Faculty & Staff Updates from A&S
News from the Dean

Dear Colleagues,
The numerous executive orders that have been issued by the current administration over the past several weeks have created concern and anxiety for many members of our campus community. Our institutional leadership has been, and continues to be, looking into the fuller implications of these executive orders and how they may impact us.
I am writing now to assure you that we are committed to remaining true to the founding principles and mission of Brandeis University. It’s helpful to quote directly from our mission statement, since it captures so effectively the values that must continue to inform everything we do. We are a research university dedicated to the advancement of the humanities, arts, and social, natural, and physical sciences. And we are a liberal arts college, committed to the importance of a broad and critical education in enriching the lives of students and preparing them for full participation in a changing society, capable of promoting their own welfare, yet remaining deeply concerned about the welfare of others…. We strive to reflect the heterogeneity of the United States and of the world community whose ideas and concerns it shares…. We welcome students, teachers, and staff of every nationality, religion, and orientation, thereby renewing the American heritage of cultural diversity, equal access to opportunity and freedom of expression. Social justice is central to our mission and we believe that diverse backgrounds and ideas are crucial to academic excellence.
I recognize that many in our community—students, staff and faculty—are experiencing high levels of stress about the safety and security of loved ones, not to mention themselves. And I know that many are feeling deep concern about the future of the academic fields of study they are pursuing. As faculty, you are often the primary face of the institution to our students. You should feel free, to the extent that you are comfortable doing so, to give your students the space and time to express their own concerns to you. You don’t need to offer solutions, but just giving them the chance to talk about their anxieties will convey to them that we care deeply about their well-being.
I want to reaffirm my own sincere belief in the dignity and value of every person in our community. I remain fully committed to the transformative possibilities of education, and to providing those opportunities to every student, regardless of their identity, background, or status. I am proud of the broad range of academic programs we offer and dedicated to the core principles of academic freedom, which are the very bedrock of robust scholarly inquiry.
I will continue to support all members of our community during these challenging times and remind you of the many resources available to you through this website.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey
For previous messages from the Dean, please see the archive.
Upcoming Deadlines & Events
General Updates
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On-site vaccine clinics are open to all faculty, staff, and their families (ages 4+). Pre-registration is required for any family members. Please be sure to bring your pharmacy insurance card to your appointment. Register online (but walk-ins are also welcome). New Dates have been added!
Dates: 1/24, 2/12, 3/13, 4/9, 5/6
Location: Hassenfeld, Levine Ross 1 & 2
Times: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Vaccinations offered: COVID-19, Flu, Hepatitis A , Hepatitis B, HPV, Meningococcal (A, C, Y, & W135), Meningococcal B, MMR , Pneumococcal, Shingles, Tetanus - Whooping Cough, Varicella
Find out what vaccines are recommended for you.
Over the break, there were multiple department relocations around campus, resulting in part from the University's workspace policy aimed at reactivating office space while reducing operational expenses. Below is a list of who moved where. For questions, please contact Campus Planning and/or the departments. Updated locations are listed below:
- International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO): Upper Gerstenzang Library in the Science Quad
- Office of Study Abroad: Upper Gerstenzang Library in the Science Quad
- Office of Graduate Affairs: Upper Gerstenzang Library in the Science Quad
- Academic Fellowships Office: Usdan floor 2 in the former Study Abroad space
- Undergraduate Research and Creative Collaborations (URCC): Usdan floor 2 in the former Study Abroad space
- The Department of Sociology: Heller-Brown Building
- The Registrar: first floor of the Goldfarb Library
Get Curious! sessions provide a brief introduction to a wealth of topics from scholars at Brandeis. Co-sponsored with the Department of Sociology.
Race and Health
January 28th from 12pm-1pm in Mandel 303
Speakers: Wangui Mugai (AAAS, History) and Yesmar Oyarzun (Anthropology)
Time Travel
March 12th from 12:15pm - 1:15pm in Mandel 303
Speakers: Katrina Elliott (Philosophy) and John Plotz (English)
As of this Academic Year, Faculty Affairs will be requiring all faculty members who are eligible to fill out the FAR to register for an ORCiD in order to qualify for consideration for a merit raise. All non-union faculty are already required to fill out the FAR in order to be eligible for merit; starting this March, the ORCiD will be necessary to complete the FAR.
Below are reminders about how to update a ScholarWorks Profile and how to register for the ORCiD. Please share these with the faculty in your department/program. I will discuss this at future meetings and send out general and specific reminders monthly in the spring semester.
Having all faculty linked up to this unique ID has significant benefits for the tracking of faculty research and the reporting of our institutional information to external agencies. This level of data control can pay direct dividends to our rankings and our R1 status.
1. Updating ScholarWorks Profile
You may recall that last year we introduced an integration between the Faculty and Researcher Directory (ScholarWorks) and the Workday FAR, which entails the transfer of data from ScholarWorks to the Scholarship and Awards, Honors and Fellowships sections of the FAR. To enjoy the benefits of this development, I strongly encourage you to visit your ScholarWorks profile, in advance of the release of the 2024-5 FAR, to update these two sections so that they are pre-populated when you log in to your FAR next month. Importantly, this step will also help to ease the workload of those responding to ScholarWorks-related queries.
2. Creating and Connecting ORCiD
For guidance on how to create/connect an ORCiD, please visit ORCID at Brandeis University. Setting up an ORCiD and connecting it to ScholarWorks will ensure the following:
- that scholarship associated with an ORCiD is automatically brought into ScholarWorks and, as mentioned, scholarship in ScholarWorks will appear in your FAR without the need for further data entry;
- that your ScholarWorks and ORCiD profiles remain in sync; and
- that your scholarship is attributed to you and associated with Brandeis. Creating an ORCiD and connecting it to your ScholarWorks profile will not only enhance the visibility of your scholarship as an individual but will also help capture a comprehensive picture of the activities of Brandeis's community of scholars, an imperative in supporting the research-driven metrics required of the university.
Persistent digital identifiers such as ORCiD are increasingly ubiquitous. With increased adoption at other research organizations, it is critical that Brandeis embrace this practice so that our collective work may also be accurately characterized.
Any questions about ScholarWorks and ORCiD may be directed to librarypublishing@brandeis.edu.
From Avi Rodal & Seth Fraden
Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to invite faculty, staff, and students from across the School of Arts and Sciences to collaborate with the Engineering Program. As a nascent program supported by dedicated gifts, we are growing this initiative with ongoing fundraising. Our efforts in the first year have been focused on building the core engineering curriculum, but now we’re ready to branch out and explore new interdisciplinary connections. We hope your involvement will benefit your academic programs, research, and scholarship, while also helping to enrich and grow our Engineering program. We want to make this process easy and flexible for you. Please fill out this Google Form to express your interest in specific activities (some ideas below), or suggest your own ideas for collaboration. Engineering faculty would also be happy to visit your department’s faculty meeting to brainstorm further.
- Could your classes benefit from using Engineering spaces or equipment? We welcome faculty from any department to make use of our expertise, fabrication labs or project spaces for a single session, a workshop, or even an entire semester. For example, in Alex Ratzlaff’s Fall 2024 CLAS 136B “Ancient Technologies and Modern Approaches”, students meet in the Engineering classroom in Abelson to explore ancient technology using modern approaches like photogrammetry, 3D printing, laser cutting, and AutoCAD. We’re in discussions about sharing future project facilities with courses in art and architecture. What ideas might you have for equipment or space collaborations?
- Would you like to exchange teaching experiences with Engineering faculty? We can envisage a range of opportunities from one-off guest lectures or activities to team-taught classes. Could an engineering faculty or staff member contribute to one of your courses? Or would you like to participate in one of ours? For example, Jenna Tonn, a historian of science at Boston College, recently gave a lecture on the history of disability and design in ENGR11 “Intro to Design Methodology”. Ian Roy (Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Business) has lectured on 3D Scanning and 3D printing for Game Design in Computer Science and in Sculpture classes in Fine Arts, and for Drone Use across the humanities for film making and terrestrial survey. We welcome discussions on how best to approach this in a way that acknowledges and rewards teaching efforts.
- Would you like to explore innovative approaches to teaching? In our engineering program, we focus on hands-on learning that immerses students in real-world projects from the beginning, rather than following the traditional model where knowledge-building precedes application. A "design spine" runs through our curriculum, emphasizing ideation, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, and enabling students to work in multidisciplinary teams on open-ended, real-life projects. We invite faculty from across the university to engage with us and the CTL in discussions or joint workshops on pedagogy and design practice, developing activities that make learning more engaging and cultivate a shared culture of design thinking that bridges engineering, the arts, and other fields.
- How can we engage more students across majors in engineering courses? Many of our classes are designed to be accessible to non-majors and require few or no prerequisites. Courses like ENGR22 (“Engineering a Circular Economy”) and ENGR11 (“Introduction to Design Methodology”) give students hands-on opportunities to solve real-world challenges, from sustainability to assistive technology (see these and other course descriptions). Could your students benefit from taking these classes and bringing these skills back to their own fields? We also welcome suggestions for independent interdisciplinary majors, cross-listing or developing new Engineering courses that can serve as electives for students in other majors.
- Could your research benefit from the skills of engineering students? Students taking current Engineering courses already have valuable skills in fabrication (e.g. CAD, 3D printing, laser cutting) and modeling (e.g. simulation, numerical analysis) that could support interdisciplinary research. Would you be interested in co-mentoring a student or working on a joint project or proposal?
- Would you like to engage in broader disciplinary conversations about engineering's role in society? We welcome discussions about long-term collaborations in areas like environmental sustainability, ethics and technology, human-machine interaction, innovation and entrepreneurship, technology policy, design, or digital arts and media. These could develop into new academic tracks, joint research initiatives, or cross-disciplinary programs that go beyond individual course collaborations.
We’re excited to work together to integrate engineering as a thread that connects science, the arts, and the humanities, creating new opportunities for collaboration across disciplines.
Best regards,
Avi Rodal and Seth Fraden, Engineering Co-Chairs
The annual Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts will be held April 24-29, 2025. There are many ways for our community to be involved in Brandeis' annual celebration of the performing and visual arts.
Events, exhibitions, and performances
If your department or program is sponsoring an arts-related performance, exhibition or event on campus during the festival, we will consider it for inclusion in the online and printed festival calendar along with our social media and other outreach. Please send us your event details.
Funding for student work
Funding is available for the creation of new work in visual or performing arts to be presented on campus during the festival. Festival organizers will follow up with details later this semester.
Volunteering
The campus community is invited to volunteer at festival events or contribute to planning at our biweekly meetings. Festival organizers will follow up with details later this semester.
Please share this information widely with your students, staff and faculty! We welcome ideas for community programming (the earlier the better) and look forward to hearing from you.
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.
Faculty Funding
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The Theodore and Jane Norman Awards for Faculty Scholarship support faculty research, creative projects or course development.
Awards of up to $3,500 per academic year are available for direct project-related expenses such as use of collections, acquisition of data, publication and open access charges, travel, rental or purchase of equipment, preparation of manuscripts including indexing, hiring undergraduate or graduate student research assistants, purchasing of scholarly materials, supplies and services, publication subventions (please upload documentation from the publisher) and book manuscript and article workshops. For Spring 2025, applications for funding are due by Monday, March 10, 2025. The portal will open on Monday, February 10, 2025. Retroactive applications will not be considered.
Read More.
ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation is pleased to announce a grant opportunity for the Brandeis University faculty, staff and/or students. Grants will support undergraduate student-focused events that seek to educate our community and advocate for positive change on important current public policy issues, such as healthcare equity, reproductive justice, immigration reform, criminal justice, and voting rights. Proposals that value collaboration between student organizations, and/or between undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff are encouraged. Proposals that are part of a Brandeis course are eligible.
Read More
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. We are reviewing mini-grant applications on a rolling basis.
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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Please consider submitting any relevant courses you teach for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Studies in the United States (DEIS-US) and Difference and Justice in the World (DJW) designation. Please contact the Chair of the committee, Ilana Szobel, or Brynn Sibley.
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. Read More.
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.
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).
Consistent with past semesters, students will be emailing accommodation letters in the coming weeks. Additionally, students may send their letters at any point during the semester as a number of factors can be at play, such as a new diagnosis. When received, please reply to confirm delivery. It is important to note that accommodations do not apply retroactively.
If you have any questions regarding the implementation of accommodations, SAS is glad to be available and can be reached directly at Access@brandeis.edu. Further, the following guides have been created to support faculty:
SAS is pleased to support faculty whose courses include exams and quizzes for students with related accommodations, such as extended time, low distraction testing environment, and separate testing environment. To request proctoring from SAS for students with exam accommodations, complete the SAS Exam Proctoring Request Form. We ask that this form is filled out at least seven days before the scheduled exam, so that SAS can coordinate and recruit a proctor. More information about this process can be found on the SAS Exam Proctoring Request Information (login required). If you have any questions, please reach out to the SAS Exam Team at SASExams@brandeis.edu.
News from Other Campus Partners
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AI Teaching Byte: Accessibility Support: Empowering Inclusion, Tuesday, February 25, at 1pm (Zoom)
Please join us for a discussion on how Student Accessibility Support leverages AI to streamline documentation remediation and provide innovative note-taking support. This session will explore practical applications of AI tools in accessibility services, highlighting their role in improving efficiency and fostering inclusivity for diverse student needs. Register for Zoom link
In light of the challenges presented by Generative AI (GenAI), a group of faculty and staff are working with the Department of Student Rights and Community Standards to review the university’s current academic integrity standards and gather feedback during the 2024 - 2025 academic year about academic integrity in the context of GenAI. We value your feedback and invite you to take a 5 minute survey which will help provide valuable information as we move forward in this process.
As a reminder, SPSS will no longer be available to our community under a University license as of July 1, 2025. In place of IBM SPSS, the University will leverage a combination of other platforms such as Stata and R/R Studio, along with in-house offerings from the Library, allowing us to provide a robust experience to our community, with significant savings to the University. The Library will work with individual faculty and schools during the off-ramping process to ensure a smooth transition to these other platforms. The Library will also work with individual schools to tailor our workshops covering technology-based learning topics. For more information, please email dataservices@brandeis.edu or schedule a consultation. In addition, the ending of a University-wide license does not restrict our community from purchasing individual licensing using research or departmental funds. IBM SPSS offers Grad and Faculty Packs at reduced cost for students and educators. Please contact the ATAC Chair at sheehy@brandeis.edu if you have any concerns.
Moodle Resources
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 Compilation, 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.
ORCiD - Connect Research and Researchers
ORCiD iDs can help all researchers, including those in Humanities, Social Sciences, Creative Arts, and Sciences. Distinguish yourself and your research in three easy steps
- Register for an ORCiD iD
- Connect your iD to your work
- Use your iD in grants, publications, datasets, and more – ORCiD is for any discipline!
Register today at orcid.org and add your iD to your ScholarWorks profile.
Brandeis Library supports Open Access publishing
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 Events
AI in Accessibility Support: Empowering Inclusion
Tuesday, February 25, 1-1:45pm
Please join us for a discussion on how Student Accessibility Support leverages AI to streamline documentation remediation and provide innovative note-taking support. This session will explore practical applications of AI tools in accessibility services, highlighting their role in improving efficiency and fostering inclusivity for diverse student needs.
Presenters: Elizabeth Nako, Senior Accessibility Specialist; Lenny Prado, Program Administrator; Emily Harrington, Accessibility Specialist for Incoming Undergraduate Students
Register for Zoom link.
Mandel Lectures with Rokhaya Diallo
We are pleased to announce that French journalist, writer and award-winning filmmaker Rokhaya Diallo will deliver our 2025 Mandel Lectures. The author of over ten books and several articles in the Washington Post and Guardian, Diallo’s work covers the complex issues of civil rights, race relations, feminism and activism in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Her films also explore conceptions of Black activism in France, the Caribbean and the United States.
Rokhaya Diallo will be on campus to deliver three lectures from February 24 - 26, 2025.
They are tentatively titled:
- Afro Paris: City of Lights and Darkness
- Universalism Reimagined: Framing a Grounded Universality
- Surveillance and Assimilation: Policing Bodies Under Universal Pretense
Funding Opportunities through MCH
Rolling Deadline
Democracy in Danger Humanities Grants: In a national and global context of rising authoritarianism and attacks on human rights, what role do the humanities, humanities methods, and humanistic inquiry have to play in the defense of democratic values? The new Democracy in Danger Humanities Grants from the Mandel Center for the Humanities fund humanistic projects that respond to pressing, immediate concerns in local communities.
Mandel Community Fellowships: The Mandel Center for the Humanities seeks to foster collaboration between humanists at Brandeis and the greater Waltham community, by offering a series of Mandel Community Fellowships to facilitate engagement with institutions across Waltham.
Monthly Faculty Highlights
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The School of Arts and Sciences features a division each month of the school year in its newsletter. To see a full listing of recent accomplishments in the School of Arts and Sciences, please see the Faculty Achievements page.
Note: Faculty who are interested in being featured can email Kathleen McMahan. Items must fall into one of the following categories: Book or Chapter Publications, Grants, Fellowships, Performances, Compositions, Exhibitions, Other Creative Works (e.g., Director, Set Design), Interviews or Guest Appearances. Due to the volume produced by our faculty each month, published articles are not accepted at this time.
Spring 2025 to be shared soon...