2021-2022 Provost’s Teaching Innovation Grants
The 22 projects will directly impact approximately 4896 Brandeis students in 62 courses and approximately 200 middle school students in Waltham. Collaborators on these projects include 48 faculty and 37 student workers (26 graduate, 11 undergraduate), 12 staff, 1 alumnus, 4 external faculty, 6 community guests and 1 school district (Waltham).
The innovations include: studying chemistry through cooking in Brandeis kitchens, studying physics through origami and kirigami paper-folding techniques at Brandeis and in Waltham middle school courses, preparing graduate students to teach, and introducing environmental justice into the first-year writing program. Collectively, the grants prioritize goals that reflect our institution’s core values:
- Diverse course materials
- Inclusive teaching practices
- Equitable success for students, especially those from historically underserved groups in STEM fields
- Community-engaged learning and service.
All projects will share materials, examples, and resources that will be sustainable and accessible to the wider Brandeis community of educators and students, and to the higher education community beyond Brandeis. In addition, grant recipients will gather qualitative and quantitative assessment data and receive support to calculate statistical significance, with the goal of final reports that offer publishable results.
Grant Distribution
Distribution of the Grants across Schools and Divisions is as follows:
| School | Number of Grants |
|---|---|
| Arts & Sciences, Creative Arts | 2 |
| Arts & Sciences, Humanities | 2 |
| Arts & Sciences, Social Sciences | 5 |
| Arts & Sciences, STEM | 7 |
| Heller School | 2 |
| International Business School | 1 |
| Writing Program | 3 |
Final reports for all Provost’s Teaching Innovation Grants are submitted in poster form and exhibited in the CTL, on its website, and at an annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning poster session. The CTL will support faculty in presenting their posters and publishing project findings in peer-reviewed scholarly journals that focus on teaching in the disciplines.
Recipients
Recipients of Provost’s Teaching Innovation Grants for the 2021-2022 fiscal year are listed below.
| Name | Department | Project Title |
|---|---|---|
| Brenda Anderson | International Business School, MS Finance | The 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge: A Finance Syllabus |
| Carole Carlson | Social Impact MBA | Social Impact Case Collection |
| Irina Dubinina | German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature | Making Difficult Languages More Accessible |
| Guillaume Duclos | Physics |
Making Material Physics Welcoming/Equitable for All Students (middle school through graduate students) |
| Katrin Fischer | Writing Program | Developing a UWS Course and Resources on Environmental Justice/Climate Justice |
| Emily Frey | Music | Diversifying Undergraduate Music History |
| Deborah Garnick | Global Health Policy and Management, Executive Education | Graduate Student Guest Sessions on Racial Justice Topics in Undergraduate Classes |
| Elena Gonzalez Ros | Romance Studies | Engagement, Equitable Learning and Inclusion in HISP 32A |
| Ziva Hassenfeld | Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education | Representation Across the Syllabus |
| Brian Horton | Anthropology; South Asian Studies; Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies |
Queer/Trans Theories from Elsewhere: Innovating Queer and Transgender Studies Instruction at Brandeis |
| Elissa Jacobs | Writing Program | Writing Intensive Instructional Support |
| Melissa Kosinski-Collins | Biology | Creating an Accessible Online Inquiry-based Laboratory Curriculum for the Introductory Biology Lab Sequence |
| Bofang Li | Writing Program | Grammar and Style: An Innovative Collaboration between the University Writing Center and English Language Program |
| Constantine Lignos | Computer Science | Fostering a Transparent and Self-Reflective Approach to Teaching in Programming-Intensive Courses |
| Sarah Mayorga | Sociology, Latin American and Latino Studies Program | Latinx Sociology |
| Paul Miller | Biology | ONEXYS: Summer Math Prep and Cohort Building for Incoming Brandeis First-year Students |
| Stephanie Murray | Chemistry | Expanding Access to STEM Fields through a Culinary Chemistry Course |
| Andrea Segar | Music | Community Engagement through Music |
| Ilana Szobel | Comparative Humanities, NEJS, WGS | Sexual Violence in Film and Culture |
| Rebecca Torrey | Mathematics | Improving and Assessing Math 10a/b: Outcomes-Based Assessment |
| Rebecca Torrey | Mathematics | Increasing the Equitable Success of Underserved Students in STEM through Evidence-based Practices |
| Derron Wallace | Education and Sociology | Teaching Undergraduate Students to Faciiltate and Participate in Conversations about Race |
Selection Committee Members
-
Deborah Ault, undergraduate student
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Andrea Guerrero, graduate student
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Nader Habibi, Economics, International Business School, Heller School
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Aretina Hamilton, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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Dar Brooks Hedstrom, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
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Laura Hibbler, Library
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John McCormick, Rabb School
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Jennifer Stern, FIne Arts
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Brad Wheeler, Center for Teaching and Learning
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Elaine Wong, Arts & Sciences
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Anahita Zare, Materials Research Science Education Center