Austin Community Conversations

Celebrating Academic Excellence: Brinda Roy and Alex Watkins

On April 25, 2026, Austin Community College hosted its annual Student Research Symposium [https://sites.google.com/austincc.edu/student-research-symposium-202/home?authuser=0] event, showcasing outstanding original academic work by ACC students across all disciplines.  Eleven ACC students were also honored at the annual Curiositas Academic Journal [https://curiositas.acclahc.org/] release ceremony, recognizing a carefully selected collection of noteworthy student submissions in the Liberal Arts.  For this episode I was  joined by Brinda Roy and Alex Watkins, who respectively serve as faculty leaders for the Symposium and Curiositas programs.  We were also honored to speak with Zoila Walston and Ashley Miramontes, two students who have been published in Curiositas.

Madeline Vosch: Empathy Through Memoir

Madeline Vosch teaches courses in Creative Writing, Humanities and Religious Studies disciplines at ACC.  We discuss her book ‘Undead:  A Memoir of My Suicide [https://www.madelinevosch.com/undead]’, soon to be published by Beacon Press.  The book integrates her interdisciplinary scholarly background and creative voice into a powerful invitation to explore the intersection of profound vulnerability and profound compassion.   Please note that this episode contains discussions of self-harm and suicide.

Bryan Port: Fostering Impactful Civic Leaders

Bryan Port serves as the Director for the Center for Government and Civic Service [https://www.cgcs-acc.org/] at Austin Community College.  Bryan and his team bring civic engagement to life in new and innovative ways, and I invite you to learn about what they offer both to ACC’s students and the broader Austin community.

ACC's Character Education Initiative: Kelly Greenwood, Ted Hadzi-Antich, Arun Johns and Grant Potts

My guests today are Arun John, Kelly Greenwood, Grant Potts and Ted Hadzi-Antich, and they’ll be talking about their work on the Character Education Initiative at Austin Community College.  I think this work has the potential for profound impact on the way that we think about both teaching and learning, and invite you to imagine the possibilities along with us. This episode features discussion of Claire Elise Katz' "Stolen Valor: How the Humanities '@ Work' Are Hidden in Plain Sight [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities/article/stolen-valor-how-the-humanities-work-are-hidden-in-plain-sight/47388691AAEFC4A3F31191F35CEC1F7C]".

Ted Hadzi-Antich: Learning Via the Great Questions

Ted Hadzi-Antich is a government professor and one of the founders of the Great Questions Seminar [https://programs.austincc.edu/general-studies-in-arts/accs-great-questions-seminar/] at ACC.  Here you’ll learn about how the Seminar focuses on the fundamental elements of close readings of source texts, open ended discussion, and classroom community.  By the end, I think you’ll find it easy to see why this pedagogy has captured the attention of media outlets ranging from the New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/04/opinion/college-students-school-work.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare] to the Chronicle of Higher Education [https://www.chronicle.com/article/community-college-is-the-future-of-liberal-education?sra=true], along with major four-year universities who have been surprised and inspired by what our faculty and students achieve together.