ISA - The Teaching Curve

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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] 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 

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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] 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 

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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] 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 

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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] 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 

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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] 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 

This episode is a conversation with Jochen Kleinschmidt, a Research Associate and Coordinator of the Center for Latin American Studies (ZILAS) at Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany, and Margaryta Rymarenko who has degrees from Central European University in Vienna Austria and who works for humanitarian organizations in Kyiv, Ukraine. Jochen taught at two institutions in Colombia from 2014 to 2020, and Margaryta was a CEU Global Teaching Fellow in Myanmar, teaching undergraduate students in Political Science and International Relations programs at the University of Yangon. They are co-authors of a forthcoming chapter on teaching IR Theory as visitors to classrooms in the Global South. The episode explores •       The role of teachers, both generally and when teaching in cultures other than our own, in empowering students.•       Problems that accompany the simplifications built into terms like Global South and Global North. •       Processes for helping students connect their personal experiences to the types of knowledge particular to the study of IR and global politics.  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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] 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 

This episode’s conversation is with Dr. Luba Levin-Banchik, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Cal State University San Bernadino and the 2023 recipient of the International Studies Association’s Deborah Gerner Award for Innovative Teaching.  Luba has published on using simulations and other active learning techniques and is a leader in the ISA West region.  Our conversation explores ·       Attitudes and policies that allow for mistakes and even failure as mechanisms to inspire student investment in learning. ·       How to use active learning techniques, such as jigsaw exercises, to get students both to learn new material and teach it to each other. ·       Options for framing the work required of building active learning tactics in terms of the returns on those investments.   The interview was edited for length.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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] 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 

Charity Butcher is the Director of the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development, and a Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Kennesaw State University in Georgia in the US. Alasdair Blair is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic at De Montfort University, in Leicester in the UK.  Charity is the Editor-in-Chief and Alasdair is the Lead Editor of the Journal of Political Science Education, which is published under the auspices of the American Political Science Association.  The episode explores •       The concept of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as a systematic and rigorous exploration of the mechanisms of successful pedagogy. •       How JPSE and publications like it promote both the wisdom of particular teacher/scholars and the value of pedagogy scholarship more generally. •       Suggestions for how to improve the chances that a submission to JPSE will be accepted for publication.  The interview was edited for length. Acknowledgements:Thanks to the steering committee for 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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] For 23 more stories about innovative and effective teachers of international studies, including one from Naeem, check out Pedagogical Journeys through World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047 

Dr. Alexander Cromwell is a Professorial Lecturer and the Associate Director of the Dean’s Scholars and Experiential Learning program at the Elliott School of international affairs at George Washington University in Washington, DC in the United States. He is the coauthor, along with Saaya Miyashiro, of a recent article in International Studies Perspectives entitled “Promoting Learning about Precarity and Resilience in War: Virtual Encounters between Afghan and American Students in International Studies Courses.”The episode explores ·       The value of cross-cultural interactions for teaching students what it means to have empathy on a global scale. ·       Logistics and common problems of integrating international interactions into a global politics course. ·       Suggestions for how to improve the process now that online video interactions are more accessible and normal.  The interview was edited for length. Acknowledgements:Thanks to the steering committee for 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: @TeachingCurveEmail: [email protected] For 23 more stories about innovative and effective teachers of international studies, including one from Naeem, check out Pedagogical Journeys through World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030203047 

Dr. Mark Harvey is an Associate Professor and Director of the Masters of Business Administration Program at St. Mary University in Kansas in the United States. He teaches courses on global management, international political economy, international business and leadership. Dr. James “Pigeon” Fielder is an instructor at Colorado State University in the United States. He joined CSU after retiring from the U.S. Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel and Associate Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Dr. Ryan Gibb is an Associate Professor teaching courses in  International Relations and Political Science at Baker University in Kansas in the United States. His research focuses on East Africa and issues of land reform. The episode explores Adapting games and simulations to different audiences and classroom settings.Practical considerations about how to run games that increase student learning in assessable ways How identities of students and instructors intersect with the identities learners and teachers adopt as a critical part of games  The interview was edited for length.