FAS Faculty Academy Mini-Courses

Faculty Academy offers FAS Faculty the opportunity to teach and take short courses with their peers.

FAS faculty who meet the eligibility criteria below are invited to offer two- to five-session mini-courses open to other FAS faculty. Courses will meet during the final weeks of May and/or first week of June, for a minimum of roughly 6 and a maximum of roughly 25 hours, with the configuration determined by the faculty member leading the course. (For example: a literature seminar might meet for five 2-hour morning sessions; a data science lecture/lab might include three 1-hour morning lectures and four 3-hour afternoon “problem-solving” sessions; etc.)

Courses may be on any topic. They may draw on courses you have taught many times, or they may address a topic you have long wanted to explore. They may be taught by individual faculty or by pairs or small groups. Co-instructors may be from the same department, or wildly different ones. The goal of the program is to generate new ideas and new energy. We invite exploration and experimentation.

Faculty teaching Faculty Mini-Courses will be provided with modest financial compensation (up to $5,000, depending on the scale of the course) in recognition of their efforts towards preparation and teaching. A limited number of courses will be selected for offering each year.

Once courses have been announced, all FAS faculty will be invited to participate as students. In the event of oversubscription, a selection process will be announced.

Eligibility

Proposals for courses are welcome from:

  • any ladder faculty member with a primary or fully joint appointment in an FAS department or program (including emeritus/a faculty), or
  • any instructional (non-ladder) faculty member with a primary or fully joint full-time multi-year non-visiting appointment in an FAS department or program or the MacMillan Center.

Application Process for 2022

To propose a faculty academy course for Spring 2024, please submit a one-page precis by April 12, 2024 using the online application form.

Past Faculty Academy Mini-Courses

2019

  • The Hype and Reality of Artificial Intelligence, taught by Brian Scassellati (Computer Science)
  • Modern Natural Language Processing, taught by Dragomir Radev (Computer Science)
  • One Hundred Years of Russian Opera, taught by Patrick McCreless (Music) and Julia Titus (Slavic Languages and Literatures)
  • Understanding our Cosmic Neighborhood: A Hands-on, Eyes-on Tour of the Universe, taught by Michael Faison (Astronomy)

2018

  • Advanced Spanish Conversation, taught by María M. Vázquez (Spanish)
  • Afrofabulations, taught by Tavia Nyong’o (Theater Studies and American Studies)
  • The Hype and Reality of Artificial Intelligence, taught by Brian Scassellati (Computer Science)
  • Teaching and Writing with the R Language for Statistical Computing and Graphics, taught by Jay Emerson (Statistics and Data Science)