with the exception of reading secondary literature. So “writing” in this sense includes, for instance, IRB applications, interviews, lab work, studio work, computations, coding, analytics – as well as the more traditional aspect of writing a final product for publication. This is an expansive interpretation that works across academic fields.
» Register
Tue, Jun 16 or Wed, Jun 17 | 2:00–4:00 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
Co-sponsored with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Assistant Provost for Student Academic Engagement; Facilitated by David Green and Katherine Raichle
Building on our Winter Quarter learning community on Transparent Design, we now bring the wider campus a workshop that helps you begin to address inequities in your own courses through research-based adjustments to your assignments. If you are seeking one thing you can do immediately to move toward a more just learning environment for your students, this research-based intervention could prove a productive starting point.
We know from decades of research that access to learning is inequitable for students, continuing an unjust pattern of underrepresentation and struggle in higher education for people belonging to specific minoritized groups. Faculty are often left feeling that addressing such huge discrepancies is beyond their control. Fortunately, there are immediate ways to begin creating more equitable access to learning in your classes – ones that will in fact aid ALL learners.
In this session, we’ll explore a surprisingly simple and high-impact transformational approach to assignment design – Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT). Put simply, TILT is an approach that helps students better understand how and why they are learning course content and completing assignments. Even tiny adjustments informed by TILT have been shown to help bridge inequitable access to learning, enhancing learning for all students, while importantly benefiting underrepresented students in particular. Moreover, research has shown a lasting impact of TILT on student confidence, awareness of skills development, sense of belonging, and persistence.
In this session, you’ll have opportunity to apply the principles of Transparency in Learning and Teaching to one of your assignments so that you can replicate the model for any of your courses.
Have available a copy of an assignment or two to apply the TILT approach to. You might want to focus on assignments where you’re disappointed with students’ performance, where you receive a lot of push-back, confusion, or questions from students, or where you find student motivation lacking.
» Register
Mon, Jun 22 | 1:00–2:15 | Zoom link will be sent upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Center for Faculty Development, and the Center for Digital Learning and Innovation; Facilitated by Holly Slay Ferraro
We’re adding a further session for this community at the request of group members. If you’ve weren’t able to join us in Spring Quarter, please do so now!
Your courses focus on race, gender, sexuality, or other issues where students encounter new ideas that run counter to master narratives. And now you’re teaching during a global pandemic, an environment where race, gender, class, and more are thrust onto the national stage. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed as you contemplate teaching polarizing content during this time of crisis.
In this Community of Practice, we will share questions and ideas with others who are also teaching hot-button topics. A Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998) is an informal gathering of individuals in similar roles who are spread out across an organization, rather than in frequent contact with one another. The Center for Faculty Development has been using this model with department chairs since 2011; this model is particularly beneficial now since faculty are less able to meet and share best practices.
Our explorations could range from opportunities to challenges faced at every stage of the teaching cycle. Through a community learning approach, we could extract lessons on how to manage resistance, communicate across differences, and integrate current events.
Using the strategies we co-create in this Community of Practice, you will be better able to prepare your students for discussing hot-button topics themselves by pushing them to learn and grow in a way that’s appropriate for living through a global crisis.
» Register
