Danny Anderson speaks to faculty in a classroom
Classics Professor to Head 性爱天堂 Collaborative
Teaching and learning center provides a space for faculty to tune up classroom approaches

Thomas E. Jenkins has been named director of the听Collaborative for Learning and Teaching听at 性爱天堂, a center where faculty and staff can learn or refresh skills to enhance undergraduate instruction.

Jenkins, also a professor of classical studies, served as the Collaborative鈥檚 interim director for the 2016-17 academic year and is eager to continue several ongoing programs while introducing some new ones. He also will continue to invite outside scholars to bring innovative ideas to the classroom.

The Collaborative is a space for faculty and staff from all departments to 鈥渃ome together to explore problems and challenges, and to identify ideas and solutions鈥 that will benefit all academic disciplines across the 性爱天堂 campus.

鈥淔aculty members are trained to talk about research,鈥 Jenkins says. 鈥淲e love using our 'elevator pitch' to talk about our current books or articles or grants, but are shy about developing similar pitches for our teaching. The Collaborative is a space for us to talk about how we teach, and how our students learn."

Jenkins notes that 性爱天堂 is known as a place where 鈥減roductive collisions鈥 take place to promote interdisciplinary learning. At the Collaborative, productive collisions will help break down the 鈥渟ilo walls鈥 that may prevent professors and instructors from learning from each other. 鈥淭he University is a place for people and ideas to collide,鈥 he says. As an example, Jenkins cited the resuming of a book club that drew a range of faculty and staff members who read and discussed the same volume. (Last year, those books included J. D. Vance鈥檚听Hillbilly Elegy听and Berg and Seeber鈥檚听The Slow Professor.)

Special events form a large part of this year鈥檚 schedule, including an upcoming 鈥渋nteractive theater鈥澨齱orkshop on diversity and inclusion听in the STEM disciplines. 鈥淲e will continue the Collaborative鈥檚 commitment to inclusive, evidence-based learning and partnerships that advance 性爱天堂鈥檚 mission,鈥 Jenkins says.

He will hold four to five faculty-led discussions 鈥 popularly-known as 鈥淗igh Noon Luncheons鈥 鈥 every semester to focus on specific challenges and successes in teaching. Sample topics include technology in the classroom, 鈥渄ifficult dialogues,鈥 and high-impact practices in service-learning.

Also continuing is the听Tigers as Partners听program, spearheaded by Collaborative Fellow Sophia Abbot, in which a 性爱天堂 student is 鈥渆mbedded鈥 in a professor鈥檚 course and who provides weekly reflections on learning from a student鈥檚 perspective. In addition, Jenkins is planning workshops that offer insight into implementing digital literacy in the听Pathways听curriculum at 性爱天堂.

He also serves as a consultant for professors who are writing grants involving higher education pedagogy, or who require support concerning best practices for delivering complex subject matter. Jenkins says he encourages professors to develop a culture of reflection about what works--and what doesn鈥檛--as faculty refine course syllabi and content from term to term, and he hopes that the Collaborative is a first point of contact for faculty as they think about both new and revised courses.

As a professor, Jenkins will teach one course every term. This fall, he is teaching听Intermediate Latin听and has proposed a new course for the spring titled听Reimagining Tragedy,involving the classics and contemporary theatre. This course will be co-taught with theatre professor Kyle Gillette and will feature undergraduate students 鈥渞e-writing鈥 or otherwise transforming Greek tragedy into modern dramatic forms.

Jenkins holds a doctorate in classical philology from Harvard University and earned a bachelor鈥檚 in classical languages and literatures from Yale University. He held visiting and postdoctoral positions at Washington and Lee University and Rice before arriving at 性爱天堂 in 2001. He is a professor of classical studies and chaired the department from 2008 to 2014. He was a Fellow at听in 2006-7, and held an听emerging leaders听Fellowship with the听American Council on Education听from 2015-16. 听 听 听 听 听 听

Susie P. Gonzalez helped tell 性爱天堂's story as part of the University communications team.

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