The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) and The Center for Research on Learning & Teaching (CRLT) are calling on faculty for nominations for a winter 2020 Learning Community for LSA Graduate Student Instructors who have taught or are interested in teaching courses that satisfy the College's Race & Ethnicity (R&E) requirement. This learning community directly responds to needs identified in the 2015-2016 R&E Review, most notably offering increased training and professional development opportunities and establishing a sense of community for instructors and GSIs teaching R&E courses. The learning community will be led by Dr. Whitney Peoples, CRLT Assistant Director, Focus on Race & Ethnicity Courses.

GSIs in the R&E learning community will meet four times over the fall semester to discuss topics and readings focused on teaching race and ethnicity in University settings. Topics to be addressed in the learning community may include:

• The value of a teaching community for instructors teaching about racial & ethnic identity and inequity.
• Challenges to authority in the R&E classroom, particularly challenges related to the instructor’s own social identities.
• Managing “hot topics” and difficult dialogues around racial and ethnic inequity.
• The challenges and rewards of teaching about race & ethnicity in required courses and in predominantly white classrooms.
• Effectively navigating and maximizing the R&E Faculty-GSI teaching relationship when addressing challenging classroom situations.

Participation is voluntary and is limited to 25 LSA GSIs. Each GSI selected for the program will receive a $200 stipend for their participation as well as access to materials used in the program. GSIs selected to participate will be able to choose from two meeting days and times:

TO NOMINATE:

Faculty or departmental graduate or undergraduate chairs should submit nominations via this GOOGLE FORM. Nominations should include the student’s name, department/program, year in program, whether they have taught an R&E course at the University before, and a few sentences about why the GSI would be a valuable contributor to a learning community and what they might gain from this particular program. Faculty should submit all nominations by Monday, December 23, 2019.

Please feel free to direct questions about the program or the nomination/selection process directly to [email protected]