Faculty Reading Community

Overview

Open to all full time faculty, the Faculty Reading Community (FRC) is an opportunity to join Center for Teaching and Learning Educational Development staff for sustained cross-disciplinary conversation on critical topics in teaching and learning. Participants engage in pedagogical conversation revolving around a chapter or group of chapters from a recently published book on teaching and learning. Books are chosen for a combination of their practical advice, evidence-based strategies, and wide applicability to a variety of disciplines. When the FRC meets in person, the CTL provides refreshments and snacks. Advanced registration for this reading community is required and registration is limited each semester.

Summer 2025 Book

Registration is now open!

Join fellow faculty and CTL staff for sustained cross-disciplinary conversation on critical topics in teaching and learning.

The featured book for the Summer 2025 Faculty Reading Community will be Elizabeth Norell’s recently published The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching. Amid the current crises of higher education, this timely book offers much-needed guidance for cutting through the emotional static that can hold teachers back from fully engaging with their students. Norell explains how an educator’s presence, or authenticity, can be critical to creating transformational spaces for students. And presence, she argues, means uncovering and understanding one’s own internal struggles and buried insecurities—stresses often left unconfronted in an academic culture that values knowing over feeling. Presenting research on how and why such inner work unlocks transformational learning, The Present Professor equips educators with the tools for crafting a more authentic presence in their teaching work.

Dr. Norrell will join our group for a discussion of her work on June 18.

Participants are required to attend 3 of 4 meetings. Faculty will receive a print copy of the book courtesy of the CTL. Seats are limited.

Meeting Mode: The Summer Faculty Reading Community will meet via Zoom.

Meetings will be from 11:00AM-noon on the following Wednesdays:

• June 4. Chapter 1: Presence Defined and Chapter 2: Relational Teaching and Presence
• June 11.  Chapter 3: Academic Culture and Chapter 4: A Dozen Present Professors
• June 18: Chapter 5: Mindfulness, or Getting Quiet with Yourself and Chapter 6: Movement, Clarity Through Embodiment
• June 25: Chapter 7: Playing Big, Chapter 9: Confronting our Biases and Chapter 10: A Roadmap Forward.

The summer reading community will be facilitated by Eric Fournier, Director of Educational Development.

For questions about the Faculty Reading Community, please contact Dr. Eric Fournier (efournier@wustl.edu)

Books Used in Prior Semesters

• Spring 2025: A Pedagogy of Kindness by Catherine Denial
• Fall 2024: Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto by Kevin Gannon
• Spring 2024: Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education by David Clark and Robert Talbert
• Spring 2023: Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom by Kelly A. Hogan and Viji Sathy
• Fall 2022: Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College by Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert
• July 2022: Promoting Inclusive Classroom Dynamics in Higher Education: A Research-Based Pedagogical Guide for Faculty by Kathryn C. Oleson
• Spring 2022: Connected Teaching: Relationship, Power, and Mattering in Higher Education by Harriot Schwartz
• Fall 2021: Small Teaching: Every Day Lessons from the Science of Learning (Second Edition) by James Lang
• August 2021: What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching by Addy et al.
• Spring 2021: Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It by James Lang
• Fall 2020: Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching by Derek Bruff
• Spring 2020:How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories behind Effective College Teaching by Josh Eyler
• Fall 2019: Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning by James Lang
• Spring 2019: Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel

For more information on the Faculty Reading Community or to suggest a book, please contact the CTL at ctl@wustl.edu.