Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Equitable Teaching and Learning in a Large-Lecture R&E Course Victoria Langland LSA - History LSA - Latin American and Caribbean Studies LSA - Romance Languages and Literatures Farina Mir LSA - History $5980.00 |
We co-teach a large, introductory lecture class with a Race & Ethnicity (R&E) designation: “History 101: What is History?” (cross listed with International Studies 205) and are submitting this proposal in order to improve the teaching of this 318-person class. The proposal originates out of exciting new opportunities on campus to make teaching and learning a more collaborative, engaging, and equitable experience, such as that manifested in the opening of the new Central Campus Classroom Building (CCCB). The CCCB is the first facility at U-M to be designed entirely to support active learning in large courses, and we have requested use of the auditorium (CCCB 1420) in the Fall of 2023 to be able to fully take advantage of this opportunity. We are similarly requesting Whitaker funds so that we can substantially re-conceptualize the way that History 101 is taught, moving away from a reliance on majority lecturing and towards the regular integration of well-designed, intentional, active learning strategies in the lecture hall. Among other benefits, active learning strategies promote equitable teaching as they provide multiple opportunities for students to interact with one another and to share responsibility for building and engaging with their learning community. They also offer multiple modes of engagement to reach all students so that all students have equal access to learning. With these changes, we will be poised to foster more active learning and to ensure equally the success of all of our students. |
| Development of a Translation Major Kristin Dickinson LSA - Germanic Languages and Literatures Nicholas Henriksen LSA - Romance Languages and Literatures Julie Evershed LSA - Language Resource Center $10000.00 |
We request support from the Gilbert Whitaker Fund to develop and submit a proposal for a Translation Major, housed in Comparative Literature and open to undergraduates across all departments. The introduction of this new major into the LSA curriculum is based on our department’s ongoing commitment to translation studies, and comes with the enthusiastic endorsement from external reviewers in our Fall 2022 departmental review. The major will encourage students to build on the LSA language requirement by taking advanced courses related to translation; it will enable them to pursue translation as a double major with a specific language or discipline; it will also encourage diverse students with multilingual backgrounds to integrate translation into their undergraduate studies. Translation Majors will learn about translation as a process and a product, and gain skills to prepare for careers in professional translation. We have formed a planning team of six members from Comparative Literature and other units who will meet with external consultants during the 2023-24 academic year, to discuss different models for developing an undergraduate translation program. In addition, our team will reach out to Undergraduate Chairs and Senior Lecturers in LSA language and literature departments, to collaborate on designing new courses that will meet requirements for the major and support enrollment in advanced language courses in other units. After gathering external and internal feedback, the team will submit our complete proposal in March 2024 to the LSA Curriculum Committee, with the goal of launching the Translation Major in Fall 2025. |
| I Belong Daicia Price Social Work $6000.00 |
Social work practitioners are classified as health care providers and therefore responsible for delivering services to a diverse population. Practitioners with non-dominant social identities that have been historically marginalized and impacted by systemic, institutional, and interpersonal oppression can experience challenges when working with client systems that perpetuate oppression while receiving services. Course outlines in predominantly white institutions often support new practitioners with dominant social identities in learning how to work with client systems that are marginalized. The current structure further marginalizes new professionals that are attempting to learn ways to work with clients that have oppressive ideas and beliefs while simultaneously learning to work with clients that have similar social identities that lead to issues related to transference. Reports from new professionals that they don’t feel like they “belong” in a profession that is heavily represented by white, heterosexual, cisgender, Christian, women are consistent with President Ono’s reflection at the DEI 1.0 Evaluation report information session. This project, I Belong, seeks to adapt course materials to include real world examples of social work practice with youth and adults with complex and intersectional identities as professionals with complex and intersectional primary and secondary social identities that have experienced marginalization and systemic oppression. Role plays, scenarios, and videos will be developed to enhance the learning experience of students that have diverse social identities, with a focus on ensuring that an equity focused approach is used in the development of resources and tools. |
| Communication education: Using evidence based training Heidi Mason Nursing April Bigelow Nursing Karen Harden Nursing Deborah Price Nursing Jude Divers Medical School $9700.00 |
Proficient communication skills are key to helping patients and families understand their illness and allow them to make decisions based on their personal goals and individual values. Unfortunately most programs do not offer specific communication training. Education to improve communication skills has been associated with earlier and better serious illness conversations. Education and improved communication skills is also linked to an improvement in documentation of goals of care. VitalTalk is an education program that uses evidence-based training methods with simulated patients in a controlled setting to help providers improve their communication skills when having difficult conversations with patients and family members. The course involves a didactic component that teaches the process and a simulation component that enables participants to practice the skills they have learned. Participants are armed with the necessary skills to improve their conversations with patients, particularly those that are sensitive, difficult, or challenging. Nurse practitioners in every specialty need to develop the skills necessary to communicate effectively with seriously ill patients and their families. At the present time the University of Michigan graduate nurse practitioner programs do not have a specific, comprehensive program to teach communication skills to our graduate nursing students. The goal of this project is to teach students specific strategies in effective communication, delivering bad news, and initiating difficult conversations using this method. This can be done though lectures which will teach the evidence based methodology and tools and. This will be augmented by simulation to practice using the skills. |
| Embodied-Knowledge in the Post-Pandemic Humanities Classroom $5569.67 |
In recent years, scholars have increasingly demonstrated the benefits of embodied learning for students’ acquisition of knowledge. To date, however, this emphasis on the body’s role in knowledge acquisition has not translated into pedagogical advances in humanities-based classrooms. This oversight has led to an over-reliance on passive student engagement and assessment, leading to poorer academic outcomes and increased student disconnectedness. I am applying to the Gilbert Whitaker Fund for the Improvement of Teaching to translate the lessons I learned related to embodied knowledge from my pandemic-era instruction into my post-pandemic teaching. Specifically, I seek funds for three new courses I am developing for the 2022-2023 academic year at the University of Michigan. Embodied-Knowledge activities will include the creation of Parchment Scrolls, Aramaic Incantation Bowls, and Books in the Book Arts Studio. Students will also engage with curated items from the Kelsey Museum, the Papyrology Collection, and early books in University’s Special Collections Library. Hands-on and embodied assessment options will also be encouraged. These include opportunities for students to create an exhibit of early Jewish and Christian art or create a 4-to-8-minute video or podcast to showcase their knowledge of a particular area. I will also incorporate regular opportunities for student feedback throughout the course through verbal and written forms to ensure student learning. By creating body-based and sensory-infused pedagogical experiences and assessment options, these courses will introduce students to the ancient world, the Bible, gender, religion, and Early Jews and Christians in a more embodied way. |
| Developing Innovative Collaborations across South Asian Language and Culture Courses Syed Ali LSA - Asian Languages and Cultures Pinderjeet Gill LSA - Asian Languages and Cultures Arvind-Pal Mandair LSA - Asian Languages and Cultures Vidya Mohan LSA - Asian Languages and Cultures $10000.00 |
We are a group of six faculty members in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures who have received LSA NINI funding for our proposal “Decolonizing the Curriculum in South Asian Languages and Cultures Courses” to develop and pilot multilingual, collaborative projects in and across South Asian languages and cultures courses. This collaboration has been inspired by the work going on across departments to understand DEI issues in a multilingual, transnational context and to find connections between academic expertise and the ethical commitments of lived experience. We seek funding for the four language lecturers in the group to receive 2 weeks of part-time summer support while they work with the two tenure-track faculty members to develop a complement of assignments promoting student collaborations around issues such as “Language Justice in South Asia,” “Social Movements in South Asia” and “Translating Stories of Violence in South Asia” that will be piloted in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. |
| Developing and Evaluating a Film-based Pedagogy for Intersectionality and Sexual Health Education Erin Kahle Nursing Renee Pitter Nursing $5810.00 |
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) inequities disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, specifically groups with intersecting and underrepresented identities, including by race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Key to reducing SRH disparities is health care provider education that includes curriculum that expands knowledge of the impact of intersectionality and underrepresentation on health inequity, broadens perspectives and attitudes around holistic care across all populations, and improving cultural consciousness through self-reflection and dialogue. To address this, our project will develop and evaluate an innovative pilot curriculum using film-based pedagogy to explore issues of intersectionality and SRH disparities. The use of art pedagogy has been used to improve communication skills, enhance empathy, and expand cultural consciousness. Using the artistic medium of film, students will have the opportunity to engage in shared learning experiences through facilitated dialogue and critical reflection. The visual nature and in-depth discussions will assist students in integration of the material into future studies and practice. The objectives of this project include collaborating with topical experts to identify relevant films that address broad, cross-cutting topics of intersectionality, identity, and health, and pilot testing course modules, including film and interactive curriculum materials, among a sample of UMSN undergraduate and graduate students. If shown to be valuable and feasible as a educational program, we will expand the course as a health sciences elective curricula in alignment with UMSN principles and creative integration of interdisciplinary elements addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion. |
| Engaging Undergraduate Engineers in Development of New Laboratory and Simulation Courses Timothy Chambers Engineering - Materials Science and Engineering $5780.00 |
This project will involve the design and piloting of a new sophomore-level lab course in Materials Science & Engineering. Course content will focus on identified gaps in existing curriculum including additive manufacturing, design and simulation skills, and skills for equitable and inclusive teamwork in engineering. As a key innovation, current undergraduate students will be hired as curriculum development assistants, paid by grant funds, to design, prototype, and iterate on experiments and simulations that will be core components of the new course. Interviews and content knowledge assessments administered to these undergraduate assistants will serve a dual purpose. First, the data will be used for evaluating the effectiveness of the initial course design and for informing iterative development of course content and pedagogy. Second, they will be analyzed to address the research question of what content knowledge learning outcomes are achieved by undergraduates when they are meaningfully engaged in curriculum development. These results will be disseminated at conferences and in peer-reviewed education research publications to inform best practices for curriculum development. |
| Developing DEIJ Sample Assignments for ENGR 100 $5886.80 |
In 2021, the College of Engineering (CoE) developed new guidelines for teaching ENGR 100: Introduction to Engineering. This course is co-taught by engineering and technical communication faculty and focuses on developing communication and professional engineering practices while working on a design-build-test project. It also fulfills the first-year writing requirement for engineering students. A manual for ENGR 100 instructors offers guidelines, recommendations, and sample assignments and outlines four learning outcomes: • Employ the Engineering Design Process • Communicate Effectively as an Engineer • Practice Professional Engineering Values • Collaboration in Diverse Teams Engagement with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is included as a subsection in the professional engineering values outcome. The instructor manual offers suggestions for teaching DEI. However, it does not provide sample assignments as it does for the other learning outcomes. Further, while the guide includes case examples to consider justice in engineering design, it does not include assignments that faculty can use to help students apply this topic in their coursework. Thus, the purpose of this project is to develop a set of sample DEIJ-focused assignments that ENGR 100 faculty can adapt and integrate into their courses. Given that engineering faculty may not have an educational background in DEI content and technical communication faculty may not have experience teaching DEI in a design-build-test course, sample assignments are much needed. These assignments would provide students an expanded view of engineering work, making diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice central to engineering practice. In addition, they would help advance current College-wide DEIJ initiatives. |
| Improving and Expanding on the Instruction of Writing about Creative Practice at the Stamps School of Art and Design $6000.00 |
I plan to create a new course titled Theories and Methods of Writing about Creative Practice for the Stamps School of Art and Design that will allow graduate students to be better supported in writing about creative practice and to foster dialogue between undergraduates and graduate students writing about their practice. The course will introduce students to the theories, methods, and research surrounding writing about creative practice as well as offer them models of this work and an opportunity to explore different modes and genres in this field. In this course, students will be able to think critically about the writing their future practice will require and gain skills that will help them articulate their research and goals. The course will also prepare students to write their graduate theses or senior capstone project. At present, there is no course devoted specifically to helping graduate students improve their writing or understand their relationship with their writing practice and this course will provide them with an opportunity to be supported in their writing practice. Based on the research that the course development will allow me to do, I will also create a handbook for MFA students that will better prepare them for the written thesis. The evaluation and analysis of this work will also provide substantial material for further discussion about the best practices for writing about creative practice at Stamps as well as other institutions. |
| The Transformative Food Systems Seminar: Building Equity Competency and Strategic Leadership Skills Lesli Hoey Architecture and Urban Planning Ivette Perfecto Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) Jennifer Blesh Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) Meha Jain Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) Andrew Jones Public Health Cindy Leung Public Health $10000.00 |
Our team’s objective is to pilot the Transformative Food Systems (TFS) Seminar, a new, cross-unit course that fills a key gap in the University of Michigan’s sustainable food systems curriculum. The course will also contribute to scholarship about pedagogies that build “equity competency” – the knowledge, skills and values needed to recognize and address historical and persistent structural inequities that pervade today’s food systems. The TFS Seminar will form a core requirement of the Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Food Systems and newly launched TFS Fellowship – intended to train future leaders who reflect the communities experiencing the strongest negative environmental, economic, and health impacts of the dominant food system. Through discussions, self-assessments and reflective essays, a 21-day racial equity in the food systems challenge, locally and globally-focused speakers, workshops, service learning, field trips and retreats, and oral history projects, students will: a) learn key definitions associated with structural racism and strategies for addressing equity in the food system, b) reflect on their identities, values, implicit biases, and leadership styles, c) study inequities across various food systems dimensions, scales, and geographies, d) explore diverse career pathways for catalyzing change, and e) practice interpersonal, communication and organizational leadership skills needed for collective action and policy advocacy. Evaluation findings will contribute to an emerging body of literature on critical food systems education and inform the design of a future inter-departmental Master’s Program in Transformative Food Systems, undergraduate major, and PhD training grants in equity-focused, sustainable food systems. |
