Faculty Communication

This collage features members of a diverse cohort in various settings. One image shows a man teaching with a recorder, while another captures a smiling group of five people. There’s also a candid shot of a bald man, a dramatic theater scene, and a portrait of a man in a mariachi outfit. The images reflect creativity, collaboration, and cultural expression.

Rigorously Compassionate Cohort Reflections on Fall 2024

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Blog post detailing discussions and insights from student-faculty conversations at the close of the first full semester of implementation of the "Rigorously Compassionate Syllabi" project.

Rigorously Compassionate Syllabi Website

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To learn more about the Rigorously Compassionate initiative at UT Austin, which focuses on combining empathy with academic excellence, visit their website:
Rigorously Compassionate Program

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Building a Network of Large-Class Educational Leaders Across Campus

Cohort
2023
Fellow(s)

Each year I attend Teaching Discovery Days and Texas Teach-Up and leave motivated to try new teaching practices. The majority of the practices I observe during Texas Teach-Up, hear about at conferences, or read about in the literature need substantial adaptations to work in my large classes. Figuring out how to make new practices work well and remain manageable sometimes seems insurmountable. Discussions with others who teach large courses often provide insights and ideas, but in any given department at UT there may be just one or just a few professors who teach these large class sizes.

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Building Rigorously Compassionate Syllabi: Fostering Individual Accountability and Community Care

Cohort
2023

Our project seeks to revitalize the syllabus document as a tool of inclusion. We are interested in making visible the “hidden curriculum” with which students often struggle. The syllabus language, grading and attendance policies, communication and assignment fulfillment methods, course calendar flexibility, course material formats – these can all contribute to developing personal accountability and investment in community.

Headshot of EG.

Erica "EG" Gionfriddo

Current Fellow
Theatre and Dance
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College of Fine Arts
Initiative Focus
Curriculum (Re)design
Faculty Communication
Improving Teaching and Learning

Erica Gionfriddo is a dance artist, educator and somatic researcher who believes in the intelligent body each of us occupies. They are co-founder of ARCOS Dance (arcosdance.com), whose ongoing inquiry probes the intersection of technology and humanity through rigorous interdisciplinary experimentation. ARCOS’ recent work has focused on “hacking” consumer technologies, or repurposing them outside of their intended uses, into performance and developing an embodied cyborgian movement language.

Headshot of Andrew Dell'Antonio.

Andrew Dell'Antonio

Current Fellow
Music
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College of Fine Arts
Initiative Focus
Curriculum (Re)design
Faculty Communication
Improving Teaching and Learning

Andrew Dell’Antonio (he/him/his) specializes in musical repertories of early modern Europe, with a focus on seventeenth-century Italy. His research interests include musical historiography, reception history, and disability studies.

Elon Lang, wearing a vertically blue-striped shirt, smiles while leaning against a red pole.

Elon Lang

Current Fellow
Liberal Arts Honors and Humanities Programs
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College of Liberal Arts
Initiative Focus
Curriculum (Re)design
Faculty Communication
Improving Teaching and Learning
Institutional Resource

Elon Lang is the Associate Director for Faculty Development at the Center for Teaching and Learning, and an Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches a variety of undergraduate literature survey courses on ethical topics, medieval and early modern studies, dramatic literature, and Experiential Learning courses based in archival research.

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Collaborative Effort–Teaching General Physics

Cohort
2017
Fellow(s)

I have been teaching general physics for non-Physics majors since 2008. I have implemented interactive learning elements into my lecture and “real life” questions, which allows the students to have short (3-4 minutes) discussion in small groups to find solutions for the given questions. I have seen improvement in student engagement and finally in test scores, especially within the semester as the students embrace this style of teaching. However, in order to really affect improvement, I communicate with other physics faculty to reflect on the evaluation of successful teaching.

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