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Bringing Pedagogy Into the 21St Century Volume 4, Issue 1 Superscript Fall 2013–Winter 2014 The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences | Columbia University Bringing Pedagogy into the 21st Century Superscript 1 Link back to contents page CONTENTS GSAS Alumni Association Board of Directors Louis A. Parks, President, M.A. ’95, Ancient Studies From the Dean 1 Lester Wigler, Vice President, M.A. ’80, Music Bringing Pedagogy into the Bridget M. Rowan, Secretary, M.A. ’80, English and Comparative Literature 21st Century 2 Tyler Anbinder, M.A. ’85, M.Phil. ’87, Ph.D. ’90, History Alumni Profile: Judith Shapiro, Ph.D. Jillisa Brittan, Chair of Development Committee, M.A. ’86, English and ’72, Anthropology 8 Comparative Literature Gerrard Bushell, M.A. ’91, M.Phil. ’94, Ph.D. ’04, Political Science Report from the Field: Teaching at a Neena Chakrabarti, Student Representative, M.A. ’11, Chemistry Community College 12 Frank Chiodi, M.A. ’00, American Studies Kenneth W. Ciriacks, Ph.D. ’62, Geological Sciences Applied Humanities: Ramona Bajema, Annette Clear, M.A. ’96, M.Phil. ’97, Ph.D. ’02, Political Science Ph.D. ’12 and the To-hoku Earthquake Relief Effort 14 Michael S. Cornfeld, Chair of Nominating Committee, M.A. ’73, Political Science Astrobiology: Modern Science Targets an Elizabeth Debreu, M.A. ’93, Art History and Archaeology Ancient Question 22 Robert Greenberg, Chair of Student Outreach Committee, M.A. ’88, Philos- ophy Alumni News 26 George Khouri, M.A. ’69, Classics Sukhan Kim, M.A. ’78, Political Science Alumni Profile: Steven G. Mandis, Lindsay Leard-Coolidge, M.Phil. ’87, Ph.D. ’92, Art History and Archaeolo- M.A. ’10, M.Phil. ’13 28 gy Les B. Levi, M.A. ’76, M.Phil. ’78, Ph.D. ’82, English and Comparative Liter- On the Shelf: Faculty Publications 30 ature Komal S. Sri-Kumar, Ph.D. ’77, Economics On the Shelf: Alumni Publications 32 John Waldes, Co-chair of Marketing and Research Committee, M.S. ’68, Electrical Engineering, Ph.D. ’71, Plasma Physics Dissertations 34 Harriet Zuckerman, Ph.D. ’65, Sociology Announcements 46 Tracy Zwick, M.A. ’11, Modern Art Helpful Links 49 Letters to the Editor To share your thoughts about anything you have read in this publication, please email [email protected]. Unless you note otherwise in your message, any correspondence received by the editor will be considered for future publication. Please be sure to include in your message your name and affiliation to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. SUPERSCRIPT is published twice annually by the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the GSAS Alumni Association. Dean: Carlos J. Alonso Editor: Robert Ast Assistant Editor: Andrew Ng Senior Director for Alumni Relations: Jill Galas-Hickey Design, Editing, and Production: Columbia Creative Link back to contents page 2 Superscript From the Dean ne of the principal raisons their personal lives and are continually searching for d’être for the Graduate ways in which to make graduate life fit into their lives, as School of Arts and Sciences opposed to the other way around, which was the norm is enhancing the academic traditionally. I do not have the space here to explore the Oand professional life of our students. reasons for this development, which I would argue none- But graduate students—both Master’s theless should be regarded as both healthy and welcome, and doctoral—typically devote between since it demystifies graduate education and the graduate one and eight years in pursuit of the experience, and forces both to conform to realistic and degree that brought them to Colum- humane parameters. This transformation requires, nev- bia. This investment of time means ertheless, that graduate school administrations and sup- that students often spend a significant port services evolve to accommodate our students’ novel number of their formative adult years understanding of their relationship to their programs, to among us, years in which the realm of the institution, and to their discipline at large. Carlos J. Alonso the personal usually takes a backseat Dean, Graduate School of Arts and to the requirements of the academic This development accounts, for instance, for two changes Sciences; Morris A. and Alma pursuits that brought them to campus. in policy that the Graduate School instituted since I be- Schapiro Professor in the Humanities Graduate students have traditionally came dean: first, the existing policy on the “Suspension of postponed or set aside significant Responsibilities for Childbirth” was broadened two years personal decisions while in graduate school, owing to the ago to include male student parents, as well as instances belief that life and its big choices resume upon receipt of adoption and foster parenthood; second, the Graduate of the degree and after reintegration in the larger world School announced last year that graduate student parents outside the university. would be entitled to receive for each child a $1,000 subsidy to defray the cost of child care expenses. The The reality is, however, that there has never been such a realization that graduate school has to be better integrated transparent split between life and the graduate experi- into our students’ lives was also one of the reasons behind ence: graduate school IS life for our students. In fact, the creation of a new program of Internships in Academic graduate school is in most cases the first time in which Administration, in which graduate students explore non- students will not be under the tutelage of someone in academic careers in university administration that may loco parentis—in other words, it is the first truly adult au- give them more flexibility at the moment they endeavor tonomous experience some of them will entertain. It is to combine the personal and the professional. Our newly also quite possible that graduate school be the first time created Office of Student Affairs in GSAS has been given there is significant geographic distance from their family the consequent mandate to address the many facets of the environment, since most students tend to remain rela- nonacademic dimension of our students lives, while rec- tively close to home when choosing an undergraduate ognizing the particular and specific needs of our Master’s institution. This is especially the case with international and doctoral constituencies. students, who cast a much wider net when applying to institutions in which to pursue their postbaccalaureate Graduate school used to be regarded by students, faculty, education. Graduate school is not just what life is for our and administrators as a parenthesis or hiatus in the lives students, it is also a most significant season of that life of graduate students. The current move toward the closer from an existential point of view. integration of life and the graduate experience is a sal- utary transformation that nonetheless presents us with In my time as a faculty member, and now as dean, I have new challenges that we in the Graduate School are ready noticed a gradual but quite significant change in student and eager to assume. I would be extremely interested in attitude toward their graduate experience. Students hearing from you, the alumni of the school, about how nowadays tend to see graduate school as coextensive with we could best fulfill that responsibility. Superscript 1 Link back to contents page Link back to contents page 2 Superscript Bringing Pedagogy into the 21st Century: The GSAS Teaching Center and the Science of Teaching and Learning By Alexander Gelfand One sunny day this past June, a clutch of doctoral students from various Now in its second year, the institute is part of a departments—Music, Sociology, Earth and Environmental Sciences—sat, larger three-year program, stood, and circulated in a large room on the fifth floor of Barnard College’s the Preparing Doctoral Diana Center. The space was crammed with themed tables devoted to Students for the 21st Century Initiative. Offered various digital tools: one bore a piece of paper with the word “SIMS,” for by the Teaching Center and computer simulations, scrawled in black sharpie; another proclaimed CCNMTL under a grant from the Teagle Foundation, “Blogs!” Many of the tables were littered with lists and diagrams and flow a nonprofit dedicated to charts, and each one was equipped with an educational technologist from improving the quality of undergraduate learning in the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL). the arts and sciences, the The students had all been appointed as teaching assistants or preceptors initiative seeks to equip for the coming year, and the technologists were there to show them how to graduate students to teach in the new millennium and, use the software to design and deliver assignments. by extension, to bring the quality of undergraduate In other rooms, students online resources or set bottled water and talking learning at Columbia to an munched on box lunches up a website where shop. even higher level. And it as presenters from students could upload and is emblematic of the way CCNMTL and the GSAS annotate text and images The setting was the second in which the University Teaching Center— for a class. All the while, day of the Teagle Summer is trying to rethink the including Mark Phillipson, informal groups of TAs Institute, a three-day-long role and function of the the Center’s interim lounged on comfy chairs series of workshops and Teaching Center at a director—demonstrated in a common area framed discussions devoted to pivotal moment in higher how to use the library’s by large windows, sipping pedagogy and technology. education. Superscript 3 Link back to contents page * * * but also research into Shapiro, former president of learning—more formally Barnard College and current Since they first began known as scholarship on president of the Teagle to appear in the 1960s, teaching and learning, or Foundation, recalls that teaching centers have SOTL.
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