The UNM Spring Teaching Conference will be held virtually Thursday and Friday, March 3 and 4. The keynote speaker will be Laura I. Rendón, Professor Emerita at The University of Texas at San Antonio, who will address Fostering an Equitable and Just Education for First-Generation, Low-Income Students. Her presentation will address themes related to fostering student success especially for low-income, first-generation students. Rendón will center her presentation on understanding the challenges students experience transitioning to college; centering the importance of humanizing education and validating students; and recognizing and leveraging student assets and their own ways of succeeding in college.
Participants should register online.
Schedule of events
Thursday, March 3
9:45 a.m.—Welcome from UNM Associate Provost Bill Stanley and introduction of Dr. Laura I. Rendón
10 a.m.—Keynote with Dr. Laura I. Rendón: Fostering an Equitable and Just Education for First-Generation, Low-Income Students
11 a.m.—Session 1: Instructor Panel: Increasing Belonging in the (Post) Pandemic Classroom
Noon—Session 2: Student Panel—Hearing from Our Students: What Kind of Teaching Matters to Them
1 p.m.—Workshop: Dr. Laura I. Rendón—Re-Imagining Teaching and Learning: Employing Pedagogies of Justice, Equity and Healing
2:30 p.m.—Session 3: Graduate Student Panel—Empowering Graduate Pedagogies: Challenges, Collaborations and Care
3:30 p.m. Wrap-Up: A Facilitated Conversation
Rendón will lead the workshop Re-Imagining Teaching and Learning: Employing Pedagogies of Justice, Equity and Healing at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 3.
What kind of teaching and learning context is best suited for deeply engaging the whole student and for connecting pedagogy to justice, equity, and healing? Rendón will review contemporary pedagogies needed to foster equity, justice, inclusion, and well-being. She will specifically discuss Sentipensante(Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy as a culturally-validating deep learning experience that addresses the rhythmic balance between intellectual, social, emotional and inner life skill development. Rendón will feature videos of faculty employing contemplative tools (i.e., arts-based projects, guided imagery, audio narratives, music, and periods of reflection) as they engage a sensing/thinking pedagogy.
Friday, March 4
9 a.m.—Welcoming Remarks by Dr. Aeron Haynie, UNM Center for Teaching & Learning
9:30 a.m.—Session 1: Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls—Black Feminism is the View
10:45 a.m.—Session 2: Riva Lehrer—The Body Behind Glass
Noon—Lunchtime Discussion: Graduate participants may join presenters for lunch and Q&A
1 p.m.—Session 3: Dr. Dolores Delgado Bernal—Feminista Pedagogies and Teaching in Nepantla
2:30 p.m.—Concluding Discussion: Faculty participants may join one of three breakout rooms for discussion with specific presenters
3:30 p.m.—Closing Remarks by Dr. Garnett Stokes, President, UNM
The theme of Friday, March 4, is Teach Like a Feminist: Digitally Enhanced Intersectional Pedagogies.
The first speaker at 9:30 a.m. is Shanté Paradigm Smalls, (They/Them), Associate Professor of Black Studies, Department of English, and faculty in Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, St. John’s University. Black Feminism is the View will be moderated by Dr. Shelle Sanchez.
Riva Lehrer, artist, writer, and activist; faculty member, The School of the Art, Institute of Chicago; and Instructor, Medical Humanities, Northwestern University School of Medicine, will present The Body Behind the Glass at 10:45 a.m., moderated by Dr. Marissa Greenberg.
Dr. Dolores Delgado Bernal will present Feminista Pedagogies and Teaching in Nepantla at the 1 p.m. session moderated by Michelle Mendez. Delgado Bernal is Professor of Chicanx Studies and Associate Dean, College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, Los Angeles.
Participants can register online.