CTL Teach and Tells: Start-Up Grant Awardees

SAIC Faculty Shine

The spring 2025 Center for Teaching and Learning's Teach and Tell series welcomed recipients of the CTL Start-Up Grant awards. The CTL Start-Up Grant program provides faculty with resources to design a new course, improve an existing course, and pursue educational development opportunities to develop new skills. 

February 26, 2025: Todd Hasak-Lowy and Jerry Bleem

On February 26, Jerry Bleem (Fiber and Material Studies) and Todd Hasak-Lowy (Liberal Arts/Writing) each presented how they used their awards to develop new classes. As the conversation developed, both connected the history of non-violent activism to the history of textile manufacturing and production globally.

Jerry Bleem discussed his new course, Contextualizing Textiles. The course examines the complex global histories and contexts that inform textile production and manufacturing throughout the world. To facilitate the course, students utilize SAIC's Textile Resource Center. Situating course material in relation to the TRC's collections, students complete projects that uniquely model how SAIC's resources facilitate learning in innovative and necessary ways. The course provides students with a hands-on opportunity to learn about materials they may use in their own practice, uniquely connecting their educational experience with history and the world around them.

Todd-Hasak Lowy shared how he developed his new course, Nonviolence: Theory and Practice. Offered in the Liberal Arts department, the course examines numerous theoretical approaches to nonviolence, and situates them in relation to significant historical events. By studying the thinking that motivated non-violent activism, students delve more deeply into the philosophical, political, cultural, spiritual, and religious elements that contribute to it. The course requires students to complete a creative work of their choosing (e.g. an art object, written work, or other primary source) that reckons with nonviolence in both theory and practice. 

March 10, 2025: Garrett Laroy Johnson and Terri Griffith

On March 10, Garrett Laroy Johnson (Art and Technology/Sound Studies) and Terri Griffith (Liberal Arts) discussed how their award helped them. Both presenters developed courses that focused on technology and digital spaces and commented on the importance of collaborative learning.

Garrett Johnson's course, Chaosmotic Systems: Culture, Cosmology, and Computation, is a graduate seminar that challenges students to develop rigorous reading and thinking practices by engaging texts from a variety of domains, including: the science and mathematics of chaos theory, post-structuralist and post-colonial thought, process theology, political economy, and media theory. Garrett developed an in-process collaborative mapping tool for students to identify and elucidate important course concepts and topics. This enabled students to create connections among each entry, forming the basis of an ongoing project that Johnson will continue with each course iteration.

Terri Griffith earned certifications in Generative AI for Educators and Teachers and Prompt Engineering for Educators through Vanderbilt University. Taking advantage of this educational development opportunity enabled her to create Cyber-Feminism. In this course, Griffith situates ChatGPT as a tool that students can use to experiment with writing assignments. However, to her surprise, she noted that: "what immediately became apparent is that the average students used ChatGPT in boring and predictable ways. It was the super energized and stellar students who were using it to their advantage. ChatGPT didn't close the gap in my writing classroom, it widened it."

What's Next?

The CTL will soon put out a call for the next round of CTL Start-Up Grant applications for faculty developing fall 2025 courses. Please be on the lookout for the announcement. We look forward to continuing to support faculty as they develop new courses or pursue educational opportunities to enhance their teaching.