Faculty & Staff Updates from A&S
News from the Dean
Dear Colleagues,
As I wrote in my earlier communication, following the announcement of President Liebowitz’s resignation, the uncertainties that inevitably come with institutional change can be unsettling for all of us, irrespective of our feelings about that decision. When such internal ruptures are accompanied by escalations in international conflicts, along with anxieties about the looming presidential election, the overall impact can be quite destabilizing and distracting. This is true, of course, not only for faculty and staff, but also for our students.
Now that we are a little over a month into the new academic year, and work is beginning to pile up for everyone, I ask that you invest some of your time and energy in our shared project of helping our students feel supported and welcomed as members of our community. Research has demonstrated that a sense of belonging is one of the most significant factors in student persistence and success. We all have a role to play in creating that sense of belonging for our students, irrespective of their backgrounds, identities, or affiliations. Our colleagues in the Center for Teaching and Learning have created this slide, which lists an array of resources available to students in need of specific kinds of help. Please consider beginning one of your classes in the next week or so by showing this slide to your students and taking a moment to let them know you care about them and are here to offer your own support. And certainly one important way to demonstrate our care is to be present for our students by committing to spend time on campus, in our offices, at co-curricular events, and elsewhere. I know you’ve heard this from me before, but I really do believe that being on campus is essential to building and sustaining our community.
As I have indicated in some of my earlier communications, there are an array of programs offered by different groups and units across campus focused on current events. We have collected and listed those events at the following links: the conflict in the Middle East and the upcoming elections. These pages are regularly updated with new events and programs; if you know of anything we haven’t managed to capture on either of these pages, please let us know so that we can include them.
While I am on the general topic of students’ sense of belonging, I also want to mention the specific challenges we are facing with respect to the increased need for various kinds of accommodations. I am aware of the additional burdens these accommodations can place on faculty. We will continue to to foster a collaborative relationship with Kim Johnson and her team in the office of Student Accessibility Support, providing the support our students need but also the support our faculty deserve. I want to encourage you to learn more about the principles of Universal Design and how you might incorporate these principles in your own classroom. It does take an initial investment of time and effort, but the more we can prepare for these issues of access ahead of time, the fewer ad hoc accommodations will be necessary in the long run.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to wish a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year to all who will be celebrating Rosh Hashanah this week. As John and Yoko used to sing, Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey
For previous messages from the Dean, please see the archive.
Upcoming Deadlines & Events
General Updates
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Student Employment has implemented a new, mandatory student employee supervisor training that will be conducted via Zoom. This training is required for those that oversee student hiring as well as those who manage the students themselves, including faculty members who supervise students. Topics that will be covered include:
Student Employment Policies
- Timesheets
- Hiring in Workday
- Onboarding
- Supervisor Roles/Responsibilities
All supervisors must complete the training by the end of the Fall 2024 semester. Upcoming training dates are as follows:
- September 17, October 8, October 15, 1-2 p.m.
Please register in advance for the training of your choice. If you have participated in a session already this summer you do not need to sign up again!
A&S faculty are invited to drop by and join Dean Shoulson for lunch in the Faculty Club this Fall. No RSVP needed. Below are the fall dates.
- October 16, 11:45
- November 8, 11:45
- December 10, Noon
Under the new centralized administrative structures in the divisions of Creative Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, faculty can expect essential support in their various individual and departmental activities, though that support will come from different members of the centralized teams, depending on the nature of the activities. Please refer to the A&S Staff Directory for brief summaries of these divisional structures, along with the names of staff members who will be responsible for different aspects of support. View updated responsibilities for faculty.
Six French films will be shown at the Wasserman Cinematheque, Sachar International Center from October 25 through November 19. Sponsors include the Albertine Cinémathèque, a program of FACE Foundation and Villa Albertine, with support from the CNC/Centre National du Cinema and SACEM/Fonds Culturel Franco-Américain, the Brandeis Division of Creative Arts, the Mandel Center for the Humanities, the Film, Television, and Interactive Media program, and the School of Arts and Sciences.
Schedule
Friday, October 25 at 7 PM: The Beast (La Bête)
Directed by Bertrand Bonello (France/Canada, 2023, 146 min.)
French with English subtitles
Introduced by A.S. Hamrah, Author of The Earth Dies Streaming: Film Writing, 2002-2018
Tuesday, October 29 at 7 PM: Lumumba: The Death of a Prophet (Lumumba: la mort du prophète)
Directed by Raoul Peck (The Democratic Republic of Congo, 1991, 69 min.)
French and English with English subtitles
Presented by Professor Alain Lempereur, Heller School
Wednesday, November 6 at 7 PM: Colette and Justin (Collette et Justin)
Directed by Alain Kassanda (France, 2022, 89 min.)
Lingala and French with English subtitles
Presented by Emilie Diouf, English
Q&A with Director Alain Kassanda on Thrusday, November 7 at 1:30 PM
Monday, November 11 at 7 PM: The Innocent (L'Innocent)
Directed by Louis Garrel (France, 2022, 100 min.)
French with English subtitles
Wednesday, November 13 at 7 PM: The Goldman Case (Le procès Goldman)
Directed by Cedric Kahn (France, 2023, 115 min.)
French with English subtitles
Presented by Professors Hollie Harder and Michael Randall, Romance Studies
Tuesday, November 19 at 7 PM: Animal Kingdom (Le règne animal)
Directed by Thomas Cailley (France and Belgium, 2023, 128 min.)
French with English subtitles
More Information
Faculty News
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John Burt and Steve Dowden (Co-Chairs of the Humanities Fellowship program) invite faculty to submit a proposal to teach an interdisciplinary Humanities Fellows seminar in the fall semester, 2025. We are looking for wide-ranging courses preferably not otherwise on offer at Brandeis, courses that will give these students a deep and lasting sense of what it means to study the Humanities.
The Humanities Fellows program was established in 2016 as a special opportunity for selected incoming undergraduate students who demonstrate promise as students of the Humanities. These students are offered a generous scholarship that will support them through all four years of college. The program is supported by the Mandel Center for the Humanities and the School of Arts and Sciences. The central experience of the fellowship is a rigorous keystone seminar in the fall of the students’ first year.
Your proposal should be a seminar designed for this program and should take up a topic broad enough to be able to include texts from several national literatures and periods. Courses can either be team-taught by two faculty members (ideally but not necessarily from different departments) or taught by a single faculty member.
Contact John Burt at burt@brandeis.edu for a sample syllabus from past years.
Proposals should be submitted to jseeger@brandeis.edu no later than October 15, 2024.
More Information
The deadline to be considered for fall semester 2025 or the spring semester of 2026 is Friday, November 1, 2024.
These competitive awards provide tenured faculty in the divisions of Creative Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences with a nonteaching semester and research funds to allow them to focus on a scholarly or creative focus. Priority in selection is given to associate professors, faculty who have not previously received a senior faculty research semester, and those who have completed significant service to the university. Applicants may request a research fund (up to $3K) for travel or other necessary research support that would be available during the research semester. A brief summary of the work accomplished will be required at the end of the research semester.
Application Details
The Vic ’63 and Bobbi Samuels ’63 Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT) offers grants to support both Community Engaged Pedagogy and Community Engaged Research; our website provides detailed descriptions of these opportunities, including upcoming application deadlines, links to application forms, and examples of previously funded projects. COMPACT also has a fund for event co-sponsorship, with applications reviewed on a rolling basis, throughout the year.
Have you been thinking about how you might include community engagement in your research and/or teaching? COMPACT staff would be very happy to brainstorm with you! There are also useful resources on our website, and we welcome you to sign up for our monthly newsletter.
Academic Affairs
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Do you have any first-year students in your classes? We welcome you to invite small groups of first-years out for a casual conversation over lunch/coffee and the Dean's Office will reimburse you for the lunch/refreshment cost. The goal is to welcome first-year students to campus and provide opportunities to get to know faculty and students in a small-group setting. Example conversation topics might include a discussion of your discipline, Brandeis, your individual lives, career paths and interests, but faculty do not need to commit to a specific topic.
We ask that you:
- Invite only first-year students.
- Limit groups to a maximum of 10 students. You may request funding for more than one group.
- Complete the form below and wait for confirmation from the Dean's Office before you extend the invitation to students.
If you are interested, please submit a funding request via this short form to indicate your plans and proposed budget. We will respond promptly and confirm the available budget. Please reach out to Brynn Sibley with any additional questions.
We write to invite you to submit a proposal for the second Elaine Wong Distinguished Lecture or Program to be held in the 2024-25 academic year. The event will be funded by the Elaine Wong Distinguished Lecture and Co-Curricular Fund, established in honor of the retirement of beloved long-time staff member Elaine Wong. The fund was created to support lectures, panels, and other co-curricular programs and activities in the School of Arts and Sciences that explore racial, class, gender, sexual, and other forms of injustice and inequality; showcase historically marginalized people and perspectives; and/or promote a diverse, inclusive environment.
The proposed event must be open to the full university community and appeal to a general audience. Some portion of the proposed activity must address issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, or multiculturalism in general or in the context of a given discipline or group of disciplines. Speakers will be given additional consideration if they belong to a group that is underrepresented in that discipline. The event may be hosted by multiple faculty/departments.
Please submit your proposals by Tuesday, October 15th, 2024 to Lauren Buckley. Proposals should not exceed two pages in length and must include the following:
- Host name(s) and affiliated department(s)
- Short description of the event
- Target date for proposed event
- Name, affiliation, and area of any invited speaker(s) along with a short description of speaker's accomplishments, including CV and/or URL to their profile (funds may be requested to pay for an honorarium that exceeds the A&S general guidelines of $250).
- Short description of the diversity, equity, inclusion/multicultural dimension of the event
- Estimated budget, including other funding sources (budgets may not exceed $4,000).
Please contact Lauren Buckley for any additional information and questions.
The School of Arts and Sciences invites full-time faculty from any field to create and teach new undergraduate courses on antisemitism. We welcome courses of broad appeal that examine the historical, political, cultural and/or contemporary manifestations and implications of antisemitism. We are seeking courses to be taught at least twice in the next four years.
Selected instructors will receive a $3,000 stipend for course design and development. An additional $1,000 will be available to support extracurricular activities, speakers or other programming that directly relates to the course. The deadline to submit proposals is October 28, 2024.
More Information
The A&S Cocurricular Fund is available to support student-centered programs inside and outside the classroom that enhance and expand educational activities for undergraduate students and/or offer opportunities for meaningful faculty-student interactions.
The deadline for Spring 2025 events is Monday, January 27. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Please visit School of Arts and Sciences Cocurricular Fund for more information about eligibility, selection criteria, and application procedures.
In the spirit of the transparency and collaboration that should inform our work together in the coming academic year, Dean Shoulson shared the following with all faculty via email over the summer:
I am writing to let you know that we have created a Box Folder into which we have placed—and will continue to place—copies of our communications to individual departments along with the data that we will be using in our discussions around academic programs and curricula, which will be the substance of much of the academic planning meetings. There’s a lot to digest in these files and I would recommend beginning with the following two documents, which will provide a framework for everything else:
You will note that in the Communications sub-folder there are pdfs of the emails I sent to the chairs of the departments with which we plan to begin the process earlier in the Fall, but I want to reiterate what I have been saying all along, which is that we will be asking all departments and programs to conduct similar analyses of their academic programs and curricula.
While I cannot promise we will be able to answer all questions that arise from these materials, we will do our best to clarify what we can. We will be sharing our guidance for the Academic Planning process for the coming year in mid-August and will include that guidance in this folder, as well.
The coming year will bring with it some challenging conversations and difficult decisions, but I remain optimistic that we can chart a path forward that preserves—and strengthens—Brandeis’s central commitment to a strong liberal arts education and a robust research profile, while also providing the supportive environment all our students, faculty, and staff need and deserve to have in order to thrive.
Save the Date for the fifth Brandeis all-disciplines Spring Undergraduate Research and Creative Collaborations Symposium on May 1, 2025 in the Hassenfeld Conference Center on the Brandeis campus. At this event, undergraduates present and share their research and creative projects to the Brandeis Community.
Contact Margaret Lynch, Director of Undergraduate-Faculty Research Partnerships, for more information.
Teaching Updates
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Join Echo360, The Brandeis Center for Teaching and Learning and Media Technology Services for a workshop on interactive learning. This workshop will include presentations and activities facilitated by Echo360 staff, Brandeis faculty, as well as participants from other nearby universities to discuss interactive learning, in-class polling, and flipped classroom methods.
Featured presenters include: Brandeis Professor Stephanie Murray and the Brandeis Director of the Center for Teaching Learning, Marty Samuels.
All faculty and staff are invited to attend. This workshop is open to anyone interested in interactive learning, and is suited for both new and experienced Echo360 users.
Lunch will be provided before the event and a reception after.
Date: Monday, October, 28 2024, 12:30pm-5pm
Location: Shapiro Campus Center Multipurpose Room 236 (2nd floor)
Please Register Online to RSVP
For more information or questions, please contact Eli Jacobson.
The library has agreements in place with a selection of publishers that enable Brandeis faculty,
staff, and students to publish their research as open access (OA) without the need to pay an article processing charge (APC). Our agreements include those with Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press, Wiley, Royal Society of Chemistry, PLOS, The Company of Biologists, Annual Reviews, MSP Journals, and ACM. Don’t see your publisher here? We also have an APC fund. Read more or email librarypublishing@brandeis.edu
Upcoming Teaching+Learning Lunch Workshops and Salons
Teaching+Learning Lunch Salon
Friday, Oct 18, 12:30 – 1:50pm, Gardner Jackson room (on the top floor of the Goldfarb Library (Mezzanine level)
Join colleagues for discussions about learning and teaching. These informal conversations are about issues that interest you – or with which you are wrestling. We’ll follow your lead, but we always have good topics on tap if there’s nothing on your mind at the moment. Bring a friend (or two)!
RSVP HERE TO RESERVE YOUR LUNCH SPOT.
Teaching+Learning Lunch Workshop: Exploring Gradescope
Friday, Nov 15, 12:30 – 1:50pm, Gardner Jackson room (on the top floor of the Goldfarb Library (Mezzanine level)
Join us for this interdisciplinary tour of how Gradescope can make our lives easier!
Led by: Aida Wong (Fine Arts and East Asian Studies), Stephanie Murray (Chemistry), and Keith Merill (Math)
RSVP HERE TO RESERVE YOUR LUNCH SPOT.
The link to Moodle is found at https://login.brandeis.edu/, which takes you to the Main Moodle Page.
The Library has a Faculty Resource Guide, including a quick start guide and the differences between LATTE and Moodle. Within this guide, you can also find answers to common questions such as how to set up your courses, manage your courses in Moodle, and set up activity and assessment tools. You can also find information about Compilatio, which replaced TurnItIn. This product is being further integrated so watch for more news.
Moodle Workshops, hosted by the Library, still have seats available for sessions this week and one-on-one support is available from the Instructional Technologists. You can find more information about Moodle in our Moodle news archive.
If you need help with a specific function or task within your Moodle course, please contact the Technology Help Desk at (help@brandeis.edu or 781-736-4357). If you have questions or suggestions on items you would like to see featured, please contact a member of the Moodle LMS Implementation team.
Resources for Student Engagement & Support
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Students are assigned a professional staff academic advisor in Academic Services based on the first letter of their last name. Students in cohort programs (Student Support Services Program and Myra Kraft Achievers Program) work with staff advisors in those respective programs. Academic advisors work in partnership with students on topics of academic exploration (course planning, major selection, graduation requirements, academic policies), academic support (connection to campus resources), and personal growth (goal setting, identifying strengths). Students can connect with academic advisors over email, through 20- and 30-minute appointments.
Our Academic Alert form allows faculty to communicate academic concerns for their students with staff in Academic Services. At any point in the semester, faculty are encouraged to complete the form if they have concerns about a student's attendance, performance, or participation. A supportive letter, sharing campus resources and recommendations for improvement in the course, will be immediately sent to students and their advisors - with a copy sent to faculty. Academic advisors will monitor submitted alerts, and will follow up with students as needed.
BUGS undergraduate peer tutoring is underway for the semester. Peer tutors lead sessions to review course material, discuss study strategies, and help prepare for assessments. Please note that the BUGS program is intended to be a supplement to class attendance, course assignments, and meeting with your instructor and/or TA. View tutors and their schedules, or if you have any questions, please contact Julia Mani, Director of Peer Academic Support.
For emergencies, contact Public Safety at 781-736-3333 (on-campus issues) or 911 (off-campus issues).
For urgent mental health concerns, contact the Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC) at 781-736-3730 (24/7 consultation available).
For student behavior concerns that can wait at least one business day, submit an I Care Form to the Care Team to evaluate and coordinate resources of the university and provide necessary support. Also, please submit an I Care Form after calling Public Safety, 911, or the BCC to ensure follow up for student wellbeing.
These resources may also be helpful: Top Ten Care Practices, Care Team Tips, Campus Resources, Resilience Guide, and Campus Connection Points (list of ongoing, drop-in or scheduled times for students to have casual or structured connections through conversations).
For a decrease in academic engagement with no evidence of distress or concerning behavior, reach out to the student and ask for a reply within two business days. If no reply, try again with a note that if you do not hear back, you may need to engage other options for support. If you still receive no reply, submit an Academic Alert Form or contact Academic Services at 781-736-3470 (undergraduates only).
Over the summer, we welcomed Kim Johnson as the Director of SAS. Although new to Brandeis, she brings 16 years of higher education experience focused on accessibility and disability support services. She’s looking forward to meeting and collaborating with members of the community.
Students who already have approved academic accommodations through our office should be sending you their PDF letters. We continue to meet with students for the first time all year as they connect with us, so please remember that accommodation letters that arrive to you later in the semester with current dates are still valid and need to be implemented as written. However, they do not apply retroactively to the time before the letter was sent to you.
If you have any concerns that an accommodation cannot be implemented in your course, you need to reach out to SAS before communicating that to students; there is a specific process for determining whether an accommodation fundamentally alters a class. We also encourage you to use our additional guidelines on audio recording and on limited extensions on assignments for help with those specific accommodations. Students who have those accommodations have received the same guidelines.
For help, email us at access@brandeis.edu; when inquiring about a specific student, please name the student in your email. If you need exam proctoring support for students with exam accommodations, you may fill out a request (new link) or contact SASExams@brandeis.edu. We will support as many requests as we have staffing capacity for.
Recent Faculty Accolades
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Muna Güvenç (Fine Arts) published The City Is Ours: Spaces of Political Mobilization and Imaginaries of Nationhood in Turkey (Cornell University Press, 2024)
Aida Wong (Fine Arts) published “Sacred Mountain and Lee Chun-Yi’s Planetary Order,” in Mountain Moved Heard Moved: The Art of Lee Chun-Yi, exh. cat. (Taipei: Mingshan Art Collection Co. Ltd, 2024).
"Create the Unexpected," a guide to the creative arts at Brandeis, was awarded a Silver prize by the University and College Design Awards. The UCDA Design Awards Competition recognizes the best of exceptional design and creative work as part of its mission to promote design excellence, support educational institutions, and drive the exchange of ideas and information relating to the unique role creatives play in education and the world. The publication was written and edited by Ingrid Schorr (Creative Arts) and Claudia Herman (Office of Communications), and designed by Deborah Wieder (Integrated Design, Office of Communications).
Alex Bisson (BIO) was elected to be the incoming chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Plant and Microbial Cytoskeleton.
Paul Garrity (BIO) received funding from the National Institutes of Health for "Molecular and Cellular Determinants of Drosophila larva thermotaxis."
Jim Haber (BIOL) was awarded the Yeast Genetics Group of the Allied Genetics Conference its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Grace Han (CHEM) received the prestigtious ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Read More.
Sebastian Kadener and Alex Bisson (BIOL) are included in the online atlas of inspiring Latin and Hispanic scientists.
Harry Mairson (COSI) won a prestigious Harvard-Radcliffe Fellowship in 2023-2024.
Eve Marder and Piali Sengupta (BIO) received funding from the Kavli Foundation and from the National Science Foundation for "NiCE: Temperature Resilience of a Feeding Oscillator."
Yuko Nakajima (BIO) received funding from Bay Area Lyme Foundation for "Selective elimination of Borrelia from mammalian hosts using CRISPR-Cas nucleases."
Hannah Snyder (PSYC) is co-PI on a recently awarded Institute of Education Sciences grant "A Multipronged Approach to Small-Teaching Interventions for Reducing Academic Procrastination: A Randomized Control Study via Terracotta."
Stephen Van Hooser & David Katz (BIO) received funding from the National Institutes of Health for "Thalmocortical interactions in taste perception."
See More Accolades