And that was a challenge. Because I entered college in 2003, at the beginning of the war in Iraq, when everyone and their grandmother was convinced that learning Arabic was the ticket to getting a job in government. At the school I went to, all students were preregistered for classes with the exception of first-year students and graduate students, who had to attend classes before they could register. All classes were required to leave three seats open for first years and graduate students. So, I showed up to the first day of Beginning I Arabic along with 70 other students, all hoping to get one of those three seats. The instructor announced that he would not allow anyone to register for those three seats until there were only three students left in the class who wanted them. And so I proceeded to wait the rest of them out. I came to every class and did all the work in the class, without any guarantee that I would get in officially or get credit for it until enough people gave up that I was offered the slot. So the first thing I learned in my college career was that I would have to fight for the Humanities and they were worth fighting for. I am still doing that work today.

But aside from Arabic, I really didn’t know what else I wanted to study. So I started off by studying everything. I took classes in history, and political science, and anthropology, and comparative literature. And calculus, and biology, and Religious Studies. And they were all great classes, but I found that I had a particular love of that place where religion, history, literature, and philosophy met and connected. Those classes lit a fire in me. Because they showed me that in places and periods and languages that were wholly different from my own people had grappled with the questions that provoked and haunted me, questions of deep existential meaning and ongoing political urgency – and that they had expressed their answers in language that was profoundly beautiful. When I studied those answers, I found myself connected to peoples, movements, and cultures larger myself.  And as I went deeper and deeper into my studies, I found that they were changing me. Once I learned how to read deeply, I found that I could read anything, including the social and political institutions in which I was embedded. I learned to question everything, and to produce my own critical answers. I put myself to work imagining other, better worlds.

The period that I grew up in was really not perfect. I went to college – and then lived in the Middle East – during the Iraq War. A war of choice, when the President decided to invade a country that posed no threat to the United States, largely to secure access to vast oil resources. I then graduated from college into a massive financial disaster caused by the loosening of banking regulations so that very rich people could become even richer. So I can’t say that it was an easy time to be a young person – if there is ever an easy time to be a young person.

But I do think that it is much harder to be a young person today. I went through college at a time when few students had personal laptops, before the invention of the smart phone or the ipad or the rise of social media. The students I went to school with didn’t all like me – but they were all really present along with me in the spaces we shared. The political culture at the time seemed divisive, but it was nothing in comparison to the chaos and fury of the current age. It’s hard right now y’all.

But one of the things that is making it even harder is that the institutions and entities who are invested in dividing us from each other, in fracturing our attention and undermining our interpersonal relationships – are also selling us a particular approach to knowledge. This approach is, “the extractive attitude.” It is based on the idea that the purpose of knowledge is to extract resources from the environment and money from the economy – which ultimately means from consumers. This attitude is not new. I know from my own field of African history that the European governments who colonized various territories sent scholars out in the wake of the armies, geographers and engineers to survey and map the land, and linguists and anthropologists to learn languages, and catalogue customs. The purpose of these colonial scholar-soldiers was to facilitate the pacification of the population and the extraction of natural resources. Knowledge has always been a form of power. And then, just as now, deep engagement in storytelling, religious worldviews, and philosophy was disregarded and rejected as impractical. Education, according to the extractive attitude, is a product whose value measured as a return on investment. This attitude invites us to use learning to maintain a position in cultural and class warfare.

The opposite of the extractive attitude is a humanistic attitude. A humanistic attitude values knowledge for its ability to bring meaning and joy into our lives and our communities. A humanistic attitude evaluates our present relative to both our past and our vision of the future. A humanistic attitude is an approach that finds richness and complexity in things that seem simple. And it does those things through a deep engagement with the ideas and the art that have been produced by humans through the ages.

When I went to college I had to fight for a seat in a language class against the forces of opportunism. And I want you to fight for humanism, too. And it is a fight sometimes. A fight to maintain vision and resolve in the face of a thousand messages that tell us that the humanistic attitude is “useless.” The makers and marketers of new technological products are trying to convince us to give up our capacity for deep engagement. To give up our ability to generate ideas, to read literature, to think about the past, to make and appreciate art and culture, and to communicate with each other. To convince us to give up on humanism they threaten us with catastrophe and apocalypse. They warn that their products will change society so deeply that it will be unrecognizable, or that they might destroy humanity entirely. But I have my own message. For anyone who is worried about understanding these forces, or who is struggling to make sense of the world right now – the Humanities can help.

Those of us in Religious Studies have studied apocalyptic predictions, we know the distance between what they promise and what they deliver. Those of us in History have studied revolutions and know how politics and new forms of media align. Those of us in World Languages and Cultures know that our understanding of the world is shaped by language and how to connect with people across cultural differences. Those of us in Philosophy know that the potential for meaningful change is rooted in examination and reflection.  And those of us in English know (to paraphrase James Baldwin), that it is literature that teaches us that the things that torment us the most are the very things that connect us with all the people who are alive, or who have ever lived. The Humanities are a repository of our shared humanity and the heart of our capacity to be, not just human, but better humans. More than ever, humanity needs the Humanities. And right now, the Humanities needs you.

Smith Elementary School transformed into a vibrant international showcase during Global Week as university professors offered a cultural event connecting local students and their families with cultures and languages from around the world.

The event, organized by Mayte de Lama, associate professor of Spanish, featured a series of interactive tables, each representing a different country or culture. Faculty members Shereen Elgamal, Federico Pous, Ketevan Kupatadze, Mayte de Lama, Ricky Mendoza, Samuele Pardini, Bethanny Sudibyo, along with French majors Cécile Charron and Noelle Murray and with French minor Julia Canto, volunteered their time to create engaging experiences. Together, they offered children and their families an opportunity to explore communities from across the globe. Rod Salazar, owner of Irazú Coffee, also contributed his time, expertise and coffee beans by helping bring Costa Rican culture to life.

Each table was thoughtfully curated with authentic materials. Visitors could browse children’s books in different languages, learn to write basic characters, and participate in hands-on activities such as traditional games and crafts. Colorful displays of photographs, artifacts and clothing provided insight into daily life and cultural celebrations, while snacks and sweets offered a literal taste of each culture and reinforced language learning. At several tables, families gathered as professors demonstrated how to write in non-Latin alphabets, sparking curiosity and excitement among young learners. Children who completed their journey across the different countries received stamps in a “passport,” which they later exchanged for a prize.

Families, teachers, and staff expressed strong appreciation for the opportunity to “travel” and learn together in an interactive and accessible setting. By bringing university professors into the elementary school community, the event created a meaningful bridge between higher education and early learning.

At CAA, Ringelberg presented on trans in-visibility for the session “Visibility and Visuality after ‘the Transgender Tipping Point”‘ and on the urgency of reckoning directly and honestly with the climate emergency in “No Art History on a Dead Planet” for the “Art History and the Apocalypse” session.

In Chicago, a symposium was held by the Wrightwood 659 as part of their opening of the groundbreaking exhibition , curated by Jonathan D. Katz and Johnny Willis. Fifteen art history scholars and curators each addressed a distinct geographic region’s visual and material culture as it represented understanding of gender and sexual identities during that time. Ringelberg was invited to cover the case for queer and trans art and artists in France.

And in June, Ringelberg traveled to Dijon, France, to discuss the work of nineteenth-century French artist Madeleine Lemaire as a botanical illustrator, showing how their floral paintings meld art and science in a way that offers an opportunity to recognize the failure of binary, hierarchical taxonomies to represent the true diversity of plants and humans. Some of Ringelberg’s discussion of plant biology developed from conversations with and materials generously supplied by Carl Niedziela of the �鶹��Ƶ Biology Department.

These presentations were made possible through a research residency at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in spring 2024, and the �鶹��Ƶ College, College of Arts and Sciences faculty travel funding.

During their visit, the �鶹��Ƶ community had the opportunity to view Guérette’s film “L’audience” (The Hearing) which documents a Congolese family’s journey immigrating to Canada. The screening was followed by a Q and A session with Carballo and Guérette. Both visitors spoke extensively about their experience with the Canadian immigration system and the process of applying and being granted refugee status in Canada. �鶹��Ƶ students and faculty also enjoyed conversations with Carballo who offered insights about her experience as a writer, translator and interpreter, as well as an immigrant.

Both Carballo and Guérette graciously spoke to classes and interacted with �鶹��Ƶ students. This was a wonderful opportunity to engage students with diverse voices and perspectives on immigration narratives.

The visits were made possible by the generous support from and collaboration with the Fund for Excellence Grunt from �鶹��Ƶ College, the College of Arts and Sciences, Sigma Delta Pi Honor Society, Global Neighborhood and the Department of World Languages and Cultures.

On May 6, the French section of the World Languages and Cultures Department inducted 13 new members and two honorary members into Pi Delta Phi, the national French Honor Society. Since the Lambda Omicron chapter’s founding at �鶹��Ƶ in 1995, distinguished students of French have been invited annually to attend an induction ceremony celebrating their successes and making them members.

This year’s ceremony was led, in French, by co-presidents Annie Leeper ‘24 and Nina Paolucci ‘24 and Sophie Adamson, faculty advisor and associate professor of French. While invitees enjoyed their delicious dinners of poulet à la dijonnaise, petits pois et champignons de Paris, and courgettes et courges, the room was filled with enthusiastic French of all levels. The energy in the room was high as new and old friends and Francophiles conversed.

Following dinner, inductees and guests enjoyed a heartfelt keynote speech by Morgane Haesen, who was born and raised in French-speaking Belgium and currently works as an assistant professor of French at High Point University. She spoke about the role that the French language and Francophone cultures have played in her intercultural mindset and relationships, in addition to the opportunities French has created in her professional life. Inductees were then pinned and given their certificates and graduation tassels. After the ceremony, students, faculty, staff members, and guests stayed to take some photos and continue speaking in French. Although the French community at �鶹��Ƶ is relatively small, this evening highlighted how strong and full of life it is!

Congratulations to the following new members:

• Elizabeth Cameron
• Catherine Crawford
• Kiara Cronin
• Rachel Curtis
• Zoe Eusemann
• Tessa Gladwell
• Cece Guyader
• Emily Kahn
• Sophie Kronenberger
• Dylan Kysela
• Mallory Mease
• Lila Noble
• Bridget Santacroce
• Cassie Kircher, Senior Faculty Fellow in English
• Shannon Tennant, Associate Librarian and Coordinator of Library Collections

Adamson’s articles, “Seriously Funny: Stand-Up Comedy Clips for Diverse Voices in French,” and “Stand-Upper Shirley Souagnon Speaks Out: A Diverse Voice for the L2 Classroom,” appear in The French Review Vol. 97.2, which was published in December 2023.

The flourishing of comedic performance deserves the “serious attention” of instructors of French who are committed to sociocultural diversity in their curricula, she said. The articles describe the thriving comedy scene that has led to an explosion of clips of humorists who are commenting on French society and challenging audiences to question cultural assumptions around subjects such as nationality, race, religion, gender and sexuality.

Given the growing collection of videos on YouTube with options to slow the playback speed, read full transcripts, and choose closed captioning in French, Adamson encourages instructors to consider stand-up clips that could accompany, diverge from, and/or enhance their primary resources.

In the journal’s online dossier pédagogique, she features Franco-Ivorian humorist Shirley Souagnon with sample topics and activities intended for upper-intermediate and advanced language learners.

At �鶹��Ƶ, Adamson first taught FRE 3062 Seriously Funny: French Social Criticism through Humor in spring 2021 and again in spring 2023.

“I designed our content around ‘seriously funny’ social criticism related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religion to tackle topics around inclusion and diversity,” Adamson said.

Doing so added diverse, non-academic voices and perspectives into the curriculum and replaced traditional written sources with multimodal resources. Those aspects of the course “strengthen students’ listening comprehension, vocabulary, critical thinking skills, and motivation,” Adamson said. “Research in second language acquisition shows a correlation between exposure to multimodal input in the second language, language proficiency development and learner motivation.”

Students said the course boosted both their language comprehension and intercultural competency. “The class was incredibly unique and has been one of the best I’ve taken so far. It was so interesting to look at issues in France through stand-up comedy,” one student commented at the end of the course.

Adamson is careful to select comedic content that aligns with course goals and challenges stereotypes. She also gauged students’ perceptions and learning outcomes through written assignments, in-class discussions and anonymous surveys.

“Instructors of French will need to decide for themselves whether to adopt any of my examples depending on their comfort levels, course goals and the institutional culture in their high school or college environments,” Adamson said. “I’m fortunate to work at �鶹��Ƶ and in the Department of World Languages and Cultures where we support instructors’ autonomy and creativity. My colleagues and I actively seek opportunities to de-center the curriculum and infuse content that celebrates inclusive excellence as we tackle our goals around second language acquisition, critical thinking, writing and intercultural competency.”

Vaughn Vreeland ‘15, supervising producer for New York Times Cooking, is making a name for himself at just 29 years old. Being featured multiple times on Good Morning America, writing recipes and filming content in his supervisory role with The New York Times and even making , Vreeland is a perfect example of �鶹��Ƶ’s alumni in action.

Vreeland originally came to �鶹��Ƶ because he thought he wanted to major in acting, but he quickly changed direction, trying to find the best fit for him. He tried several different tracks, from anthropology to political science, but he ultimately landed on a double-major in media arts and entertainment and French. His major naturally led to involvement in other areas of campus, including Lambda Pi Eta, the communications honors society, and interning in University Communications under Dan Anderson. In this role he also was able to refine his writing skills, writing for the Magazine of �鶹��Ƶ and the university’s news site. Another thing that he really enjoyed as a student was being a host for E-Talk, �鶹��Ƶ’s very own talk show, hosted through �鶹��Ƶ Student Television.

For his French major he had the opportunity to study abroad, with the help of a merit-based grant. Traveling to the South of France in the town of Montpellier, he enrolled at a university and focused his studies on visual art. He later returned to the same location his senior year. “I was able to successfully cross-reference my two majors in each of my senior theses, writing about the power of the director in French cinema as they portray disenfranchised communities, and explaining the use of color theory in Wes Anderson filmmaking. This got picked up for the �鶹��Ƶ Journal and I still, to this day, get emails from people asking me about it,” said Vreeland.

Study abroad was not the only �鶹��Ƶ experience that had an impact on Vreeland. Outside of his major-based studies and extracurriculars, Vreeland was incredibly involved. He was a member of the Student Government Association for three years and a tour guide for campus, eventually becoming the student supervisor and holding the title of Campus Visit Assistant, overseeing his fellow admissions ambassadors. He also participated in the Phi Kappa Phi honors society, the Pi Delta Phi French honors society and the Pi Sigma Alpha political science honors society, where he held various leadership roles as well.

The summer of his junior year he had the opportunity to intern with a small fashion magazine in New York as a media intern. As a cinema major, he knew he wanted to create in the realm of videography. “I thought fashion was going to be it for me, but I left that summer feeling a little lost in the greater media landscape because I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would,” said Vreeland. “However, one thing I knew was that I was obsessed with New York.” And so began his passion to get back to the Big Apple someday.

After graduation Vreeland moved to Thailand to teach English as a second language for half of a year in an effort to continue the global citizenship that �鶹��Ƶ instilled in him, and he absolutely loved it. “I ended up making the promotional video for The Council on International Education Exchange and I realized a lot of what I highlighted in that video was food and how it connected us to the Thai people and Thai culture,” said Vreeland. He quickly realized that food as a subject was something that he was passionate about, and this became a stepping stone into his current role with The New York Times.

Following his time in Thailand, he returned to his hometown of Raleigh to work for a French-inspired patisserie where he was able to hone his skills as a home cook, and then just a few months later he made the decision to move back to New York.

I moved to New York with no job, and I lived with two �鶹��Ƶ alums that I didn’t know, that had posted in the �鶹��Ƶ NYC Facebook group. Fortunately, I rather quickly found a job at BuzzFeed, also through an �鶹��Ƶ connection,” said Vreeland, explaining the importance of the �鶹��Ƶ network for graduates.

Vreeland worked at BuzzFeed for about two years making videos for the sub-brand, “Tasty.”

“I started making recipe videos that mainly went on Facebook and Instagram. Then, I helped start the YouTube team where we focused on creating shows for the brand. They were pretty popular videos. I gained some good exposure and ended up working with someone who then went to The New York Times as the Strategy Director for NYT Cooking,” explained Vreeland.

He found out that The New York Times was also looking to start an internal video team as well, and so he and his colleague both went to The Times to help with that startup. “It was just the two of us making the cooking videos for nytimes.com, YouTube and Instagram for about two years, and then we started building our team. We now have about thirteen people on the team total, which is really exciting,” said Vreeland.

In his role as Supervising Producer, he oversees the recipe and entertainment video operation for NYT Cooking. Some of his favorite work involves more casual videos of him in his own kitchen, such as the video of him cooking himself twenty-seven meals in just one week titled, “” or a video of him making .

“I ideate and create content based on a whole host of things in the food landscape. This past Thanksgiving, for example, I created a concept with Ina Garten where she developed a menu using store-bought staples—canned cranberry sauce, packaged stuffing mix, boxed mashed potatoes—making them more delicious and seemingly homemade, that we called ‘,’ which featured a video, six recipes and a written piece for the paper,” said Vreeland.

In his role he also develops recipes and serves as an on-camera personality. He currently has several shows in the works for the channel and is featured on their social media platforms regularly. He even occasionally does national morning and daytime television spotlights to promote the NYT Cooking recipes, such as being featured on . Vreeland does not just produce videos though, he also works as a writer for the recipes that get featured on the site, such as this one about .

Vreeland feels prepared in his current career because of his education at �鶹��Ƶ. “I feel like my hands-on education, specifically in my production classes, really mimicked real-life video creation,” explained Vreeland. He remembers a class with Tom Nelson where he had to make a video each week without assistance, and he said this prepared him for the fast-paced work environment of BuzzFeed where they were turning out a large quantity of content weekly. �鶹��Ƶ also taught him the power of human connection, “without my connections I made in my time there — be they with faculty, my peers, people I met on tour — I’m not sure where I’d be,” said Vreeland. One thing he also learned as an undergraduate is that he works best under pressure. He said that, although it does not happen quite as often, he still occasionally pulls all-nighters like he did in college.

Vreeland feels that �鶹��Ƶ alumni are successful because they receive a deeply experiential education, which better prepares them for life after college. The advice that he would give to current students is: “Define your comfort zone and work to push those boundaries. I’ve grown the most when I got uncomfortable and took risk—professionally speaking, and within reason, of course—it’s in those moments I learned the most about myself and what I’m capable of.” For him, seeking out opportunities from the very beginning and asking a lot of questions helped him to foster strong connections that helped him get where he is today.

As for Vreeland’s future, he said, “Stay tuned. And go Phoenix!”

If you are interested in trying some of Vaughn Vreeland’s New York Times Cooking recipes for yourself, check them out . Also, check out his latest feature on Forbes Top 30 Under 30 list for 2023, .����

“We are very lucky to have so many talented and generous colleagues in the College,” said Gabie Smith, dean of �鶹��Ƶ College, the College of Arts and Sciences. “We have a huge number of excellent teachers, mentors and scholars, and I’ve been so incredibly impressed with their creativity and dedication as they’ve had to make significant adjustments to almost every aspect of their teaching and mentoring this year.”

Smith announced this year’s award recipients in a series of videos sent to faculty and staff this semester.

Excellence in Mentoring
Jen Hamel, associate professor of biology

Through ongoing mentorship and support of undergraduates, Hamel provides an exceptional example of the power of mentoring and mentoring relationships intrinsic to the College. Her approach is deeply and critically reflective of mentoring itself, as she continues disciplinary research and contributes to scholarly literature on the mentoring of undergraduate research students. Hamel’s collaborations with undergraduates result in co-authored journal publications and presentations for professional conferences. She also has extended her mentorship to students in living-learning communities and works with other faculty to extend mentoring in �鶹��Ƶ College even further.

“Her intentionality in considering the educational and developmental needs of each individual student is noteworthy,” Smith said. “Furthermore, she is very attentive to creating opportunities for students who may not have benefitted from mentoring otherwise.”

Excellence in Service & Leadership
Buffie Longmire-Avital, associate professor of psychology and coordinator of African & African American Studies at �鶹��Ƶ

Longmire-Avital has extended her disciplinary expertise to influence both departmental and institutional strategic work around diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition to leading the program of African & African American Studies at �鶹��Ƶ, Longmire-Avital has served on committees and task forces to develop and refine curriculum, to deepen academic connections across academic programs and residence life, and to celebrate student identities and accomplishments. Longmire-Avital also mentors colleagues in these areas, strengthening the College and �鶹��Ƶ.

“She consistently brings authenticity and passion for racial equity and social justice into her leadership roles and service activities,” Smith said. “She provides critical and valuable service and leadership to her department, to �鶹��Ƶ College, and to the university while demonstrating excellence in teaching, mentoring, and scholarship.”

Staff Excellence
Paul Weller, senior science lab manager and instructor for the Department of Chemistry

Weller is the first recipient of the College’s Staff Excellence award.

Weller’s contributions have enhanced the chemistry program’s curriculum and experiential learning opportunities, and he worked with faculty to develop a plan that engages majors in developing writing skills to share complex scientific knowledge with broader audiences.

Chemistry colleagues nominated Weller with glowing testimonials about his impact on the lives of current and former students.

“After reading these materials, it is clear that Paul is the heart of the department,” Smith said. “He is frequently described as serious: Serious about completing his responsibilities, serious about mentoring students and student workers, and serious about building a safe and welcoming community for students and colleagues alike.”

Excellence in Teaching
Patti Burns, lecturer in French in the Department of World Languages and Cultures

Burns is an innovator in the classroom and a model for how to integrate new modes of teaching into courses. She applies flipped-classroom pedagogies, creates newly developed resources for students, and creatively uses film and interactive media to support language learning and the study of cultures.

“Her ongoing dedication to continuing to develop as a teacher and mentor is a truly impressive attribute,” Smith said. “She brings innovative approaches to each of her courses.”

Burns extensively participates in pedagogical workshops and teaching conferences through �鶹��Ƶ’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and national and international disciplinary organizations.

Excellence in Teaching
Michael Carignan, associate professor of history

Carignan is known both for the quality of undergraduate teaching and for the mentorship he provides to fellow faculty as they’ve developed as teachers and mentors. He has taught disciplinary courses at every level within the Department of History and Geography, from introductory courses to senior capstones seminars. Carignan is deeply engaged the Honors Program, the �鶹��Ƶ Core Curriculum, and study abroad experiences.

“He has a reputation for being a challenging instructor and also is distinguished by enhancing engagement and success in the learning process through his responsiveness to student needs,” Smith said.

Excellence in Scholarship
Scott Wolter, associate professor of engineering in the Department of Physics

Wolter’s scholarship has resulted in prestigious grant awards, ongoing research opportunities for �鶹��Ƶ undergraduates, 10 peer-reviewed articles in the last three years and a patent for sensors with biomedical applications.

His work has twice been awarded competitive Department of Homeland Security ALERT (Awareness and Localization of Explosives-Related Threats) grants to support his work on the development of an X-ray imaging system and technology for airport security applications. He is part of a team that received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Sanitation Technology Cluster at Duke University.

“While these are all incredibly impressive indicators of his scholarly activity and productivity, I believe the most significant outcomes of his research program are evidenced in the deep mentoring opportunities he’s providing for undergraduate students,” Smith said. “He is a model teacher-scholar.”

Excellence in Scholarship
Ryan Johnson, assistant professor of philosophy

In his three years at �鶹��Ƶ, Johnson has written multiple monographs, numerous book chapters, and many peer reviewed articles. He has co-written a book, co-edited two volumes, and given multiple invited talks and numerous conference presentations, and was awarded the North Carolina Philosophical Society’s Non-tenured Faculty Essay Prize. Earlier this year, Johnson was a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend Grant to further his research of three American philosophers’ interpretations of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s writings.

“Though he is at an earlier career stage at �鶹��Ƶ, he is equally impressive in regard to scholarly productivity,” Smith said.

These online communal spaces allow for collaboration, new ways to engage with material, and opportunities for metacognition and deeper discussions that aren’t always possible in a classroom. They are so effective that professors who’ve taught online courses in the past had already integrated some into in-person courses.

The ability to communicate effectively and deepen discussion outside of class “makes face-to-face classroom time even richer,” Lecturer in French Patti Burns told faculty during a course planning workshop this summer.

Burns was part of a series of institutes to re-imagine courses and employ new technological tools to support undergraduate learning. More than 200 College faculty attended Digital Learning Days workshops hosted by �鶹��Ƶ’s Teaching and Learning Technologies. The emphasis was on simplicity: using a few tools effectively to reduce the strain in planning and keep students from having to learn new apps for every class.

Those workshops acted as refreshers for the basics in Moodle — the online learning management platform used by �鶹��Ƶ — along with sessions about newer and more robust Moodle features for quizzes, instant learning assessment and student feedback, and the integration of video and interactive tools.

“We were pretty blown away by how many faculty were interested and participated,” said Scott Hildebrand, assistant director of Teaching and Learning Technologies in training and development. “We used Moodle as the central point. We helped them create their Moodle course templates so that they were consistent and similar for students between courses.”

Each course’s Moodle site houses recorded lectures and course videos, weekly plans and assignments, external links and activities to deepen learning.

“Now that all of this learning has occurred and faculty are using technologies in new ways, we’re interested to see how all of that impacts the future of teaching and learning and what we do.”

Director of Teaching and Learning Technologies Kelly Reimer

Associate Professor of Physics Kyle Altmann, the faculty fellow for technology, led an August session demonstrating how class sessions would look via the campus’s newly installed classroom webcams, integrating teleconferencing platforms like Zoom, while simultaneously managing students in the classroom. That session was referenced by a number of professors as instructive. Through Altmann’s webinar, they witnessed the strengths and weaknesses of certain technologies — and how the different technologies interacted with each other within a classroom — rather than be surprised by them on the first day of classes. For example, Altmann made it clear that information written on whiteboards needed to be much larger to be legible via webcams. He also suggested assigning in-class students to monitor questions and chats from virtual students, a standard practice in many classrooms this fall.

“Kyle has been an awesome technology fellow and has helped in bringing faculty in and involving them in the process,” said Kelly Reimer, director of Teaching and Learning Technologies. “Faculty input is crucial, because faculty have to be able to use the technology, embrace it and be willing to try it. We recognize their work.”

“Now that all of this learning has occurred and faculty are using technologies in new ways, we’re interested to see how all of that impacts the future of teaching and learning and what we do,” Reimer said.

Here are some tools and apps being used in �鶹��Ƶ courses this semester.

Kaltura

Kaltura allows professors to easily record and edit instructional videos, share and record screens, and provide voiceover lecture slides for their courses in Moodle. TLT trained faculty how to use Kaltura and provided examples of effective uses of it through Digital Learning Days sessions this summer.

Associate Professor of Italian Brandon Essary appreciates Kaltura’s functionality, which allows him to share 10- to 15-minute lecture recordings to students in advance of the week’s classes.

“It’s become indispensable,” Essary said.

As associate chair of the World Languages and Cultures Department and coordinator of the Italian program, he shares his recordings with other faculty teaching Italian to extend resources and assist class planning.

Essary also launched a new course this semester, Intensive Italian Through Gaming, that combines cinematic video game play with language immersion for engaged learning. It’s the first course of its kind at �鶹��Ƶ.

Musition, Auralia, Acapella Maker

Learning to play, sing, and analyze music is an interactive process. Blended classes and remote learning place obvious impediments to the face-to-face models used in �鶹��Ƶ’s Music Department. Zoom and other video conferencing tools don’t work well for ensemble singing and playing.

This summer, faculty got creative, employing a range of apps to make possible student duets, self-recordings and building aural skills while maintaining safe physical distance.

Auralia and Musition offer options for out-of-class practice with immediate feedback. For example, a student can sing into the app and get immediate corrections. They can also record themselves and send those to faculty for feedback. Assistant Professor of Music Cora Palfy and other faculty programmed material into those apps to build aural skills and “make assignments more relevant and more reflective of the people who actually make music.”

The Acapella Maker app allows students to record duets while apart. A student sings or plays their parts and sends it to their partner so they can record their half of the duet.

Though challenging, Palfy said the introduction of new methods of teaching has offered new opportunities. She referenced a journal-based sight-singing assignment she planned to use this fall. It would involve students recording a piece of sight-singing and sending it to faculty, who would then record themselves singing the part back to the student. The student would analyze the faculty recording and journal about areas to improve their own performance and the musical differences heard. The metacognitive activity involves notation and transcribing music and trains a student’s ears to hear pitch correctly. Palfy said. Further class discussions and conversations around the recordings and observations would allow opportunities for group learning, Palfy said.

Microsoft Sway

Assistant Professor of Psychology Sabrina Thurman is using the Microsoft Sway presentation tool as an interactive way to deliver traditional slide lectures and direct class activities.

Sway allows Thurman to embed videos — her own recorded lessons or external examples —  and prompts, and enables students to click into and around a slide lecture, collaborate in embedded Google files, and to upload their own slides for class discussions.

Thurman learned about Sway from a graduate school colleague and planned to begin incorporating it into her courses before the pandemic. After the spring shift to remote learning, she began using Sway as the basis for online lectures. Students reacted positively to the format, and she devised this semester’s Sway presentations to enable synchronous and asynchronous learning.

Thurman’s Life Development course recently collaborated on a Sway presentation around life mapping, where each student created a map of their personal development throughout life. (.) The visuals prompted live discussions on Zoom and reflections posted to Moodle.

Another presentation tool is Prezi, a well-known alternative to Microsoft’s Power Point, that Assistant Professor of Political Science and Policy Studies Damion Blake is using this fall. He took independent courses this summer designed to make Prezi effective in engaged learning. Blake particularly is interested in features that allow students to annotate slides with questions or comments, and even upload video comments.

Hypothes.is

Hypothes.is is being piloted at �鶹��Ƶ this year as a tool for collaborative annotation of PDFs both synchronously and asynchronously. This is another tool TLT offered training for over the summer.

Collaborative annotation — being able to share thoughts, highlight text, and discuss readings together as a class — makes reading visible, active and social, and increases engagement with material, ideas, and others in more meaningful ways.

Associate Professor of Art History Evan Gatti is using Hypothes.is in her ARH 210: Art History of the Ancient World and ARH 211: Art History of the Medieval and Premodern World courses. She appreciates how interactive it makes reading texts, with students able to add images and notes individually or as an entire class. She’s also found it an effective tool for modeling the level of scholarly reading she wants students to undertake.

“I think it’s amazing. I love it,” Gatti said. “I can go into a journal article and annotate sections I’m paying attention to and tell them why, and then I can highlight text to add emphasis. … Even if they don’t personally use the annotation tools, they can open up the document and see what I’ve done.

“I hope what it will do is create a community among the class to help them read as colleagues, not just as students.”

Gatti is also using Padlet to create timelines, maps and art boards that students add to and discuss throughout the semester. It functions similarly to Pinterest boards but allows for more text discussion and external linking.

Open Broadcasting Software

Associate Professor of Mathematics Jim Beuerle is using a system designed for online gaming to enhance teaching.

Open Broadcasting Software allows him to share and switch between multiple screens at once in Zoom. While his webcam is trained on him, a separate camera shows a workspace where he can solve problems or display documents. The software also allows for picture-in-picture screens. The effect is a seamless blend of teleconferencing, problem solving, and modeling math skills which has a face-to-face feel despite distance.

Beuerle is also experimenting with speech-to-text app Web Captioner for real-time captioning of lectures and videos. He wants to make each aspect of his courses accessible for all students.

For their part, faculty appreciate the additional support from TLT, the Center for Advancement in Teaching and Learning, and the Information Technology Department this summer. That work began in April and May to be available by July. Staff in those areas collaborated to create a library of resources around technology and pedagogy at �鶹��Ƶ this fall. It continues to be a resource for problem solving and flexible teaching.

“It was good that so many people started talking and thinking about this early,” Beuerle said. “That TLT and CATL had these programs available, and just to see what other people were doing, was helpful.”

Reflecting on the first few weeks of class, Altmann said most faculty he’d spoken to felt confident they were prepared for the semester and comfortable with the available technology.

“This semester is possible because of faculty resilience and IT’s dedication,” Altmann said.

For the first time, however, the SURE poster session was hosted completely online.

Students in this year’s program were required to conduct research and craft their presentations virtually as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic. On Wednesday, students grouped into several WebEx video conferencing rooms shared their findings and lessons learned from the experience.

For Lucia Lozano Robledo ’21, an international studies and French double major and Honors Fellow from Bogotá, Colombia, adapting meant changing the way she conducted research, titled “Latinx migrants and political consciousness in Alamance County.” Lozano Robledo, whose faculty mentor is Associate Professor of History Michael Matthews, is focusing on an analysis of Alamance County’s Latinx migrant community and how its members’ identities and beliefs have changed over time. Lozano Robledo conducted most of the research for this project through participant interviews, which were made more difficult by COVID-19 and physical distancing measures.

“This summer I was planning on conducting in-person interviews throughout Alamance County, so working remotely meant I had to adapt to virtual interviewing,” Lozano Robledo said. “It was challenging at first to contact participants in the midst of such difficult global circumstances, but I am glad that I was able to get in contact with enough to carry on with the project.”

Lozano Robledo was one of 37 undergraduate researchers to participate in SURE this summer. SURE is meant to enhance learning opportunities for students while encouraging collaboration in learning and research between faculty and students. The program awards participating students and faculty stipends while they work full-time during the eight-week summer intensive to conduct research.

Kevin Scott ’21, a biochemistry major from Burlington, North Carolina, used the eight weeks to continue his research on the molecular relationship between a high-salt diet and HER2 positive gastric cancer. Focusing on high rates of gastric cancer in eastern Asian countries, Scott’s research investigates how, at the protein level, a high-salt diet could lead to gastric cancer. Specifically, Scott researches the Salt Inducible Kinase 3 (SIK3) protein to find out if it is indirectly activated by the HER2 protein in gastric cancer cells. Scott says the virtual SURE experience allowed him to approach this research from a new angle.

“Since I couldn’t do research in my lab, I spent the summer working on a review paper,” said Scott, who plans to submit the paper, which he wrote with mentor and Associate Professor of Biology Yuko Miyamoto, to undergraduate scientific research journals for publication. “In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been able to go back into my research lab and start up my experiments again, but now with a better understanding of my research topic as a whole.”

Scott and Lozano Robledo are just two examples of the students who found new ways to conduct and enhance their research, despite obstacles presented by the global pandemic. Professor of Psychology and Director of Undergraduate Research Meredith Allison said it was exciting to see students present their work virtually, after a summer of adaptation.

“This summer was a challenge for students and mentors alike – how to do research when we are away from each other and our research spaces,” said Meredith Allison, professor of psychology and director of undergraduate research. “SURE students and faculty did a great job this year in spite of the COVID-19 challenges. It was fantastic to see their work during the online event. Students clearly have done a lot of work and have moved their projects forward.”

While the presentations gave students an opportunity to share their hard work with the �鶹��Ƶ community, they also served as a way to help students prepare for presentations at conferences or in the future professions.

“This presentation is valuable experience for me, as I plan to become a cancer researcher in the future,” he said. “It also gives me the chance to receive useful feedback to improve my project as I move into the next academic year.”

For Lozano Robledo, the pandemic presented a number of challenges, but also added another facet to her research. She has expanded her study to consider how the pandemic might affect the future political and civic involvement of Latinx migrant communities in Alamance County. Lozano Robledo says she is grateful for the chance to work with her faculty mentor to advance her research, which will culminate in her honors thesis in the spring.

“I feel proud of the work I have done this summer, even though it was completed under unexpected and difficult times,” she said.

SURE is open to students who have completed their first year at �鶹��Ƶ and have a cumulative and in-major GPA of at least 3.0. For more information about future SURE experiences, visit the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience website.