Faculty Development Workshops

The on-campus workshops on a range of topics important to faculty are designed to be held during a department/program’s regular common-hour meetings. A brief presentation (15-30 min) will be followed by Q&A that allows each unit to obtain information specific for YOUR faculty.  Click on any of the links below to send an email to the contact person to learn more about the workshop or to set up a date for the workshop.

Equity and Inclusion

  • Inclusivity across Generations– Our current generation of students and newly hired faculty often have different expectations of behavior than older generations.  This workshop is designed to help academic units adjust their professional and teaching practices to be inclusive of ALL our students and faculty at Wesleyan. Debbie Colucci
  • Pronouns Use and Your Students – Using a person’s correct pronoun fosters respect and inclusivity. April Ruiz discusses the importance of pronouns at Wesleyan and beyond.

Academic Affairs

  • Honor Board and You – Learn how the Honor Board works. Kevin Butler will take you through what the Honor Board does and the process beginning with notification and investigation, the hearing and sanctions.
  • Navigating CourseLeaf Kenny Glazer will walk you through the main features of CourseLeaf to clarify how faculty, chairs, and AAs interact with the system and how CourseLeaf relates to WesMaps.
  • Faculty Roles in Students’ Career Search - Sharon Belden Castonguay will talk about how faculty can support students’ post-graduation careers and the kinds of support services that the Career Office can offer your unit and your students.
  • Communicating Faculty Accomplishments - Steve Scarpa will give a presentation about how faculty can help promote their research and how best to work with Communications, so the university can highlight and celebrate faculty accomplishments.

Academic Writing/Writing Center 

The Shapiro Writing Center has a lot of great resources for faculty. Below are some topics they can come to your unit to discuss. 

  • Better Feedback in Less Time–how to give feedback on writing assignments that is both more useful for students AND takes you less time. – Lauren Silber
  • More than Busywork–This workshop will help you craft writing assignments that get you to accomplish your learning goals – Lauren Silber
  • First Year Seminars (FYS) How might FYS courses help your unit achieve its goals? This workshop involves a facilitated discussion of how first-year seminars might help your unit recruit and prepare students for your major, minor, or certificate, as well as offer faculty variety and growth in their teaching. Stephanie Weiner
  • Writing and Major/Minor/Certificate Curricula – In this workshop, faculty will identify how writing fits into their unit’s curriculum and develop strategies for clarifying or improving their writing instruction at the level of the whole major, minor, or certificate. Which writing skills are targeted at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels? How do writing and learning relate in your required and elective courses? We will discuss how students’ acquisition of disciplinary knowledge and methodological expertise is—and might be—served by their development as writers. Stephanie Weiner
  • Grading and Commenting “Norming Session”Ever wonder how your comments stack up against those of other faculty? In this workshop, we will take a look at a few papers in your field and share ideas about how we might respond and what grade we might give. Stephanie Weiner
  • Resources for Faculty as WritersThis twenty-minute workshop offers an overview of resources on and off campus to support faculty as writers. Stephanie Weiner
  • Providing English Language Support for Multilingual Students - In this workshop, we will discuss how knowledge of multiple languages influences language production (spoken and written) and how to encourage students to improve their Standard American English by increasing their awareness of mistakes while acknowledgeing the value of their content. Beth Hepford


Library

  • YOUR Academic Librarian – see the academic librarian page for your librarian – Learn how your unit’s academic librarian can help you with your research and teaching.
  • Working with Special CollectionsWendi Murray – What are Wesleyan’s special collections and how might they be used for courses/research in your unit?  Wendi Murray will highlight the range of collections housed at Wesleyan, offer examples of how they get leveraged in different courses, and provide some ideas for how they might be used in your unit.

Other Resources for Research and Teaching 

  • Community-Engaged Research/Teaching Amy Grillo will discuss what is possible in terms of integrating experiential learning in the community into your pedagogy and inviting community expertise into your classroom, and provide information about the grants and other support available to you for doing so. 
  • Teaching Abroad – Emily Gorlewski will discuss a range of opportunities for Wesleyan Faculty to teach courses abroad. [Spoiler alert–opportunities exist for faculty in any/all units; you don’t just have to be in a “global studies” department.]
  • Fellowships Relevant to YOUR Students - Erica Kowsz will discuss student fellowships and how faculty in your unit can help your students find out about and apply for fellowships and scholarships to support their work in your field both during their years at Wesleyan and afterward.