This program supports the actualization of the university’s vision for diversity by providing selected faculty members with opportunities to infuse diversity into existing curriculum, create models to improve classroom dynamics in support of social justice, or identify strategies to enhance institutional practices.
Dr. Colleen Ebacher, Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages
Project: Stories of Migration: Hispanics in the U.S. Dr. Ebacher’s project seeks to design a course template on U.S. Hispanic immigration that will serve different student audiences and can be utilized by various faculty of different language concentrations and area studies from the Department of Foreign Languages. The course will focus on the experience of the Hispanic immigrant in the U.S., analyzing texts of various types and genres by and about the migrant experience, while studying such topics as identity and sense of belonging; bilingualism; borders; discrimination; the concept of self and the other; labels; stereotypes; questioning of racial and ethnic types; voluntary and forced migration; transnationalism; and the impact of immigrant actions and policies on those who qualify and those who do not. First-person narratives of the migrant experience will be another important element, drawn from a service learning project focusing on transnationals while working at local schools to support the integration of transnational children into the academic and social school life.
Erin Fehskens, Assistant Professor, Department of English
Project: Testimonial Reading and the Risks of Empathy in Contemporary Global Literature and the Classroom Professor Fehskens’ project will explore the pedagogical and literary impact of a sustained examination of testimonial read practices while drawing on a recent wave of literature that also critiques the structuring of diversity relations through the contours of empathetic identification. The concept of testimonial reading will be the focus on Core 12 courses and will provide opportunity to consider the relationship between reading materials that prompt questions about race and ethnic diversity alongside representations of disability and sexuality through the practice of testimonial reading. The project will culminate in a teaching workshop as part of the CLA Teaching Session series that will report on this pedagogical project in testimonial reading and writing assignments and develop, through discussion, applications of these assignments and methods to other disciplines in the college.
Dr. Emily Parker, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Dr. Parker’s project will focus on the revision of PHIL 204: Race, Class and Gender. The goal is to include exploration of the intersectionality of race, class, gender, sexuality and ability in order to demonstrate to students that differences tend to be commercially valuable in neoliberal cultures only when they are one-dimensional; when there are many differences that intersect, the commercial value is lessened and risks then become a threat. Dr. Parker’s goal is to redesign the undergraduate course on differences considered philosophically while interrogating the terms and concepts embedded in words like difference, justice, equality, autonomy, and individuality.
Dr. Christa K. Schmidt, Director, Counseling Psychology Graduate Program
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Project: Intergroup Dialogue: Engaging Students Across Differences and Enhancing Connections Dr. Schmidt’s project will develop curricular practices to support inclusive and diverse classroom environments through the utilization of intergroup dialogue (IGD). Intergroup dialogue is defined as a small group intervention that brings together individuals from two or more social identity groups with a history of tension or conflict with the goal of creating sustained face-to-face communications across groups, raising social consciousness and building bridges across different groups with a commitment to work toward social justice. The project’s goal is to bring IGD to the curriculum at Towson University across disciplines, thereby increasing campus-wide recognition and use of IGD as a teaching method used to enhance student engagement with diversity and to foster connections across social identities.
Dr. Bethany Willis Hepp, Assistant Professor, Family Studies and Community Development
Project: Global Family Issues Dr. Willis Hepp’s development of this course is based on the need to fill a gap in current course offerings whereby students can develop an understanding of global issues with a family lens by examining the influence of macro-level forces on micro-level decision making in families cross-culturally. As agents in increasingly interconnected, interdependent environments, it is imperative that students have opportunities to examine the similarities, differences and mutual influences of social and family systems cross-culturally. The course will use various historical, theoretical, and comparative perspectives to develop an understanding of social, cultural, religious, economic, political, and technological changes that influence family life; gendered behaviors; employment; migration and immigration; relationships; stress and violence; and policy. A strengths-based perspective will be employed, honoring the various ways that families succeed in the face of challenges in diverse environments throughout the world.
This announcement can also be found on the Provost’s Office website under “Announcements”
