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Guest lecture on L’isola di Arturo
I was invited to talk about Elsa Morante’s L’isola di Arturo on May 5, 2020,
at Bennington College
My blog post about the Seminar “Emotion, affect, and community building in the CUNY classroom”
Here is a report about a seminar I organized and facilitated for ACERT at Hunter College, published on December 6, 2019.
Emotion, affect, and community building in the CUNY classroom
Ferrante course student conference
Instead of in-class presentations, my students this semester organized a conference: 3 panels with moderators, discussion, and even a program and coffee breaks.
Ferrante Midterm Conference - ProgramEvent on the adaptations of Elena Ferrante’s works
Yesterday, I introduced the speaker, Giancarlo Lombardi, and moderated the discussion about “umbilical scenes in L’amore molesto and L’amica geniale.
Flyer Nov. 7 Hunter College
Rap and Poetry in the Classroom
Rap and Poetry in the Classroom: Creative Performance as Classroom Engagement
When: October 15, 2019, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Where: Charlotte Frank Classroom (1203 HE)
Topic(s):
Presenter(s): D’Weston Haywood (History); Alyson Greenfield (English); Stefania Porcelli (Romance Languages); Victoria Tomasulo and Marzena Rammairone (Hunter College Students); Jennifer Gillespie Rhodes (Italian, Columbia University)
Help us plan, send your RSVP to acert@hunter.cuny.edu Bring a friend!
In this lunchtime seminar, presenters will describe and illustrate a variety of classroom activities they have used as alternatives to written papers and other typical research and scholarly work. First, D’Weston Haywood (History) will introduce the pedagogical rationale and some recent work on using sound and listening-based activities in classrooms. Then, he will provide examples of assignments in which students rapped and performed other spoken word summaries of their final class projects. Next, Alyson Greenfield (English) will present her embodied teaching activities in which students perform spoken word poetry slams and movement exercises. Finally, Stefania Porcelli (Romance Languages) will present examples from Italian courses in which students wrote and performed their own original poetry. In additional to faculty presenting, a number of Hunter students will also discuss their experiences presenting these creative projects.
ACERT Lunchtime Seminar
As an ACERT faculty fellow, I organized this upcoming event at Hunter College.
Emotion, affect, and community building in the CUNY classroom
When: October 22, 2019, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Where: Charlotte Frank Classroom (1203 HE)
Presenter(s): Sarah Benesch (College of Staten Island); ; Asilia Franklin-Phipps (The Graduate Center); Monica Calabritto (Romance Languages)
Help us plan, send your RSVP to acert@hunter.cuny.edu Bring a friend!
The social and emotional context in which teaching and learning take place can affect, either positively or negatively, student academic and developmental outcomes. Some studies have found, for example, that a relaxed atmosphere, intimacy, trust and mutual interdependence enhance students’ intellectual commitment. On the other hand, professors and instructors often face difficult expectations and challenges that determine their response to the students’ needs. This seminar seeks to explore the relationship between cognition and emotion – knowing and feeling – understood as intertwined aspects of classroom life, considering both the emotional labor of the instructor and students’ engagement and attention. Our speakers work in several CUNY campuses and are interested in pedagogical approaches that explore the affective experience of learning.
Statement of professional development
In the coming year, I will be a Faculty Fellow of ACERT (Academic Center for Excellence in Research and Teaching). I am organizing a Lunchtime Seminar on affect/emotion in the classroom, scheduled on October 22, 2019.
I will defend my dissertation in the Fall 2019 and write a book proposal in the Spring.
In the Spring 2020, I will teach at NYU as Recitation Instructor on Culture and Contexts: Germany with Prof. Thomas Ertman.
Teaching Dante on the Commons
My blog post about my class on the Divine Comedy is here!
