Fall 2011: Apply for the Difficult Dialogues Faculty Fellows Program

by Jamie Gonzales  |   

Improve your skills for engaging controversy in the classroom! Apply now for the spring 2012 Difficult Dialogues Faculty Fellows Program.

In 2008-2009, the Ford Foundation awarded UAA and APU one of only 13 two-year grants nationwide to continue our work with the national Difficult Dialogues project. Building upon the work already done, the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) is offering faculty the opportunity to participate in a spring 2012 faculty development series centered around the book, Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education. Start Talking is based on the experiences of UAA and APU faculty who participated in the first Ford Foundation's national Difficult Dialogues initiative. The book, which has achieved national recognition, addresses themes of academic freedom, classroom safety, rhetoric and debate, race, class and culture, science and religion, business, politics and social justice and is designed to serve as a manual for professors who wish to strengthen their teaching and engage students more effectively in conversations about the most important issues of our time.

Faculty will meet five times during the spring 2012 semester to discuss strategies and techniques for introducing controversial topics in the classroom and ensuring productive discussions. Faculty Fellows will receive $100 stipends for UAA/APU Consortium Library materials purchases (see application criteria below). Other faculty are welcome to improve their skills at introducing difficult dialogues in the classroom by attending individual sessions on a "drop-in" basis.

For more information and the application, visit the CAFE website.

You may also contact:

Jackie Cason, Ford Faculty Associate, University of Alaska Anchorage
(907) 786-4367 or afjec1@uaa.alaska.edu

Trish Jenkins, Ford Faculty Associate, University of Alaska Anchorage
(907) 786-4090 or aftmj@uaa.alaska.edu

Libby Roderick, UAA Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence
(907) 786-4605 or aner@uaa.alaska.edu

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