The Academic Minute for 2020.07.06-2020.07.10

The Academic Minute from 07.06 – 07.10

Monday, July 6th
Naomi Yavneh Klos – Loyola University New Orleans
In Quarantine with Anne Frank
Naomi Yavneh Klos, Ph.D. is a Fulbright Scholar at Windesheim Honours College in Zwolle, The Netherlands (Spring 2020), and Professor of Languages and Cultures at Loyola University New Orleans.  The former Director of Loyola’s University Honors Program, where she led the creation of a curriculum emphasizing social justice and diversity learning outcomes, her research focuses on social justice pedagogy and the role of interfaith understanding as an essential component in diversity and community.  Since 2018, she has taught in the International Summer Institute, “Tolerance, Diversity, and Lessons from the Holocaust,” jointly sponsored by Windesheim, Hanze Honours College, and Memorial Camp Westerbork.  Her current project, “Imaginary Friends,” explores how our companions from history, texts, and traditions can help us engage with essential questions of empathy and compassion.

Tuesday, July 7th
Katherine Higgs-Coulthard – St. Mary’s College
Fostering Growth Through Teen Writing Conferences
Dr. Katherine Higgs-Coulthard is an Assistant Professor in the Education Department at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame and a teacher consultant for the Hoosier Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project. Prior to completing her doctorate from Northeastern University in Boston, she served as an instructor and Director of Clinical Field at Saint Mary’s and an elementary teacher for South Bend Community Schools. In 2011, she founded Michiana Writers’ Center which supports young writers through collaborative writing, partnerships with published authors, and opportunities to share their writing through community readings and publications. Working directly with young writers through Michiana Writers’ Center’s camps and workshops informs her teaching of reading and writing methods courses for undergraduate teacher candidates.

Wednesday, July 8th
Trish O’Kane – University of Vermont
Birding Can Change the World
An environmental educator who uses action-research to promote environmental and social justice, Dr. Trish O’Kane created the “Birding to Change the World” service learning course and program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison while completing her doctorate. She believes in harnessing the power of passionate, knowledgeable and energetic students to help solve community and global problems.

Thursday, July 9th
Barbara Shaw – Allegheny College
Transforming Knowledge, Building Re-Imagined Futures
Named the Brett ’64 and Gwen ’65 Elliott Professor for Interdisciplinary Studies and the Director of Interdisciplinarity, Dr. Barbara Shaw is an associate professor in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, the interim chair of Black Studies, and is affiliated with Global Health Studies at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. She enjoys working with curious, kind, open-minded, and engaged students. Her Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies courses draw on multiple scholarly methods, political approaches, and theoretical lenses to think through complicated cultural issues.

Friday, July 10th
Stephen Underhill – Marshall University
J. Edgar Hoover and the Rhetorical Rise of the FBI
Stephen M. Underhill is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Marshall University. His interest in rhetoric is grounded in the interplay of history and politics, especially as it is recorded in primary source documents. More to the point, he is interested in studying institutionalized power in critical and cultural contexts, which directs his focus to matters of law enforcement and national security discourse. Stephen is interested in how law enforcement speaks to and about its different publics to preserve and defend power structures. He is published in Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Western Journal of Communication. His forthcoming book from Michigan State University Press, J. Edgar Hoover and the Rhetorical Rise of the FBI, is a formative project that coupled his interests in rhetoric and archival research. Dr. Underhill is a nature enthusiast and enjoys hiking, white-water rafting, skiing, camping, and the great outdoors.