This Week for Graduate Students: Applications for Pedagogies of Race and Oppression Learning Community Due Today

The Pedagogies of Race and Oppression Learning Community is sponsored by the GSAS Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusion, in partnership with Columbia’s Center for Teaching and Learning. In this learning community, participants collectively engage focused topics in pedagogy and practice—in this case, as they relate to race and marginalization, with particular emphasis on anti-racist and anti-oppression pedagogy. In Fall 2023, the Pedagogies of Race & Oppression Learning Community will explore anti-racist instructional design through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

In the interest of fostering a diverse community of learners committed to discussing difficult topics, the capacity of this learning community is limited. Submitting an application will allow facilitators to gauge applicants’ experience and interest in discussing issues of oppression, and creating an anti-racist classroom.

In Fall 2023, the Pedagogies of Race and Oppression Learning Community will convene online on Tuesday, October 10th (12:00 – 2:00 pm), Tuesday, October 31st (12:00 – 2:00 pm), and Tuesday, November 28th (12:00 – 2:00 pm). If selected, participants must commit to all three sessions. Applications are due Monday, September 25th by 11:59 pm ET. Please contact CTLgrads@columbia.edu with any questions.

Note: the Pedagogies of Race and Oppression Learning Community will be offered again in Spring 2024 with a new application cycle and area of focus.

Last Call: Graduate Student Advisory Committee

The Center for Teaching and Learning is pleased to announce the formation of a new Graduate Student Advisory Committee. Guided by CTL staff, this committee will meet twice per semester in service in order to: 

• engage a range of diverse student communities across the Columbia campus
• obtain community-centered input and advice on graduate student teaching support needs, CTL offerings, and effective modes of outreach

Additional details about this opportunity, and the requirements of committee participation, are outlined on the CTL website. We are currently seeking up to two doctoral students to complete the 2023-24 cohort of this Committee and invite applications through Friday, September 29th!

Upcoming Lead Teaching Fellow Events

The 41 2023-24 Lead Teaching Fellows are running workshops and discussions in departments all around Columbia. These are generally advertised locally. Below are upcoming events that are open to participants beyond the LTFs home departments. Read more about the LTF program here.

LTF events count towards track completion in the Teaching Development Program. 

Navigating the Mentor-Mentee Relationship as Mentor and Mentee
As a graduate student or a postdoc you are a mentee, and potentially also a mentor. Tricky situations and conversations may eventually arise. How will you navigate them as a mentee? How would you navigate that same situation as a mentor? Do you mentor undergraduates or other people within your lab? How do you navigate those situations as a mentor? How does that impact your mentee? In this workshop, we will discuss case studies from both the mentor and mentee perspective, working through difficult conversations with many possible approaches.

This workshop is co-designed by Lead Teaching Fellows Jessie Burke and Jasmine Stone (Neurobiology & Behavior) and is open to STEM PhD Students. The workshop will be held at two different dates/times; please RSVP to the session you would like to attend: 

• Monday, October 2nd, 5-6pm, at JLG L3-079, led by Jasmine Stone. Pre-registration is required to ensure building access. Email jasmine.stone@columbia.edu to RSVP.
• Tuesday, October 10th, 5-6pm, at the CUIMC campus (room VEC 1202), led by Jessie Burke. Email jb4554@columbia.edu to RSVP. 

Approaching the Job Market

On-demand Resources

Engage with the CTL’s on-demand guides to help you plan and draft standard components of an academic job application.

Intro to the Teaching Statement
A teaching statement—one of the most frequently requested teaching materials on the academic job market—takes time to brainstorm, draft, and revise. The CTL has designed this self-paced resource to introduce you to the teaching statement and help kickstart the writing of your first draft. Access module.

Intro to the Diversity Statement
The diversity statement is a recent addition to the suite of materials hiring committees may ask for you to submit for academic job applications. These statements are often deeply personal and, as a result, can take a lot of time and effort to draft and revise. This self-paced resource introduces you to the diversity statement as a genre and helps you begin the process of ideating and crafting the first draft of your statement. Access module.

Intro to the Teaching Portfolio
This module is designed to support you in compiling a teaching portfolio: a set of materials that complements your teaching statement to represent your teaching. This CTL self-paced resource is designed to help kickstart the assembly of your portfolio and support you as you continue to develop it in the future. Access module.