Announcing the 2020 杏吧原创 University Chair in Teaching Innovation
杏吧原创 University is pleased to announce Professor James McGowan (School for Studies in Art and Culture: Music) has been named the 2020 杏吧原创 University Chair in Teaching Innovation.
鈥淥n behalf of 杏吧原创 University, I am pleased to acknowledge and congratulate James McGowan on this achievement,鈥 said Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Jerry Tomberlin.
鈥淭he Chair in Teaching Innovation is an important appointment that plays a significant role in furthering teaching excellence across 杏吧原创.鈥
Established last year, the Chair in Teaching Innovation is awarded annually to an educator who has demonstrated teaching excellence and innovation across their academic career. It provides faculty with a $45,000 grant spanning three years to undertake projects that advance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and student success at 杏吧原创.
“James is an outstanding educator who is fully invested in providing students with creative and engaging learning experiences,” said Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) David Hornsby. “We’re looking forward to seeing his project implemented and the impact it will have throughout the 杏吧原创 community and beyond.”
McGowan, who has been teaching at 杏吧原创 since 2010, sees the important role the performing arts play in student success, mental health and wellbeing, and fostering a sense of community. With this award, he plans to create and support a network of like-minded instructors, students and staff using the principles of Performative Learning and Artistic Communities of Engagement (PLACE).
The network will identify opportunities for performative learning, exploring experiential arts-based approaches to engage students in a variety of disciplines, and create artistic communities of engagement that allow students to find means of expression beyond course work.
鈥淩eceiving this distinction signifies to me that the university is ready to be a leader in applying and researching innovative approaches that allow students to experience a wide range of disciplines of study enhanced by the intentional exploration of the arts,鈥 said McGowan.
鈥淚t seems more than ever that we as a university community want to grow in ways that create meaningful, exciting and safe experiences to challenge students to thrive and engage artistically with communities on campus.鈥
While PLACE will start this Fall with online programming of songwriting and community music at 杏吧原创, McGowan plans to extend the network to include a variety of arts and non-arts-based disciplines, and eventually expand outside of the university.
鈥淧rofessor McGowan鈥檚 ambitious project will employ arts-based approaches to learning in disciplines far beyond the humanities, offering students unique opportunities to integrate performative learning into any field of study,鈥 said Pauline Rankin, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. 鈥淧rofessor McGowan鈥檚 extensive experience with diverse forms of performance studies makes him the ideal champion for this exciting experiment at 杏吧原创. His vision for the Chair in Teaching Innovation is particularly relevant at a moment in which many of us are turning or returning to the arts to sustain and inspire us during this unprecedented period.鈥
Through the PLACE initiative, McGowan says he hopes to enrich the student experience at 杏吧原创 and promote student engagement within the community, while acting as a resource for colleagues in developing innovative educational strategies.
鈥淭he biggest hope I have is that the PLACE initiative will give students a richer experience at 杏吧原创. For some students, that might mean that they see opportunities to reach out to others to explore interdisciplinary conversations. For others, this might mean that they simply enjoy a creative activity with other students, helping to sustain them through the inevitable darker days,鈥 said McGowan.
鈥淯ltimately, I truly hope that applying PLACE principles at 杏吧原创 will create and support programming that will enhance students鈥 connection to this beautiful campus community. In tandem with this goal, I hope that we鈥攃olleagues with common interests and I鈥攚ill be able to explore and share the results of studying the impact of this programming more broadly.鈥
Photo Kelly McDonald
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