Recap: "Teaching the Humanities as a Survival Skill"

The GC's Teaching and Learning Center and LaGuardia Community College recently hosted a workshop, Teaching the Humanities as a Survival Skill, that drew four generations of students, as well as livestream viewers.

The October event was part of The University Worth Fighting For, a Futures Initiative workshop in partnership with HASTAC. Its objective is to tie student-centered, engaged pedagogical practices to institutional change and social justice.

"The nobility of our profession is to teach as many people as possible and make the mission of changing the world our collective mission," Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore (Earth and Environmental Sciences [pictured]) said in closing remarks.

The workshop was led by Distinguished Professor Cathy Davidson (English), director of the Futures Initiative; Professor Eduardo Vianna (LGCC, Psychology), a Futures Initiative Faculty Fellow; Ph.D. student Mike Rifino (Psychology), a Futures Initiative Graduate Fellow; and Professor Vanessa Bing (LGCC, Psychology).

Davidson also authored a powerful essay this week for Inside Higher Ed, commenting on the vital need for sane, democratic discourse" in the wake of the Paris terror attacks and University of Missouri protests.