Building Community III: Bringing Theory to Practice
UMass Dartmouth professors will participate in "Building Community III: Bringing Theory to Practice," a free educational event, Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 5:30-8 p.m., at Our Sisters' School in New Bedford (145 Brownell Avenue). Members of the K-16 community are invited to this evening of thoughtful exploration of ways to develop a community of faculty, staff, administrators, students, and parents from local higher education institutions and elementary, middle, and high schools.
Associate Professor Dr. Maureen P. Hall, of UMass Dartmouth's STEM Education and Teacher Development department, is the organizer of this event. The overarching goal of this gathering is to bring together the many stakeholders in education to see how to build community through the intersections between and among mindfulness, diversity, and literacy. Dr. Hall believes that interdisciplinary learning holds the key to transformative education.
Dr. Hall will be joined by six speakers (whose biographies are outlined below). The speakers and Dr. Hall will be on a panel at the end of the event in order to create an interactive dialogue with participants. Hors d'oeuvres and dessert will be served.
1) Dr. Aminda O'Hare
UMass Dartmouth, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Dr. O'Hare runs the CAPES Lab (Cognitive and Affective Psychophysiology and Experimental Science Lab). She broadly studies the intersection of emotion and cognition using tools of neuroscience. Recently, she has been investigating the moderating effect of mindfulness meditation on emotion-cognition interactions.
2) Dr. Nicholas Santavicca
UMass Dartmouth, Assistant Professor of STEM Education and Teacher Development
Dr. Santavicca specializes in Bilingual/ESL Education and Diversity Studies. He has been a language and culture educator in the United States, Spain, China, and Guatemala. His research interests include second language identity development, language stigmatization, and queer issues in educational settings. Currently, his work focuses on cultural stigma(s) andnonparticipation of language learners in the classroom and the intersection of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Educator identity.
3) Dr. Robert P. Waxler
UMass Dartmouth, Professor of English
Dr. Waxler co-founded the internationally known Changing Lives Through Literature program in 1991, and is the co-founder of the UMass Dartmouth Center for Jewish Culture. He has authored or co-authored several books, including Changing Lives through Literature, Finding a Voice, Transforming Literacy, Losing Jonathan, Courage to Walk, and The Risk of Reading.
4) Dr. Jesse Bazzul
UMass Dartmouth, Assistant Professor of STEM Education and Teacher Development
Dr. Bazzul specializes in curriculum and science education. He has worked as a science and mathematics teacher in Canada, China and Ukraine. His research interests focus on the social, political, and ethical dimensions of STEM education from the perspective of critical theory; specifically how STEM policy and curricula work to open and limit the ethical actions of educational communities.
5) Dr. Mary Lee Prescott-Griffin
Wheaton College, Professor of Education
Dr. Prescott-Griffin teaches literacy courses and convenes Wheaton's Contemplative Studies Initiative. The author of literacy-related articles and three books, she currently researches the impact of mindfulness on young readers and writers. She also writes fiction with mindfulness practitioners among her characters.
6) Dr. Maureen P. Hall
UMass Dartmouth, Associate Professor of STEM Education and Teacher Development
Dr. Hall has published 13 articles in peer-reviewed journals, along with other published essays and poems. Over 2010-2011, she spent seven months in India as a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Scholar. Her first book, Transforming Literacy, was written with lead author, Dr. Robert P. Waxler. She also has a forthcoming book, Writing from the Inside (Equinox), with Dr. Olivia Archibald.
7) Dr. Shakhnoza Kayumova
UMass Dartmouth, Assistant Professor of STEM Education and Teacher Development Dr. Kayumova's areas of expertise include science educations, critical theory, language-rich inquiry practices, and qualitative research methods. Her work focuses on the empowerment of English Language Learners (ELL) and minority girls in STEM education through language rich inquiry practices. Interests include: multiple and interlocking experiences of
social class, gender, race, ethnicity, and language that ELL students bring into the formal ways of knowing.