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The Center for Faculty Development offers a number of programs and events which may be specifically useful for late-career faculty.
If, as a mid- or late-career faculty member, you become a program director or department chair (and have other faculty reporting to you), then another program that might be useful to you is the Chairs' Community of Practice (CoP).
This informal forum for chairs and directors from across the university is an opportunity to share ideas, expertise, practices and perhaps even challenges. Over a collegial glass of wine, you'll have a rare change to talk to your peer group with the aim of making chairing a more enjoyable experience.
To find out more about the Chairs' CoP meetings scheduled for this year, visit the Chairs' CoP website.
Tuesdays: Oct 20 and Nov 10 | 3:30–4:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
*Note: The dates and time for this group have been changed since the original announcement per faculty feedback
Facilitated by Katherine Raichle
The Center for Faculty Development is launching an affinity group for faculty parents of school-age children. The purpose of this group is to provide a space to discuss and explore the unique challenges faced by faculty who have children in their care. The challenge of parenting while maintaining a rigorous schedule of teaching, research, and/or service to the university is not new. However, the benefits of finding a community of support around parenting has never been more urgent. We face unprecedented demands of caregiving and schooling while balancing the work of our academic lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The psychological benefits of convening groups of people around common identities and experiences are well known. Research on affinity groups, in particular, has shown that they enhance agency and optimism, while also providing access to beneficial information and support.
At its most basic level, we hope that this group offers a space where you can feel less isolated in your experience. We hope to foster a community of support amongst faculty parents, where they can share experiences, offer suggestions, and explore how to navigate these extremely challenging times.
» Register
Holding space for current events in any discipline
Thu, Sept 24 | 11:30–1:00 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Facilitated by Holly Slay Ferraro, David Green, and Katherine Raichle
We are living through a critical time in the history of the United States and the world. COVID-19 challenges governments, communities, and individuals around the globe. Racial inequity and police brutality have launched urban unrest. A contentious presidential election, fraught with misogynistic and racist dog whistles in the United States will reach its culmination during our fall teaching schedule. Should we weave current events into our classroom discussions? And, if so, how can we do so in meaningful ways?
In this session, we’ll explore the research on integrating current events and managing political trauma within classrooms. According to the research, such weaving can serve multiple purposes. For example, current topics may be in service of the course and in the interest of students. That is, the aims of the course may be enhanced by introducing structured discussions of the moment. Research has also demonstrated that “responding with socio-emotional and relational pedagogy” (Sondel, Baggett, & Dunn, 2018, p. 180) can be accomplished by providing comfort and protecting safe space. Overall, in the wake of collective tragedies, students found that faculty engaging, rather than ignoring, current events was helpful (Huston & DiPietro, 2007).
All faculty are welcome, and this workshop is especially for you if you are afraid that the academic objectives of your course cannot be met by bringing current events into the classroom or if you feel you do not have the expertise to handle student requests to discuss current events!
Attendees who would like to check back in on this topic can do so in a later discussion and debrief.
Thu, Oct 15 | 11:30–12:30 | Zoom
» Registration is now closed
Coping with COVID: Workplace burnout and resilience factors
Thu, Oct 1 | 12:30–1:20 | Email faculty-development@seattleu.edu for the Zoom link
Co-sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences and the Center for Faculty Development
Lecturer: Dr. Kira Mauseth, PhD | SU Department of Psychology
We are all impacted by COVID-19 in our daily lives in some ways that we may not recognize. This presentation will address the specifics about where we are on a larger scale with our Behavioral Health responses in the context of this natural disaster across the state, and how our brains and bodies function accordingly in this phase of disaster response and recovery. We will discuss common responses, symptoms, and challenges over the next few months that we will be facing, and what can be done to prevent burnout and increase resilience factors. Specific ideas will be provided about how to communicate and interact more effectively with others at home and in the workplace in the context of COVID-19 and increase our own sense of strength and resilience.
Kira Mauseth is a clinical psychologist who sees patients at Snohomish Psychology Associates, teaches as a Senior Instructor at Seattle University, and serves as co-lead for the Behavioral Health Strike Team for the WA State Department of Health. Her work and research interests focus on resilience and recovery from trauma as well as well as disaster behavioral health. She has worked abroad with survivors, refugees, and relief workers and in the US with first responders and health care workers. Dr. Mauseth also conducts trainings on disaster preparedness and resilience-building.
This session is being presented by the College of Arts & Sciences in co-sponsorship with the Center for Faculty Development. All faculty are invited to attend. No registration is required.
» Email faculty-development@seattleu.edu for the Zoom link
Nonviolent communication: A language of life
Co-sponsored by the Office of the Faculty Ombudsperson
How can we better connect with one another and understand our varied perspectives in an age of physical distance and remote working? In our computer-mediated reality, many of our in-person strategies for fostering community and understanding no longer function effectively, so new approaches are required. Here, Marshall Rosenberg’s model of nonviolent communication (NVC, also called “compassionate communication”) offers us ways of proceeding.
NVC is a four-stage process for engaging with one another to build 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.
In this three-session Learning Community, facilitated by McKenna Lang (Faculty Ombudsperson) and David Green (Center for Faculty Development), you’ll read through the book with colleagues and explore how we can practice and apply NVC in our current circumstances and beyond.
Over the three sessions, you'll learn how to:
This community is for any faculty member who wishes to develop their skills in communicating for understanding and finding ways to bring people together through compassionate yet candid dialogue.
Nonviolent communication is 219 pages long, and the reading will be split across the three sessions to be manageable for participants.
The three dates in Fall Quarter are
Please register by 9:00am on Friday, September 25.
»Registration is now closed
Many roads travelled: Reflections on research funding “roadmaps”
Thu, Oct 8 | 12:30–1:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Center for Faculty Development
Facilitated by Kara Luckey (Office of Sponsored Projects)
Please join us as SU faculty from a range of disciplines and career stages share the ”roadmaps” they have followed in developing their funded research programs, and the ways in which external support has shaped their trajectories. In addition to learning from colleagues, participants will gain practical insight into approaches to developing a research funding plan that maps pathways for achieving long-term research and funding goals. We are grateful to the following faculty who will be joining us to share their perspectives:
*Note: This event is facilitated by the Office of Sponsored Projects, and co-sponsored by the Center for Faculty Development. The registration form for this session is separate from other Center events.
»Registration is now closed
Writing rocks
Mon, Oct 26 | 2:30–3:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Facilitated by Holly Slay Ferraro and David Green
Many of us experience forms of resistance to working on our scholarship – the terror of the blank page, the feeling that there’s never enough time, the pressure of other urgent tasks, and so on. So how do we navigate our way around our resistance to ensure that we nudge our scholarly agendas forward?
In this one-hour session, we’ll explore the “Writing Rocks” method devised by Kerry Ann Rockquemore, founder of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (which you can also join as an SU faculty member). This method allows us to build up our scholarship in manageable chunks of time (from “pebbles” to “stones” to “boulders”) so that we can circumvent the various forms of inner resistance we may face at each stage in the process.
You’ll end the session with some strategies and some goals to help you build a sense of achievement in your scholarship.
» Register
Connecting class content to what matters: Reflections on teaching remote and in-person community-engaged service-learning courses
Thu, Nov 5 | 1:45–3:15 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Center for Community Engagement (CCE)
Facilitated by Kristi Lee (College of Education) and Elizabeth Seymour (Center for Community Engagement)
Many questions arise when faculty hear about community-engaged or service-learning courses:
Despite the real-world difference these pedagogies can make, we are often held back from exploring them because we can’t quite picture how they will work in practice.
In this interactive panel session, members of the 2019–2020 cohort of Academic Service-Learning Faculty Fellows will share how they used community engagement to enhance student learning and deepen partnerships with local nonprofits. They’ll provide an opportunity to reimagine your courses, connect to the community around us, and provide a richer, more meaningful learning experience for our students.
We’ll end the session by discussing practical steps for building community engaged service-learning into a current course or a course still in development.
» Register
Retirement planning
Click here to see a bibliography of resources pertaining to aging and retirement (compiled by Jacquelyn Miller, 2015).
