ISA - The Teaching Curve

Teaching Curve 34 Jessica Auchter on Balancing Emotions and Learning Tools in IR Education

This month’s episode is with Dr. Jessica Auchter, Full Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada. Jessica moved to her current role after 10 years teaching at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga in the United States. Her research is on visual culture and politics, including the visual representation of atrocity and corpses and human rights. She teaches courses on the visual representation of human rights, methodologies of visual analysis, gender, and humanitarianism. She teaches in English and in French.    Our conversation explores  §  Modeling for students how to navigate the intersections of really horrible human tragedies and the emotional burdens that thinking about and even studying those tragedies evoke.  §  A tools-based mindset as perhaps the most lasting learning objective of international relations courses. §  The politics of the language of instruction and how instructors can use those politics to open conversations that connect students to deeper learning.    The interview was edited for length.   Teaching Curve contacts: Twitter: @TeachingCurve Email: TeachingCurve@isanet.org   For 23 more stories about innovative and effective teachers of international studies, check out Pedagogical Journeys through World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047 [https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047]

Teaching Curve 33 Phi Su, Liz Gallerani, and Christine Menard on Faculty/Staff Collaboration for Innovative Engagement

This episode is with three scholar/teachers from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in the US. Phi Su is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Williams. Liz Gallerani is Curator of Mellon Academic Programs at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), and Christine Ménard is Head of Research Services and Library Outreach for Williams College Libraries. The three have collaborated on the design, execution, and revision of two courses that earned Phi recognition as the recipient of ISA’s 2024 Deborah Gerner Award for Innovative Teaching.   Our conversation explores  * Course structures that get students to engage in ways that push them beyond memorization to imagination and creativity.  * The rich opportunities for pedagogical insight and collaboration that exist throughout institutions of higher learning, especially with staff members who often sit at the intersections of resources that can inspire creativity.  * And how pedagogical experimentation and pedagogical evolution feed each other in response to the natural feedback that students provide to our efforts.   The interview was edited for length. Teaching Curve contacts: Twitter: @TeachingCurve Email: TeachingCurve@isanet.org   For 23 more stories about innovative and effective teachers of international studies, check out Pedagogical Journeys through World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047 [https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047]

Teaching Curve 32 James Der Derian and Jayson Waters on Teaching Quantum IR

This month’s episode is with Dr. James Der Derian, Michael Hintze Chair of International Security Studies and Director of the Centre for International Security Studies, and Dr. Jayson Waters, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Centre for International Security Studies, which is part of the University of Sydney in Australia. They have been working together on the fundamentals of Quantum IR, which seeks to find connections between the quantum theory that explains the dynamics of subatomic particles and explanations of global political dynamics.    Our conversation explores  ·       Definitions of Quantum IR as a theoretical approach to global politics.  ·       Approaches to teaching Quantum IR to graduate students as an exercise in unlearning assumptions and authorizing innovative thinking.  ·       And the value of dialogical, flat, and mutually empowering pedagogical contexts in which everyone involved thinks of their interactions as resting on the power to make the future.    The interview was edited for length.   Acknowledgements: Thanks to the steering committee for the International Studies Association’s Innovative Pedagogy Initiative, the folks at ISA HQ, and special thanks to Joel Lorenzatti, Sarah Dorr, and Josephine Anderson for logistical and technical support.    Teaching Curve contacts: Twitter: @TeachingCurve Email: TeachingCurve@isanet.org   For 23 more stories about innovative and effective teachers of international studies, check out Pedagogical Journeys through World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047 [https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047]

Teaching Curve 31 Anahita Arian on Teaching Non-Western IR Theory

This month’s episode is with Dr. Anahita Arian, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Centre for Geopolitics and a College Research Associate at King’s College at Cambridge University in the UK. Among other positions in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, Anahita has taught International Relations at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and at the University of Erfurt in Germany. She is the author of a forthcoming chapter on teaching Non-Western IR theory that will appear in the Palgrave Handbook on the Pedagogy of IR Theory.    The episode explores  ·       How teaching theoretical pluriversality requires significantly different approaches than teaching a focused canon.  ·       The importance of teaching students how to wrestle with the emotions studying global politics can evoke.  ·       Pedagogical tactics for improving that emotional intelligence in three overlapping phases.    The interview was edited for length.   Acknowledgements: Thanks to the steering committee for the International Studies Association’s Innovative Pedagogy Initiative, the folks at ISA HQ, and special thanks to Joel Lorenzatti, Sarah Dorr,and Josephine Anderson for logistical and technical support.    Teaching Curve contacts: Twitter: @TeachingCurve Email: TeachingCurve@isanet.org   For 23 more stories about innovative and effective teachers of international studies, check out Pedagogical Journeys through World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047 [https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047]

Teaching Curve 30 Misbah Hyder on Trauma-informed Teaching in IR

Dr. Misbah Hyder, a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Teaching Excellence Center at the United States Naval War College in Rhode Island in the US. She consults with faculty there and trains instructors in trauma-informed teaching in professional military education environments. She is co-editor with Michael Murphy on a forthcoming volume Teaching Political Science and International Relations for Early Career Instructors.   The episode explores  •       How to leverage the study of pedagogy into a fulfilling institutional role supporting the development of colleagues as teachers.  •       The concept of trauma-informed teaching and how adopting it shifts perspectives on pedagogy.  •       Specific trauma-informed teaching tactics that make a difference in both the content and practice of IR courses.    The interview was edited for length.   Acknowledgements: Thanks to the steering committee for the International Studies Association’s Innovative Pedagogy Initiative, the folks at ISA HQ, and special thanks to Sarah Dorr, Joel Lorenzatti and Josephine Anderson for logistical and technical support.    Teaching Curve contacts: Twitter: @TeachingCurve Email: TeachingCurve@isanet.org   For 23 more stories about innovative and effective teachers of international studies, check out Pedagogical Journeys through World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047 [https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047]