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.
"The Many Paths Back": Faculty/Staff spaces for reflection and intention
Wed, Sep 29 | 3:30–5:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Consortium of Interdisciplinary Scholars (CIS) and the Center for Jesuit Education (CJE)
On behalf of the Consortium of Interdisciplinary Scholars, the Center for Faculty Development, and the Center for Jesuit Education, we would like to invite you to two opportunities for reflection as we begin the quarter together, in a context that remains uncertain.
Many of us may be experiencing grief or anxiety about the lost possibility of somehow returning to the “normal” which now eludes us. Within our Ignatian tradition, this context presents an invitation to reflect on our collective and personal journeys through the past year in order to discern our path forward as we move into the fall.
This past spring, we invited all faculty and staff colleagues to post “consolations and desolations” to a virtual space for reflection called “What We Have Lost/What We Have Found.” We also hosted an informal event to hold space for conversation. At that event, a colleague invited us to consider what the “path back” will look like this fall.
As the autumn leaves now begin to change, we again invite you to post reflections, insights, poetry, or images on a collective virtual wall entitled “The Many Paths Back.” You might share what the landscapes of your summer journey looked like, and what paths you are choosing as we walk toward the horizon ahead. Please register to gain access to the "The Many Paths Back" padlet and post about your journey.
Please also join us on Zoom on Wednesday, September 29 at 3:30 pm for reflection and conversation about how we will choose our way, with whom we will walk, and how we honor the landscapes that reveal themselves this fall.
Faculty Writing Groups - organized by your career stage
Tue, Oct 5 | 12:30–1:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP)
Facilitated by David Green and Kara Luckey
The “research on research” gives us good evidence on what helps faculty progress with their research, and in response, we’ve been launching Faculty Writing Groups since 2007. These groups provide you with camaraderie and accountability to achieve more in your scholarship. And they are intentionally interdisciplinary so that you remain the expert in your own field throughout.
We also aim to group you with peers at a similar career stage so that no one feels the need to mentor or to request mentoring within the group.
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 with less stress.
Click here for our webpage with full details on Faculty Writing Groups.
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Tuesdays: Oct 12 and Oct 26 | 1:00–2:00 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Facilitated by Katherine Raichle
The Center for Faculty Development will be offering 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 have faced unprecedented demands of caregiving and schooling while balancing the work of our academic lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The return to in-person work for ourselves and in-person school for our children likely offers sources of consolation and desolation. Let’s convene and share where we are during this time and find ways to support one another.
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.
*Note: if you are interested in this group but cannot make the time scheduled, please email faculty-development@seattleu.edu and let us know. We would like to support all faculty parents during this challenging time and will work with you to find ways to offer support.
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Trauma-Informed Pedagogy
Wednesdays: Oct 13, Oct 27, and Nov 17 | 2:00–3:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Facilitated by Katherine Raichle, Holly Slay Ferraro, and David Green
Before the pandemic, many students were already experiencing a range of emotions from chronic stress to trauma – a situation that often went unnoticed. In contrast, these past 18 months have highlighted for all of us the critical interface of learning and mental wellness, urgently calling on us to change our pedagogical practices.
Trauma-Informed Pedagogy is one such approach. Connecting existing, but previously discrete, research-based practices that are known to enhance learning for all students, Trauma-Informed Pedagogy offers holistic benefits that are timeless, born from the knowledge that trauma is ubiquitous in our classes.
This workshop series is for any faculty who would like to make subtle yet substantive changes to their pedagogical practices that will enhance trust, community, engagement, and learning for all students. All levels of teaching experience are welcomed.
In this three-part series, we will:
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Co-sponsored by the Center for Jesuit Education (CJE) and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI)
As a participant in this module of the Ignatian Pedagogy Series, you will
It's important that participants attend all four sessions in the series and complete short written reflection assignments between sessions.
Up to fifteen places are available, and participants will receive a $100 stipend from the Center for Jesuit Education upon completion of the module and related reflection assignments.
The entire series is co-directed by David Green of the Center for Faculty Development and Jen Tilghman-Havens of the Center for Jesuit Education. Joining them in this module are Holly Slay Ferraro (Center for Faculty Development/Management) and Katherine Raichle (Center for Faculty Development/Psychology).
Fifteen spaces are available on a first-come, first-served basis. It's essential that you can attend all four sessions of the series, so be sure to block off all four times on your calendar before you receive confirmation of your place. Register using the regular link for this quarter's events from the Center for Faculty Development (also included below).
If you have any questions about the Ignatian Pedagogy Series, please email faculty-development@seattleu.edu, David Green (greend@seattleu.edu), or Jen Tilghman-Havens (tilghman@seattleu.edu).
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Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition
Facilitated by Jenny Loertscher and rotating guest facilitators
Co-sponsored by the Center for Jesuit Education (CJE)
Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition (TJT) is a community-driven series aimed at building connections and exchanging ideas related to teaching and learning at a 21st century Jesuit university. All are welcome; faculty in their first few years at Seattle University are especially encouraged to attend.
There will be six hour-long Zoom sessions held over the 2021–22 academic year. You are welcome to attend as many sessions as you choose. Those who attend will be given access to the Canvas teaching repository and will be invited to contribute materials as well.
If you have any questions, would like to contribute teaching materials, or have ideas for topics for winter or spring quarter sessions, please contact Jenny Loertscher (loertscher@seattleu.edu).
Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition: Let's get started! Ready-to-use resources for teaching and learning in the Jesuit tradition
Fri, Oct 15 | 3:30–4:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-facilitated by Jenny Loertscher and Jen Tilghman-Havens (Center for Jesuit Education)
Are you new to teaching at Seattle University? Are you a seasoned faculty member looking for fresh ways to infuse contemporary Jesuit education in your teaching? Join us for us for our first session of Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition in this new academic year.
During this session we will explore a community-generated Canvas repository of teaching resources based on the principles of Ignatian pedagogy. Participants will be encouraged to identify teaching strategies for use in ongoing and upcoming courses and will be invited to contribute new materials to the repository.
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Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition: Pedagogies for Social Justice
Fri, Nov 12 | 3:30–4:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-facilitated by Jenny Loertscher and Kerry Soo Von Esch (College of Education)
Join us for an interactive session exploring what teaching for social justice might look like in your teaching and discipline. Engage in conversation with colleagues as we examine frameworks for social justice-centered teaching, and discuss our own successes and challenges with creating more equitable and rich learning experiences for our students. Bring a syllabus, course activity, or assignment to work on and receive feedback as part of this session.
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Can I say that? Giving and getting better peer-to-peer feedback
Wed, Oct 20 | 11:00–12:15 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Facilitated by Therese Huston
Few of us can be successful as faculty without feedback, yet chances are you aren’t getting the feedback you need most from your colleagues. And if you’re a department chair, you’re wondering how to give feedback in a way that doesn’t crush souls or squelch motivation. In this interactive and research-backed workshop, we’ll reframe workplace feedback so that it’s more useful and less threatening. We’ll explore transformative principles such as “Side with the person, not the problem,” and “Make your motto, ‘No surprises.’” You’ll leave with five strategies you can put into action immediately: strategies for soliciting better feedback and strategies for giving the feedback someone else needs to succeed.
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Time and the life of the University
Wed, Nov 10 | 3:30–4:45 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Consortium of Interdisciplinary Scholars
Facilitated by Ken Allan (Art History, College of Arts & Sciences)
Considering the ongoing experience of the pandemic and the public pressure to return to “normal” in the US, even as vaccinations plateau and the Delta variant surges, what has personal isolation and a deadly health crisis taught us about our relationship to time? What connections can we make between the way we think about time and temporality from within the discourse of our disciplines and the way time is structured, managed, measured, and experienced within the university and in our broader culture for students, faculty and staff? How is our relationship to time, or the ideals and realities of how we “spend our time” as members of a university community, related to our educational mission?
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Silver linings? Pros and cons of becoming a department chair
Fri, Nov 19 | 12:30–1:30 | Zoom link to follow upon registration
Facilitated by David Green and Holly Slay Ferraro
If your future might involve a stint as a department chair or a program director, do you face that prospect with a feeling of excitement, of dread, of curiosity, or of something else entirely? What does it mean to lead and represent a group of fellow faculty on a fixed-term basis, knowing that you’ll then return to being a peer?
In this frank Q&A discussion, you’ll meet a panel of current chairs and directors to discover what their roles entail and the extent to which they can contribute to the smooth functioning of their areas, revitalize their disciplines and programs, and take on academic leadership within the university.
Learn about some of the possible pitfalls and hidden pleasures of chairing to help you figure out whether the opportunity to chair presents you personally with a preponderance of clouds or of silver linings.
The session also includes a Q&A in a confidential environment.
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Retirement planning
Click here to see a bibliography of resources pertaining to aging and retirement (compiled by Jacquelyn Miller, 2015).
