- Educational Development
Elina Salminen, PhD
Assistant Director for Educational Development
- Eads 105
- elinasalminen@wustl.edu
How Can I Help
I'm excited to work with faculty and graduate student instructors to support equitable, excellent teaching, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. I enjoy discussing how to center your course goals and make them both transparent and relevant to students. I especially like brainstorming about teaching that is interdisciplinary, incorporates transferable skills, and allows students to bring in their varied commitments and interests. I’d also love to talk to you about how to turn your teaching insights into publishable research!
Bio
Elina (she/her/hers) joined WashU and the Center for Teaching and Learning in January 2024 as Assistant Director for Educational Development. In her role, she supports a broad range of the Center’s programming from graduate student reading groups to developing new programming for faculty. She has taught for WashU’s Department of Classics and continues to teach for the Bearprints for Success program.Â
In addition to her day-to-day at WashU, Elina is active in the broader field of teaching and learning. She currently helms a research team on conceptualizations of identity among educational developers. She also serves on the Board of Directors for POD Network, and has held leadership and editorial positions within the organization. She is active in the International Society for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and has served on the Society’s Publications Committee. She regularly reviews for both organizations as well as Routledge in the field of educational development.Â
A recent interest of hers is exploring the joyous aspects of teaching. An event series she established at WashU, Teaching With Joy, was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and she has an article forthcoming on playful learning. Â
Elina’s PhD (University of Michigan) is in Classical Art and Archaeology, and she has published on social identities in ancient Macedonia and on the archaeology of households. In her role at WashU, she enjoys leaning on her training at the intersection of humanities and social sciences to share insights from both traditions on scholarship. As part of her graduate training, Elina also taught and supported community-based learning courses, and she remains deeply committed to building connections between on-campus and off-campus communities.Â
Prior to coming to WashU, Elina worked at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on humanities initiatives. In that role, she developed pedagogical programming and taught courses to support the success of California’s diverse students, with a particular focus on belonging, transfer, and career awareness. She also worked on an initiative to reimagine large general education courses.