2021-2022
Lauren Baker
Lauren M. Baker is a PhD candidate in political science, with a primary subfield of comparative politics and a secondary field of political theory. Her research examines the politics of waste management in the Middle East and North Africa as a case study of how environmentalism translates across context. She has served as a Teaching Assistant for several courses in Political Science and as an instructor with Chicago Field Studies. She earned her MA in Middle Eastern Studies from The University of Texas at Austin and her BA in International Studies from Allegheny College.
Lauren's Teaching Event Series:
Throughout the academic year, Lauren’s workshop series will investigate how institutional structures of the university and interpersonal dynamics can either marginalize and harm or support and uplift community members, including students, faculty, and teaching assistants. Lauren’s GSTC workshop aimed to help TAs establish healthy boundaries, and future workshops will focus on better understanding common impediments while providing practical steps to move towards equity now, including examining questions such as “What does an equitable classroom look like?” and “How can we collectively create learning environments in which all members feel valued and supported, while recognizing the multiple and overlapping challenges and privileges of different community members?”
Alanna Felts
Alanna is a 4th year PhD candidate in the chemistry department. Her research focuses on using computational methods to better understand the behavior of metals and ions at surfaces. She has participated in the Mentored Discussions of Teaching program and Teaching Certificate Program at Northwestern University, and has a passion for teaching and helping students gain confidence in themselves in STEM fields. She has also TA’d for several General Chemistry courses.
Alanna's Teaching Event Series:
It’s not uncommon to hear freshmen chemistry students express their frustration with the challenges that STEM classes provide. From students who need additional help to develop needed skills, to others who don’t see diverse examples in the classroom, there are many ways to encourage students and increase student retention. Alanna’s series will focus on equipping TAs in STEM fields with needed tools and methods to better assist with student challenges, and to be able to develop a learning community and manage a diverse classroom full of different backgrounds in ways beneficial for all students.
Tyler Talbott
Tyler is a 5th year PhD candidate in English, studying nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature. Tyler’s teaching experience includes teaching for British surveys, composition courses, and NU Summer Bridge, serving as a Writing Fellow at the Graduate Writing Place, tutoring for the Northwestern Prison Education Program, and participating in educational development initiatives through Searle.
Tyler's Teaching Event Series:
Throughout the 2021-2022 academic year, Tyler plans to expand upon his Graduate Student Teaching Conference presentation through a workshop series that will explore the core roles, skills, and tactics necessary for the English classroom. This series is meant to accompany the English graduate antiracist pedagogy workshop, which provides graduate students with concrete theories and strategies for accomplishing antiracist and inclusive instruction. Tyler’s workshops will build upon these themes, while simultaneously diving deep into concrete skills that are conventionally part of English instruction (close reading, critical thinking, argumentative writing), as well as specific activities and classroom structures for accomplishing these skills.
Keary Watts
Keary is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theatre and Drama. He is working on a dissertation that tracks and theorizes the political and historiographic potential of “strategic re-deployment,” or the purportedly anti-racist incorporation of nineteenth-century blackface minstrel conventions by Black theatre artists in the contemporary era.
Keary’s teaching event series aims to help graduate students in Theatre and Performance Studies prepare for the academic job market by developing a teaching materials. Through a series of three workshops, graduate instructors will attend a panel with faculty representing different types of institutions where teaching responsibilities vary; develop a teaching statement; and compile teaching assessments into a portfolio. These workshops will focus on needs relating specifically to job in Theatre and Performance Studies. They were open to all graduate students in these departments, but will be tailored to those about to enter or already on the job market.
