Professors Peter Felten and Susan Hrach will bring their expertise to the Carleton community this academic year as the newly appointed Fulbright Canada Distinguished Chairs in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).
“To say that I am excited to welcome Peter and Susan to Carleton is an understatement,” says David Hornsby, Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning). “Having scholars of this calibre join us and share their knowledge and experience is an enormous opportunity for our teaching and learning community.”
The Fulbright chair position gives extraordinary American scholars and top-tier researchers the chance to spend a year at Carleton as a visiting research scholar conducting innovative SoTL projects, leading seminars and workshops, and generating new opportunities for SoTL research collaborations and knowledge exchange.
Professor Peter Felten. Photo by Kim Walker.
Prof. Felten, Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning and Executive Director of the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University in North Carolina, will be pursuing research interests and collaborations in the area of student success. He says he is looking forward to immersing himself in the Carleton community.
“I hope to develop relationships and cultivate research projects that will build on Carleton’s many strengths in teaching and learning – and that will challenge me to critically examine some of the assumptions and perspectives that I take for granted in my own context,” he says.
Professor Susan Hrach. Photo by Kelly Masic.
Prof. Hrach, Director of the Faculty Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at Columbus State University in Georgia, will be advancing her research around the role of design, space and movement in learning. Hrach says she’ll be seeking to understand which kinds of body and mind activities work reliably for specific purposes, like increasing students’ sense of belonging or deepening their grasp of concepts.
“Carleton’s strategic direction to support sustainability and wellness, as well as its emphasis on experiential learning make it such a forward-thinking institution for me to learn from,” she says.
Professors Felten and Hrach will be on campus starting in September and will be based out of the new Future Learning Lab on the fourth floor of the MacOdrum Library.