News from the School of IAS

Category: Teaching

Debate sharpens nonnative speaking skills

English is the second language for students Helen Fita and Misheel Ildbaatar, members of the UW Bothell Debate Team. Both say debate has prompted new ways to think about language and culture — and has been a way to make friends during remote operations. According to IAS faculty member and director of forensics Denise Vaughan, students improve their literacy by capitalizing on storytelling and speaking about what they’re interested in. “They can find their strength in speaking and connect it back to their academic work in terms of writing.”

March 18, 2021

Partners in India elevate discussions

For winter quarter, IAS faculty member Gary Carpenter’s course, Creative Activism: Inspiring Social Change through the Arts, collaborated with Pravah, a partner in India, in discussing social issues and producing an online arts festival.  Pravah is a New Delhi nonprofit that develops youth leadership throughout India using social justice campaigns. Pravah and the UW Bothell students both held festivals on Feb. 27, but they were not at the same time because of the time difference. Both festivals featured music, poetry, videos and discussions on themes of justice, community, resilience and gratitude.

March 11, 2021

Jason Morse: What’s surprising about sex, gender, race?

In the Discovery Core course The Functions of Sex: Race and Gender in America discussions quickly move from the awkward to the intellectual, and students sometimes surprise their instructor, IAS faculty member Jason Morse. Designed to help first-year college students explore new concepts and interdisciplinary issues, the course is a cultural study of sex as a form of identity, socialization and power in framing gender and race.

March 8, 2021

Becca Price receives PALM Network fellowship

IAS faculty member Becca Price and her colleague Christina Morra (University of Alabama) have received a fellowship from the PALM Network, an NSF-funded community that promotes teaching with a evidence-based, inclusive practices. Price will be mentoring ...

March 2, 2021

David Nixon’s class inspires students long after it ends

Students recall lifelong inspiration from the Discovery Core course Music and Philosophy taught by IAS faculty member David Nixon since 2008. Over the 13 years, Nixon’s course has undergone many changes, but it has always been about assisting students in personal growth by teaching skills rather than facts. Alumni Sarah Park and Kyle Piper discuss the course’s impact on their lives...

February 25, 2021

David Goldstein awarded Fulbright to teach in Japan

IAS faculty member David Goldstein is headed to Japan. Goldstein received one of eight Fulbright awards given to U.S. scholars to teach U.S. studies in Japan for the 2021-22 academic year. He will teach four American studies courses in fall semester and ...

February 23, 2021

Learning about lakes prompts public action

Why study a lake? Information lends important insights into ecological and human health. Students in IAS faculty member Avery Shinneman’s course on inland waters partnered with King County and Lake Advocates to make changes in the world — despite having to do the work remotely. Supported by a grant from WaterWorks, the students were able to create educational tools designed to inform the public on what they can do and what they should refrain from doing to help improve water quality.

February 23, 2021

Jed Murr: Teaching ethnic studies here and in Slovenia

During a sabbatical originally planned as a teaching Fulbright in Slovenia, IAS faculty member Jed Murr is working on a project funded with a UW Bothell Scholarship, Research and Creative Practice Seed Grant. As part of a larger Black Arts Northwest collaboration with scholars, librarians and archivists, Murr is creating a digital history platform. Part of the platform will be a website about a Black Power mural in Seattle that was created in the early 1970s and destroyed in the 1990s. Another project would digitize Black periodicals published in Seattle and make them publicly accessible.

February 9, 2021

Linda Watts: Historical detectives on the Nat Turner case

IAS faculty member Linda Watts teaches the Nat Turner slave rebellion as a case study in history and a way for Discovery Core students to learn through the different stories told about the event. Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia where many people were killed, including Turner who was hanged. “We have almost nothing that comes directly from Nat Turner. We see him refracted through other people’s accounts,” said Watts, who challenges her challenges her students to become historical detectives. They not only investigate the historic situation, they also analyze its implications in artists’ imaginations.

February 9, 2021