Coming Events in the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning
Fall 2015 Events in the CLTL
Collaborations once again abound in the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning. Please take a minute to read what programs the Center is offering for September. Take a look as well at just a few of the upcoming events the CLTL will be hosting in October and November and at other faculty development opportunities that are being offered around campus and beyond.
Funding Opportunities
Course Development Stipends
The Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning is very pleased to continue a tradition
that began several years ago in the Dean of Faculty's office. The CLTL is offering
stipends to faculty for the development of new courses that support our institutional
priorities. Over the course of the 2015–2016 academic year, the Center plans to distribute
six stipends in the amount of $1,500 each. Priority will be given this year to course
proposals that focus on either well-being** or social jstice. All faculty are encouraged
to apply.
**Well-Being is a construction focused on positive whole-person development in the
context of social and physical environments. Examples of topics may include (but are
by no means limited to) conflict resolution; responses to climate change; ethics;
gender and sexuality; physical/emotional/psychological well-being; the genetics of
mental health and illness; mathematical modeling of positive health outcomes.
Here's how the process works:
Please submit a brief (one- or two-page) proposal to Erica (bastress@skidmore.edu) describing the course you plan to develop or significantly revise. Assuming the
proposal is approved, the CLTL will distribute $500 at that point. The remaining $1,000
will be distributed once the course is approved by Curriculum Committee. Finally,
we ask that you offer the course no later than the 2017–2018 academic year. There
is no deadline for submission of proposals. We will review them on a rolling basis.
E-learning Exploration
The CLTL is also delighted to once again offer four stipends in the amount of $1,500 each for the development of courses that have blended learning and/or innovative pedagogy components. The latter could include flipped classrooms, student-centered pedagogies, peer-centered learning strategies, etc. The application process is the same as for the Well-Being and Social Justice stipends described above.
Project VIS
Project VIS is a three-year initiative, funded by the Mellon Foundation, that seeks
to enhance the ability of faculty and students to create and understand visual media,
and to increase visual literacy throughout the campus community. Project VIS is comprised
of three primary components: the Visual Literacy Forum, MDOCS, and the media and film
studies minor.
The Visual Literacy Forum provides faculty development for faculty who wish to encourage
and expand visual media and literacy. There are stipends available for developing
new courses that correspond with our initiative and reimbursement for travel to workshops/opportunities.
LI113 is a lab on the first floor of the library where faculty can find opportunities
for collaboration and external specialists through workshops. Please contact Deb Hall
at dhall@skidmore.edu if you are interested in learning more. Visit our website for more information: https://www.skidmore.edu/project-vis/
Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowships for Recently Tenured Scholars
Please see the details for this amazing scholarship opportunity by clicking here
CLTL Events
English Language Workshops
August 31, noon–3 p.m.
September 25, 10–1 p.m.
September 25, Follow-up session, 2–4 p.m.
All sessions will be Upstairs in Murray-Aikins Dining Hall
The First Year Experience and the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning are
sponsoring two special sessions on working with English Language learners. These will
be led by an external facilitator, Joe McVeigh (www.joemcveigh.org).
The primary workshop will be offered twice, on Monday, August 31 (noon to 3 p.m.) and again on Friday, September 25 (10 a.m.–1
p.m.); in both cases it will include a working lunch. There are still openings available
in both workshops. If you are interested in attending, please let Allie Taylor know
as soon as possible at: ataylor1@skidmore.edu.
For those who attend the primary workshop, a more targeted follow-up session will
be offered on Friday, September 25 from 2 to 4 p.m. More information on that will
be forthcoming.
New Faculty Orientation
September 3 and 4, Upstairs in Murray-Aikins Dining Hall
The New Faculty Learning Community, in collaboration with the Dean of Faculty’s Office and the CLTL, will welcome our newest colleagues to Skidmore.
Writing Groups
Mondays, noon–1 p.m.
Tuesdays, 12:45–1:45 p.m.
Murray-Aikins Dining Hall Test Kitchen
The ever-popular Writing Group will start up again on Monday, September 14 and Tuesday,
September 15 and meet every week throughout the semester. This year we are trying
something different by having our Tuesday lunches begin at 12:45 p.m. to accommodate
those who teach from 11:10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
If you have questions about Writing Group, please contact me, bastress@skidmore.edu
Faculty Workshop with Scribner Library’s Head Librarian, Marta Brunner: Open Access
across the Disciplines
October 5, 3:30–5 p.m.
Murray-Aikins Dining Hall, second floor
Faculty at Skidmore College create new knowledge, not just for their own professional
good or the good of colleagues in their own fields, but to better the world. Unfortunately,
current scholarly publishing structures consistently throw up barriers to authors
and readers alike, impeding the impact of new knowledge. Open access publishing models,
on the other hand, give top-quality scholarship a truly global reach. If embraced
pervasively by faculty, open access could be a game-changer that firmly establishes
colleges like Skidmore as centers of research excellence.
This workshop will provide an overview of the current, unsustainable scholarly publishing
landscape, clarify what open access is, and explain how it can benefit your own scholarship,
research, teaching, and professional advancement. There will be ample time for Q&A.
If you have specific questions you would like Marta to address, please contact her
at mbrunner@skidmore.edu
She promises that you will leave the workshop with a basic understanding of:
- the economics of scholarly publishing,
- how faculty at all ranks benefit professionally from open access,
- why your students need open access,
- what Skidmore stands to gain from supporting open-access publishing initiatives,
- what long-term goals we should aim for, as well as which short-term actions we can take to get there, and
- how to locate further resources to learn more.
Faculty-to-Faculty Presentation
October 8, 4–5 p.m.
Weller Room (212 Library)
Corinne Moss-Racusin, assistant professor of psychology, is the first F-t-F presenter for the semester. Please join us for Corinne's timely talk. RSVP to bastress@skidmore.edu
Reducing Gender Bias in STEM Fields Through Evidence-Based Interventions
Despite efforts to recruit and retain more women, a stark gender disparity persists within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In this talk, I will discuss research providing the first evidence of science faculty members’ gender biases against female students, and highlight implications for academic meritocracy, diversity, and excellence. I will then introduce new research demonstrating the efficacy of an evidence-based intervention designed to reduce gender biases in STEM.
Mentoring Workshop with Becky Wai-Ling Packard
October 16, 3:30–5 p.m., Weller Room (212 Library)
Becky Wai-Ling Packard, professor of psychology and education, and director of the Harriet L. and Paul M. Weissman Center for Leadership at Mt. Holyoke, will offer a workshop on mentoring in the STEM disciplines.
Packard's research focuses on mentoring, with an emphasis on how individuals such
as first-generation college students, women, and persons of color construct and use
mentoring networks and navigate complex pathways toward higher education and work.
More information on Becky’s visit will be forthcoming.
2015 Pulitzer Prize winner for General Non-Fiction, Elizabeth Kolbert, is this Semester’s
Carr Resident
November 3 and 4
Special Programs and the CLTL are delighted to announce that Elizabeth Kolbert is
this semester's Carr Resident. Ms. Kolbert, a staff writer for the New Yorker and
the author of several books on the history of science and climate change, including
her Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, will offer a public lecture on Novemeber 3 at 7 p.m. in Gannett auditorium. There
will be a reception and book signing to follow. As you put your syllabi together for
the fall, please encourage your students to attend this event.
If you would like Ms. Kolbert to attend your class on the afternoon of the 3rd or
the morning of the 4th, please let me know as soon as possible. Michelle Paquette
from Special Programs and I are putting together her schedule now.
To learn more about Ms. Kolbert and The Sixth Extinction, check out these links: