Kupatadze named 2017-19 Center for Engaged Learning Scholar

Ketevan Kupatadze, senior lecturer in Spanish, has been named the inaugural Center for Engaged Learning (CEL) Scholar. During her 2017-19 term, Kupatadze will focus on student-faculty partnerships as high-impact practice.

• Collaborate with students on curricular design and work with them as partners on the topic of teaching and learning;
• Develop tools and practical strategies for faculty who wish to design teaching initiatives that promote partnership with students;
• Support faculty to plan the implementation of such initiatives;
• Develop a database of scholarly sources that support collaboration between faculty and students; and
• Promote inter-institutional and international collaboration and exchange of ideas and expertise.

Her CEL Scholar project extends her inclusion of the scholarship of teaching and learning as an integral part of her research and professional development. Kupatadze previously participated in the Teagle-funded Collaborative Humanities Redesign Project, in the Elon Research Seminar on Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer, and in the Writing Excellence Initiative as a departmental liaison.

During a two-year appointment, CEL Scholars develop expertise in a specific aspect of engaged learning and create resources on that topic to be shared through CEL’s web site and in other scholarly venues. The CEL Scholar position is an opportunity for an Elon faculty member to develop and deepen a professional development trajectory that includes scholarly activity on a high-impact practice or other engaged learning topic.

Scholars receive one course reassignment per year and a summer stipend equivalent to FRD’s summer fellowship for each of two consecutive summers to support focused work on the CEL Scholar’s topic, as well as a $3,000 per year draw account to be spent on CEL-related professional expenses and activities.

Applications are reviewed by the Center’s staff and a small committee of faculty who have participated in the Center’s initiatives. The primary criteria for proposal review is the fit of the two-year project within the faculty member’s professional trajectory, along with the committee’s judgment about the capacity of the applicant to meet the scholarly and productive needs of the Center.

A call for applications for the 2018-20 CEL Scholar will be released in fall 2017.

Questions about the Center for Engaged Learning or the CEL Scholar program should be directed to Jessie L. Moore at centerforengagedlearning@elon.edu.