Sharing Pedagogy & Supporting Scholarship

AI CoLab – piloting catalyzing discipline specific discussions with departments.

3 teams of 2 faculty from the Departments of Earth, Environment and Physics, English, and Psychology are exploring potential AI-related student competencies within their academic programs.

Participants:

Earth, Environment, and Physics: Nabin Malakar, Anne Armstrong

English: Jamie Remillard, Riley McGuire

Psychology: Katie Frazier, Jackie Raftery-Helmer

CTL Facilitator: Julie Habjan Boisselle

George I. Alden Excellence in Teaching Award

Currents in Teaching and Learning is a peer-reviewed electronic journal that fosters exchanges among teacher-scholars across the disciplines. Effective Summer 2024, Dr. Riley McGuire is Editor.

CTL: The Faculty Development Center recommends these resources to faculty who are interested in learning R and integrating data analysis into a course. They are the primary workshop materials for the “Data Analysis with R and Tidyverse: Exploring Social and Racial Equity” program offered in Summer 2025.

• R for Data Science(2e)  by Hadley Wickham (Author), Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel (Author), Garrett Grolemund (Author)
  • This book will teach you how to do data science with R: You’ll learn how to get your data into R, get it into the most useful structure, transform it and visualize.
• Datacamp
• This well-developed online resource contains videos/learning modules(approx. 4 hours each) specific to learning R, Python, SQL and other data analysis related software. It is free to faculty and their students to use, there’s just a request process to follow to gain access each semester. More detailed instructions are linked here.
• CTL facilitates a data analysis learning community for faculty which by design connects faculty across disciplines who are interested in exploring social and racial equity topics within their courses; the community also serves as an ongoing peer-to-peer support structure to expand campus experiences with open source data tools. Contact cteachlearn@worcester.edu for information.

2025 events coming soon!

CTL: The Faculty Development Center & First Year Seminar Program Presents:

FYS Chats

October 1, 2025 – Initial Check-In – 10-11AM – CTL/Sullivan 117

October 27, 2025 – Check-In & Advising – 12-1PM – CTL/Sullivan 117

December 5, 2025 – Closing Chats and Future Thoughts – 10-12PM – CTL/Sullivan 117

For More Info, Email FirstYearSeminar@Worcester.edu

Fall 2025 Shared Scholarship

Thurs. Sep. 18th @ 2:30 – 3:45 pm, L236, LRC

• CEO Personality Traits and Analysts’ Forecasts – Kaushik Mukherjee, Buisness Administration & Economics
• Horror as Passion, Hobby, and Scholarly Examination – Jacqueline Morrill, English Department

Friday, Oct. 17th @ 2:30 – 3:45 pm, L236, LRC

• Stripes and twists in ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals – Maxim Lavrentovich, Earth, Environment, & Physics
• The impact of monetary policy on housing prices – Pavlina Ziso, Business Administration & Economics

Thurs, Nov. 13th@ 2:30 – 3:45 pm, L236, LRC

• Animal Pronouns Matter – Sharisse Kanet, Philosophy
• A Portrait of Mental Health a Century Ago: Concepts, Categorization, Institutions, and Treatments in Massachusetts, 1910-1950 – Tona Hangen, History & Political Science

Spring 2025 Shared Scholarship

• Examining the Effect of Gentrified and Non-Gentrified Census Tract Convergence on 311 Calls – Trinidad Morales, Sociology
• Using Lidar and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery to Examine Reforestation in Central MA – William Hansen, Earth, Environment, & Physics
• One Size Fits None: Time for an Entrepreneurial Revolution – Miriam Plavin-Masterman, Business Administration & Economics
• Exploring the Social-Emotional Benefits of Community Science and Environmental Stewardship – Anne Armstrong, Earth, Environment, & Physics
• Ment 824: November Essay on Quietism and Figurative Painting – Nicholas Duffy, English
• Climate Change and Child Marriages – Saleem Shah & Abir Bukhatwa, Economics

Fall 2024 Shared Scholarship

• Phase Separation Inside Bacteria and Biological Membranes – Maxim Lavrentovich, Earth, Environment, & Physics
• Taoist Bioethics – Sharisse Kanet, Philosophy
• Diet and Metabolic Diseases. The Power of Food – Mariana Calle, Health Sciences
• One Year On… and Off I Go: From Professor to Staff and Back Again – Christina Santana, English
• Times Up for Equity in Hollywood: Assessing the Politics of Inclusion in the Film Industry – Julie Frechette, Communication
• Debunking the Myth of DIY Filmmaking – Brittany Severance, Communication

Spring 2024 Shared Scholarship

• The Mental Cost of Food Insecurity among LGBTQ+ Americans – Danielle Morales, Urban Studies
• Love that Dirty Water: A Journey in Community Engaged Scholarship Along the Tatnuck Brook – Laura Reynolds, Earth, Environment, & Physics
• Can Workers of the World Unite? Disjunctures of Transnational Garment Labor Organizing – Nafisa Tanjeem, Interdisciplinary Studies
• The RESILIENT Study: A Retrospective, Descriptive, Correlational Investigation of Rate and Correlates of OET Adherence in Older Women with Breast Cancer – Sunny Ruggeri, Nursing
• Investigating Air Pollution Status in the South Asia Domain – Nabin Malakar, Earth, Environment, & Physics
• Innovative Teaching with AI: Unlocking the Potential of Generative Technologies – Donald Vescio, English

Fall 2023 Shared Scholarship

• Next System Media – Carlos Fontes, Communication & Global Studies
• Shaping Professional Identity Through a Digital Intentions Timeline – Tanya Trudell & Sarah DiMeo, Occupational Therapy
• Displacement and Erasure in Palestine: The Politics of Hope – Noa Shaindlinger, History & Political Science
• My Journey in Catalysis…and Research at WSU – Jeremy Andreatta, Chemistry
• Student Perceptions of the Learning Impacts of Labor-Based Grading in English Courses – Jamie Remillard, Karen Weierman, & Matt Ortoleva, English

Spring 2023 Shared Scholarship

• Visual Perception Explored Through Immersive Virtual Reality Simulations – Luis D. Rosado, Biology
• Redefining Ethnic Relations in Post-Mao China’s Northeast Borderlands – Martin Fromm, History & Political Science
• Synthesis and Bioactivity Evaluation of Salicylaldehyde-Derived Imines Coordinated with Copper and Zinc – Maura Pavao, Biology & Margaret Kerr, Chemistry
• New Accra in New England: Immigrant Foodways and Inclusion – Alison Okuda, History & Political Science
• A Relational Defense of the Right to be Forgotten – Laura Wildemann Kane, Philosophy

Summer Undergrad Research Grant Program

2025 Recipient

• Karen McGrail, Adjunct Faculty in Mathematics, Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award

2024 Recipient

• Herman Servatius, Adjunct Faculty in Communication, Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award

2023 Recipients

• Catherine Bue-Hepner, Visiting Assistant Professor in Biology, Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award
• Christina Foley, Adjunct Faculty in Business Administration and Economics, Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award

The Worcester State University-Worcester Art Museum (WAM) Partnership Program, supported by the Office of the President and University Advancement, makes funding available to faculty to develop curricula for new or existing courses that bring WSU students to the Worcester Art Museum.

WAM grants of $900 for each project will go to up to four competitively selected, peer reviewed proposals in the form of faculty stipends to support preparation and planning.

2024 Recipients

• Sarah DiMeo, Occupational Therapy – Project – Connecting Occupational Therapy to Visual Arts
• Charlotte Haller, History – Project – Building Archival Work and Public History Skills into HI 283, Food in American History
• Carter Hardy, Philosophy – Project – Moral Sensitivity Across Cultures
• Riley McGuire, English – Disability History and Accessible Archives

2023 Recipients

• Brittany Jeye, Psychology – Project – Sensation & Perception: Exploring Visual Principles through Art
• Joshua D. Koenig, History and Political Science – Project – American Popular Art and Architecture and the Worcester Art Museum
• Laura Reynolds, Earth, Environment, and Physics – Project – Developing Materials for a “Geology of Art” Final Project for Introductory Geology Students
• Francisco Vivoni, Sociology – Project – Place, Identity, and Displacement in the Worcester Art Museum