A message from the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning

Spring Spotlight: Meet Periclean Faculty Leader Nurcan Atalan-Helicke

This year, the CLTL newsletter will highlight the accomplishments of Periclean Faculty Leaders across campus. Project Pericles is a nonprofit organization that supports civic engagement within higher education. Skidmore faculty have found myriad ways of conjoining their pedagogical missions with that of Project Pericles. There is additional teaching-related content from these interviews on the CLTL Faculty and Staff Voices webpage. Go check it out!

Associate Environmental Studies and Sciences Professor Nurcan Atalan-Helicke has taught at Skidmore since 2011. Before coming to Skidmore, her work was rooted at the crossroads of government and environmental education, whether volunteering as an environmental education teacher for 8- to 9-year-olds, working with a consortium of local governments on cultural preservation, or working for a variety of project-based nonprofits. The interdisciplinary and intersectional roots of Professor Atalan-Helicke’s professional background are directly reflected in her approach to teaching and mentoring. She aims to create a culture of empowerment for her students, in the hope that this type of mentorship can create interdisciplinary and lasting social change that begins to address the deeper human complexities of environmental issues.

In her Project Pericles course, ES 224: Political Ecology, personal and community empowerment were applied in addressing environmental degradation, with a focus on civic engagement and advocating the government for environmental and community needs. Informing this process were conversations Professor Atalan-Helicke had with other faculty members - facilitated by Skidmore’s Civic Engagement Director Eric Morser and the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning - on how to infuse civic engagement into coursework. She worked closely with Sustainable Saratoga to develop a service-based project for students enrolled in ES 224.

Atalan-Helicke plans to continue focusing on academic civic engagement and is eager to share her experiences and lessons learned with fellow faculty. She also hopes there are continuing “conversations on campus among faculty about implementing ACE (civic engagement-centered) and Bridge Experience courses.”

– Michael DeCarlen-Bumiller ’23

Announcements

Student-led initiative

In the coming weeks, you will see posters around campus with a QR code inviting you to offer feedback on your experiences on campus as students, faculty, and staff. There will be a series of short surveys, all aimed at developing resources and programming for CLTL in the coming years. You can access the first round of questions on inclusion here.

Funding for new Black Studies courses

We are pleased to announce that due to the generous support of the Mellon Foundation - for a three-year grant, Africana Studies and the Humanities at Skidmore: Transnational Explorations in Social Justice - we are able to offer stipends of $1,000 to faculty who successfully create courses cross-listed with the Black Studies Program (BST). To learn more, visit the CLTL announcements page.

Spring Programming

Design for Play with Brendan Boyle

• When and where: Monday, April 3, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Schupf Family IdeaLab (CIS)
• Description: In this interactive presentation, attendees will discover how the opposite of play is not work, but rather boredom. Through real-life examples, the talk will explore effective ways to boost student engagement and enhance learning in the classroom. No RSVP necessary. You can read more about Boyle here.

Spring Book Club: “Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the Classroom”

• When and where: Wednesday, April 5, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Test Kitchen of Murray-Aikins Dining Hall
• Description: This book by biology professor Kelly Hogan and mathematics professor Viji Sathy offers cross-disciplinary practical strategies for enhancing student learning for students of all abilities. If faculty and staff are interested in participating in a discussion about this book, please email Beck Krefting to receive a copy prior to the event. There is space for up to 12 folks to participate - first come, first served. You may only request a copy if you know you can commit to attending the discussion. Lunch tickets will be distributed in the Atrium from noon to 12:10 p.m.

Documenting Creative Matter Workshop and Lunch with David Seiler, Visual Resources and Digitization Director

• When and where: Tuesday, April 18, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Murray-Aikins Dining Hall
• Description: Based on Open Access principles, Skidmore’s institutional repository, Creative Matter, brings together creative and scholarly output under one umbrella with the goal of both preserving and providing global access to our creative thought. This workshop will include a detailed overview of the repository’s collections and scope; provide attendees rationales for including faculty and student scholarship in the repository; and provide an overview, with examples, on how to upload materials to the repository. This may be of special interest to C/PDs and faculty teaching Bridge Experience courses. RSVP no later than Thursday, April 13, to attend.

Research Salon and Lunch with Greg Pfitzer

• When and where: Friday, April 21, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Weller Room (Lib 212)
• Description: This research talk will center on the recent publication of Pfitzer’s “Fame is Not Just for the Fellas” (2022), a volume in the Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book series at the University of Massachusetts Press that treats the concept of female renown as revealed in children’s historical literature. Utilizing documented conversations and disagreements among authors, editors, readers, reviewers, and sales agents at Bobbs-Merrill, Pfitzer will place the series in the context of national debates around fame, gender, historical memory, and portrayals of children and childhood for a young reading public - charged debates that continue to this day. You can access Pfitzer’s bio and full description of the event here. A sandwich platter, fruit, and sweet treats will be provided. Registration is not required - just come!

Having trouble in the classroom? Read this: How to Combat Tribalism on Campus

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