Faculty Affairs Newsletter
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May 18th, 2022
The Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) will host an in-person conference from 8:00-noon on May 18th. Click on the title above or the graphic to the right to view the program. Click here to register for the conference!
Another celebratory series of events will be held later that day which will include a ceremony for the presentation of faculty awards from 2021 and 2022 and a keynote address. Immediately following that, the Provost will host a reception. Click here to register for these late afternoon events. We hope you will be able to join us!
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Innovators, Creators and Creative Faculty
Faculty are invited to give an 8 – 10 minute flash talk during a session at the CAFE Conference 18 May, 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. We are looking for 5 talks in all. The flash talks are about innovation – either something innovative you developed or your ideas about innovation. The flash talks may also be some form of creative expression or a story. Five really different talks would be a fantastic outcome.
If you are interested, please let me know a title and a brief description of your flash talk by May 11, 2022 at your earliest convenience.
If you know of interested faculty, please share this opportunity. If we have interest beyond 5 talks, we may open up additional sessions.
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Summer Faculty Writing Initiative Boot Camp
Looking to jump-start your writing experiences for the summer?
Apply by Friday, May 13 to take part in the first-ever Summer Faculty Writing Initiative Bootcamp. The Summer Faculty Writing Initiative Bootcamp will be held May 24-26, from 9:30 am – 3:00 pm in the Miller Nichols Library!
The summer writing bootcamp is a special extension of the highly successful Faculty Writing Initiative, which has just completed its fifth semester. Following the same philosophy of FWI, over the course of three days the bootcamp will offer 15 - 18 faculty from across all ranks and disciplines structured writing time to make progress on writing projects. Each day begins with goal setting and ends with progress check-ins. Discussions about writing strategies bring structure and a sense of community to the solitary work of writing.
Engage colleagues in ways that provide support and caring for writing anxiety or jitters and also spark creativity and a sense of playfulness. Gain a sense of camaraderie by writing in a group environment. The Summer FWI Bootcamp helps faculty build writing time consistently into their schedules. The Summer FWI Bootcamp encourages each other in building a writing practice, instead of reading and responding to writing.
Co-facilitators will invite guests with expertise in topics of interest to participants to lead lunch-and-learn workshops. Applicants are asked to indicate what topics they would like to learn more about when they register!
Interested? Complete an online application here by Friday, May 13, 2022. The FWI will select faculty to ensure that the initiative serves writers from all disciplines and across all ranks in the university.
If you have any questions, please email Dr. Byrd (antoniobyrd@umkc.edu) or Dr. Greer (greerj@umkc.edu).
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Planning and Managing Evaluation of Grant-Funded Projects
Join us on April 28th from 1:00-2:00pm to learn more about strategies for developing evaluation plans for grant-funded projects, including funder expectations, evaluation plan essentials, balancing research and evaluation, identifying and contracting with external evaluators, and managing your relationship with external evaluators.
This presentation will be led by Kirk Vandersall, Managing Director of Arroyo Research Services, who evaluates education programs in areas that include STEM, PreK-20 pathways for underrepresented students, professional learning, new teacher mentoring and development, curriculum reform, policy reform, teen pregnancy prevention, and broad partnership projects from funders that include the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense Education Activity, state education agencies and foundations.
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Roos Rock!
Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of our talented faculty
NEW! We will continue to share faculty accomplishments in a new Roos Rock! online collection that allows for search functionality and many other features. Please visit Roos Rock! at its online home.
GrantsUMKC faculty, researchers and staff were awarded $9 million in grants in March 2022, for a total of more than $74 million in total grants since July 2021. Faculty with awards are listed below. Visit the RoosRock! page for all of the details.
Faculty, do you have more good news to share? Your FAN Team wants to know! Email news of your recent (since August 2021) awards, grants, major publications and promotions to: meadmo@umkc.edu.
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AccessRoo
A new column where we talk about disability and share our thoughts on what we need access to as professors, researchers and colleagues. If you have an idea or topic that you would like us to talk about, please send an email to edwardsmatt@umkc.edu.
Disabled Pathways
I am disabled. I am blind.
I like to begin my columns with this type of statement. Over time I have found that self-identification is important, both to myself and to others. While it helps others understand from where I speak—what is my place in society?—for me, it is a declaration that speaks against the silence that once defined my approach to disability, and the discrimination that plagues many of our social interactions. And although it is at times confusing to some—What does blind mean? How do you see? Do you see…anything?—these are discussions that we have to have. They are important to helping us understand the different ways meaning is constructed. They help us understand that meaning is constructed.
Saying that I AM DISABLED allows me, specifically, to speak in the first place, and, many times, on behalf of a community that is also disabled. However, speaking for other people is problematic in and of itself. In terms of disability, no one experience is the same—we all move, feel and engage with our bodies and minds differently whether you are disabled or not. But, by speaking, by telling our stories, we allow for others to see how we move, and feel, and how our paths cross, coincide with and diverge from the paths of other people, other communities and of other experiences.
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Interview with Dr. Jennifer Huberman, Professor of Anthropology
1) Thinking back on the last few years as a faculty member at UMKC, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
One of the things I am most proud of is that my colleagues and I have worked to develop an outstanding set of anthropology courses at UMKC. Although we don't have a major, our anthropology curriculum is top-tier, and we have sent several of our students to graduate school with funding.
I am also very proud of how I have grown as a scholar since coming to UMKC. In the past 15 years, I have published three books and received the UMKC Trustee’s Faculty Award.
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Interview with Dr. Sirisha Naidu, Associate Professor of Economics
1) Thinking back on the last few years as a faculty member at UMKC, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
I’m particularly proud of my public-facing scholarship since joining UMKC in August 2019. I have been interviewed on the topics of neoliberalism, the Indian farmers’ protests, and environmental justice and women’s work. I have written for popular magazines on economics, politics and policies. In addition, I have been a keynote presenter and participated at conferences on social movements and civil resistance. Making my research accessible to different audiences and connecting with the Kansas City community has been particularly fulfilling.
2) Can you give one example of how your research informs your teaching and/or service?
My research is broadly on the topic of social reproduction, which interrogates ways in which the economy, work and society enable or impede the ability of working people to provide for themselves, their families and their communities in material and non-material terms. I bring this understanding to my teaching and service as well. My aim is to help create communities within and outside the classroom that support learning, and where questioning and collective engagement are normalized.
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Ketanji Brown Jackson: Four Essential Reads
Click below to access the articles listed in The Conversation
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