GSPD Reading Community

Introduction

Open to all graduate students and postdocs, the Graduate Student and Postdoc (GSPD) Reading Community is an opportunity to join Center for Teaching and Learning staff for sustained cross-disciplinary conversation on critical topics in teaching and learning. Participants will read 1-2 brief chapters of the semester’s book for each meeting, and we will also provide executive summaries of the chapters. We will meet in person on campus, and participants should commit to attending all five sessions. Participants will receive a copy of a book we’ll be reading, and the Center for Teaching and Learning provides refreshments and snacks for each meeting.

Fall 2025

The book for Fall 2025 is Snafu Edu: Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the College Classroom by Jessamyn Neuhaus. Description from the publisher’s website: “No matter how skilled, thoughtful, and well prepared professors are—or how motivated and engaged their students might be—things sometimes go wrong. In this empowering, smart, and refreshingly frank book, Jessamyn Neuhaus offers college educators a roadmap for anticipating and navigating these inevitable snafus—and keeping the course of teaching and learning on track. Clear-eyed about the rarely acknowledged foul-ups that teachers invariably confront, Snafu Edu provides evidence-based insights into why these things happen and practical, workable strategies for recognizing, responding to, repairing, and reducing them.”

Registration

Register on our events page before September 8!

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Books Used in Prior Semesters

Spring 2025: Pedagogies for the Future: A Critical Reimagining of Education by Gary Beauchamp, Dylan Adams, and Kevin Smith
Spring 2024: A selection of readings on the theme of power dynamics in the classroom, with a special focus on Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks
Spring 23: Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom by Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy
Fall 2022: Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College by Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert
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 questions about the GSPD Reading Community, please contact the CTL at ctl@wustl.edu.