Teaching, Learning and Engagement in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 2018-2019

Dean's Message

This academic year in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, we’ve celebrated a new teaching initiative called Teach Together which brought together faculty and new ways of thinking about the collaborative possibilities of teaching.

Dean


Kristen Hedges of Anthropology shows Maasai women the book created from their traditional plant medicine knowledge

Bridging Generations with a Commissioned Book—Collaboration with Kristin Hedges

Kristin Hedges of Anthropology knows better than most that work like that of Albert B. Lord (of Singer of Tales fame) which captures in a written form what had been orally transmitted knowledge has the effect of inhibiting its oral transmission afterward.

Anthropology

Kelly Parker working one-on-one with a student

From Kant to Can—Some Pedagogical Thinking with Kelly Parker

Philosophy Professor Kelly Parker is already having a pretty good day by 9 a.m. because he has restored the kind of order to his groaning office bookshelves that he knows aids his thinking.

Philosophy

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Embracing Real World Complexity in the Tweet Age

Chad Frederick, Assistant Professor of Geography & Sustainable Planning, was interested in coming to GVSU in part because of the emphasis on sustainability and not what is often just referred to as urban planning.

Geography


Jeffrey Byrnes

Readying Interns to Parse the Difficult Ethical Issues With Jeffrey Byrnes

Assistant Professor Jeffrey Byrnes’ desk is a couple layers deep in books critiquing naïve notions of artificial intelligence and the ethical shortcomings of algorithms that impact our daily lives, whether we are aware of it or not.

Philosophy

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How CLAS Prioritizes the Budget and Resources

Each year, CLAS provides the faculty with an overview of how budget priorities are assigned and with information about the scale and general landscape of the CLAS budget.

Calder Art Center student gallery with exhibited objects and text applied to the walls

Rendering Narratives of Desire: An Unusual Collaboration

Caitlin Horrocks (WRT) met Renee Zettle-Sterling (VMA) at the 2013 CLAS Sabbatical Showcase, and they began chatting about Renee’s sabbatical project.

Visual and Media Arts


Tim Penning

Keeping It Real with Tim Penning—Internships, Experiential Learning, and Student Organizations

The faculty in Advertising and Public Relations often have a career trajectory that blends practical application in their field as well as theoretical academic study.

School of Communications

Open access

Chewing on Open Access

As faculty in CLAS and around the university know, rising textbook and journal costs have meant that faculty and librarians have been taking an even harder look at the potential of open access (OA) to address the burden on students and university budgets.

Modern Languages and Literatures | Psychology | Biomedical Sciences

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Collaboration in a Changing Educational Environment

The Integrated Science program’s website suggests just how important the state’s educational policy and regulations of standards are to what the faculty must accomplish to prepare students for Michigan classrooms.

Integrated Science


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Trust, Intentionality, and the Rendezvous― Designing Inclusive Meetings for Educators with Caitlin Callahan

Assistant Professor of Geology, Caitlin Callahan has attended, since its first iteration in 2013, a meeting of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers known as the Earth Educators’ Rendezvous.

Geology

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Changing the Landscape for High School Geology

Emerson said that we learn geology the morning after an earthquake. There is a movement afoot to ensure that high school students don’t wait that long.

Geology

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Chasing Student Success

Looking out over the impressive 8:30 a.m. audience of students at the GVSU Teach In panel discussion on invisible disabilities, I had one wish— that there were faculty to hear what was about to be said.

Chemistry