Student Spotlight

2022 Collegiality and Scholarship Excellence Awards

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 00:29:48 +0000

2022 Collegiality and Scholarship Excellence Awards Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 18:29

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Collegiality and Scholarship Excellence Awards! Click on each person below to learn more about them and how they are improving their research or creative community.

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Collegiality and Scholarship Spotlight - Sophia Zaccarine

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 00:27:01 +0000

Collegiality and Scholarship Spotlight - Sophia Zaccarine Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 18:27

Sophia is a 3rd year PhD student studying Aerospace Engineering. Her research focuses on functional allocation of nominal operations in increasingly autonomous deep space habitats. Sophia was recently awarded a Collegiality and Scholarship Award based on her contributions to the research or creative community. We asked Sophia a few questions to learn more about her as a scholar and get to know her better. Read more below!

What is a useful research or creative skill you think everyone should have?

Pursuing multiple interests! Being a good researcher does not mean you have to only want to do research 24/7. My colleagues are all incredibly talented at a number of athletic, artistic, and musical endeavors outside of our technical research, and I believe that enhances what we can bring to the table for research.

Why is your research or creative work important to the community or world at large?

Automation is increasing in all of our daily lives and interactions with technology. We've all had an annoying experience with a robotic phone agent, and clearly it is important we incorporate autonomous technology in a way that is more than being bothersome. My research intends to evaluate interactions between humans and autonomous technology, as well as teaming options, which has numerous applications outside of aerospace.

What does an ideal research or creative community look like to you?

One that is inclusive, humble, uplifting and encourages interests and mental wellbeing outside of work. I believe we are all engaged in varying topics and this is part of what makes us who we are. I don't think anyone is just categorized as what they do for work, and encouraging pursuits outside of one's career make life more enriching.

Tell us a fun fact about you that is not related to your research or academics.

I play for the CU Women's Club Soccer program and I absolutely love it. I also stress bake far too often but thankfully have multiple offices of coworkers where I can share my creations.

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Collegiality and Scholarship Spotlight - Xu Han

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 00:20:50 +0000

Collegiality and Scholarship Spotlight - Xu Han Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 18:20

Xu Han is a 5th year PhD student studying Computer Science. Her research focuses on developing computational approaches and tools to enhance the evaluation and design of dialogue systems that can behave effectively and ethically. Xu Han was recently awarded a Collegiality and Scholarship Award based on her contributions to the research or creative community. We asked Xu Han a few questions to learn more about her as a scholar and get to know her better. Read more below!

What is a useful research or creative skill you think everyone should have?

Communication is the key. Everyone has his/her own unique perspectives and experiences to share and to be learned from.

Why is your research or creative work important to the community or world at large?

How can we interact with the increasing digital data? How can we find answers to personalized queries with fewer efforts? In many of these cases, conversational agent (CA) is a good answer. Despite CAs' great promises, designers face lots of challenges during design processes. Thus, my research aims to develop effective computational approaches and tools from a designer’s perspective. It is important in enhancing the evaluation and design of CAs that can behave effectively and ethically. The interaction experience between lots of real-world users and CAs can be improved.

What's a benefit you have found from collaborating with others?

My collaborations with people inside and outside my research community help me accumulate unique research experience in interdisciplinary areas, which inspire many innovative research questions and hypotheses to explore.

If you could have dinner with anyone (living or dead), who would it be and why?

Li Bai, one of the greatest Chinese poets. His poetry always comforts me.

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Collegiality and Scholarship Spotlight - Paige Massey

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 00:15:44 +0000

Collegiality and Scholarship Spotlight - Paige Massey Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 18:15

Paige is a 3rd year PhD student studying Philosophy. Her research focuses on epistemology and ethics; for example, rational belief and how to do good effectively. Paige was recently awarded a Collegiality and Scholarship Award based on her contributions to the research or creative community. We asked Paige a few questions to learn more about her as a scholar and get to know her better. Read more below!

What is a useful research or creative skill you think everyone should have?

One useful research skill (broadly construed) is learning how to ask for things, and, in some cases, insisting on them. I mean by this that graduate students should be proactive in accessing the resources they need to succeed as beginning scholars. Graduate school can be wonderful or horrible, and early career researchers shouldn't be bystanders to their own development. Ask for feedback from colleagues, ask for feedback from professors and advisors, ask for time, ask for mentorship, ask for conference funding, insist on accountability for harassment, insist on kindness from those in our community, etc. More broadly, we need to destigmatize asking for help.

Why is your research or creative work important to the community or world at large?

A core part of epistemology is concerned with rational belief, which is relevant to every field of inquiry. Some questions I've recently been interested in include whether practical reasons are commensurable with evidential reasons, when to defer to the testimony of others when you don't have access to their reasons, how to respond to putative cases of underdetermination of theory by evidence, whether we should prioritize explainability over predictability in AI, and more. In ethics, I'm interested in effective altruism, which is a philosophical and social movement to figure out how to do the most good possible and then put those findings into practice. This movement has already made a huge impact on the world and I'm eager for students at CU to reflect on how they can arc their studies and vocations to find that intersection between what they want and what the world needs.

What does an ideal research or creative community look like to you?

An ideal research community would be just that—a community! In graduate school, there is often implicit or explicit pressure to stand out. I've heard this referred as the desire to be the wizard among the muggles. But, this sort of competitive environment is alienating and can drive up attrition rates, especially for students from underrepresented backgrounds who may already struggle to belong. Research benefits tremendously from a collegial work environment where people can let go of trying to appear clever and instead share ideas earnestly. We also need to give feedback in a way that is constructive, rather than demoralizing. Some professors make excuses that the sort of gratuitously harsh feedback they give is what they received in graduate school or what we should expect when we begin publishing, but this upholds the status quo of toxic graduate school climates. We need to integrate being kind with being critical.

Tell us a fun fact about you that is not related to your research or academics.

I once befriended a nun in Israel and spent two weeks in her convent before going on to Paris, where I (very) informally started DJing for several weeks after the owner invited me to plug my iPod into his bar's sound system my first night there. Once at 3am, a drunk Parisian lady asked to give the DJ a hug to thank me for the music. I'm really shy, so it was one of these incredible experiences one can only have when traveling.

What is a good book you have read recently and why did you enjoy it?

This is a two-for-one: I recommend both Migrations and Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy. Both novels take place in an unspecified future where we've driven many animals to extinction. The environmental crises are a mirror to the main characters' traumas, and the unreliable narrators make the plot mysterious and fast-paced. Both these books are devastating, but, ultimately, redemptive. They're an homage to nature, humanity, and the resilience of each.

If you could have dinner with anyone (living or dead), who would it be and why?

I've said this in another interview, but it's still true: Raphael Lemkin. He coined the term "genocide" and spent his life tirelessly trying to prevent the worst parts of history from repeating themselves, so much so that he died worn out and impoverished. His indefatigable efforts are both humbling and inspiring.

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Collegiality and Scholarship Spotlight - Jo Marras Tate

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2022 00:07:49 +0000

Collegiality and Scholarship Spotlight - Jo Marras Tate Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 18:07

Jo is a 5th year PhD student studying Communication. Her research focuses on human and nature relations through a communication lens. Jo was recently awarded a Collegiality and Scholarship Award based on her contributions to the research or creative community. We asked Jo a few questions to learn more about her as a scholar and get to know her better. Read more below!

What is a useful research or creative skill you think everyone should have?

Everyone should have a citation manager skill with Zotero, for example. Life saver. Creatively, everyone should have good friends they can collaborate with academically and artistically.

Why is your research or creative work important to the community or world at large?

My research and creative work go hand in hand. I do research, and the creative aspect is a part of my thought process and a way to disseminate my research outcomes. Because my research deals with how we relate to the more-than-human world, it is important to the world at large because we need to rethink many of the relationships we currently have with our shared environments and the fellow creatures around us. Hence, as we think about the ways we relate, we should questions our dualistic perspectives and engage in reciprocal relations. We can definitely start doing that by changing the ways we speak about nature, for example, from IT to KIN, as Robin Wall Kimmerer would say. Therefore, my research I believe benefits not only humans, but those whose human actions impact.

What's a benefit you have found from collaborating with others?

Collaboration makes things better. We do not have all the skills to succeed in this world. When we collaborate, we make each other better and we produce incredible pieces of academic and creative work.

What is a good book you have read recently and why did you enjoy it?

"Hands of Light," by Barbara Brennan. I enjoyed being reminded that to reach our full potential, we need to be in contact with our energy and the energy of others.

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2022 Teaching Excellence Awards

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2022 23:42:50 +0000

2022 Teaching Excellence Awards Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 17:42

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Teaching Excellence Awards! Click on each person below to learn more about them and their teaching philosophy.

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Teaching Spotlight - Phurwa Dhondup

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2022 22:50:06 +0000

Teaching Spotlight - Phurwa Dhondup Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 16:50

Phurwa is a 2nd year PhD student studying Geography. His research focuses on political ecology and more-than-human geographies of caterpillar fungus in Dolpo, Nepal to examine the processes of state making, Indigeneity and multispecies world-making in the high Himalaya. Phurwa was recently awarded a Teaching Excellence Award based on his teaching philosophy and dedication to his students. We asked Phurwa a few questions to learn more about him as a teacher and get to know him better. Read more below!

What is your favorite part about teaching?

My favorite part about teaching is the opportunity to meet and work with students from various backgrounds and interests. I also like the fact that teaching often forces you to step back and explain complex ideas in layman terms or in ways students can understand it.

Please tell us a bit about your pedagogical philosophy.

I employ an experiential, interactive pedagogy with a strong focus on analytical and conceptual learning. In other words, I help students to carry out hands-on activities that involve certain level of social exploration and self-reflection while engaging with key concepts and theories from the class. The objective of this approach is to provide toolkits for the students to realize their agency in examining the issue at hand and hopefully taking action.

What is a favorite teaching resource you would like to share with other graduate teachers?

I would say an assignment that tracks how students understanding of the key course concepts have changed over the period of the class. I usually have a reflection essay at the end that asks students to read their discussion posts from first three weeks and compare them with their most recent posts. The result is an amazing collection of essays that not only provide a glimpse into students' thought process but also important feedback (certainly more meaningful than the FCQs) to consider for the class.

What are your recommendations for continuing or increasing student advocacy and engagement?

Be compassionate and kind, especially to students who have different needs or backgrounds that makes their studies already challenging. This might mean many things including accepting late assignments, or providing opportunities to make up for classes.

Tell us a fun fact about you that is not related to your teaching and research.

I am a polyglot speaking six languages including Tibetan, my mother tongue.

What is a good book you have read recently and why did you enjoy it?

"Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It is beautifully written and weaves together compelling stories that simultaneously fuses, refuses and confuses binary concepts and categories we take for granted such as science/Indigenous knowledge, humans/nonhumans, living/nonliving, nature/society, and so on. It also speaks to my own epistemic orientation as a traveller between traditional and scientific ways of knowing.

If you could have dinner with anyone (living or dead), who would it be and why?

It would certainly be my late father who is a repository of boundless knowledge. I would spend the dinner listening to him tell the story of his life as a refugee in a borderland, or to one of many folk stories he likes to narrate from heart.

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Teaching Spotlight - Georgia Butcher

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2022 22:43:35 +0000

Teaching Spotlight - Georgia Butcher Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 16:43

Georgia is a 3rd year PhD student studying Cultural Anthropology. Her research focuses on military drone pilot experience with a focus on how remote war impacts understandings of surveillance and the automation of war and work. Georgia was recently awarded a Teaching Excellence Award based on her teaching philosophy and dedication to her students. We asked Georgia a few questions to learn more about her as a teacher and get to know her better. Read more below!

What is your favorite part about teaching?

My favorite part of teaching is when I realize that the students not only trust each other, but also me. Trust is such an essential part of teaching, especially in recitations, and I find that once trust is strong, student submissions also become stronger and more interesting.

Is there a particular story from the classroom you would like to share?

Classroom engagement can come in unexpected ways. One class, I handed out colored pencils for an activity, but let students use them after the activity for notes/doodling. The colored pencils not only allowed students to engage with my activities differently (such as by drawing their response instead of typing/writing a journal response) but also, somehow, drastically increased participation. Needless to say, the colored pencils remained a constant classroom companion for the rest of the semester.

What are your recommendations for continuing or increasing student advocacy and engagement?

Instead of trying to fight for the attention of students and get them off their laptops and phones, integrate technology into the classroom. I find that allowing students to email me questions instead of having to raise their hands increases engagement from students who might ordinarily not speak and seemingly hide behind their screens.

What is a good book you have read recently and why did you enjoy it?

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The book is a novel about a 70s rock band (and their downfall) written in such a fun and engaging way that you can't put it down.

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Teaching Spotlight - Gentry Ragsdale

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2022 22:38:27 +0000

Teaching Spotlight - Gentry Ragsdale Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 16:38

Gentry is a 1st year PhD student studying Music Education. Her research focuses on access and inclusion in music education and the use of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy to encourage students to feel both included and accepted. Gentry was recently awarded a Teaching Excellence Award based on her teaching philosophy and dedication to her students. We asked Gentry a few questions to learn more about her as a teacher and get to know her better. Read more below!

What is your favorite part about teaching?

My favorite part of teaching is the connections I make with students. I also love watching them grow and become more confident throughout the semester.

Please tell us a bit about your pedagogical philosophy.

Much of my pedagogical philosophy is based upon ensuring that students feel included, appreciated, and safe. A lot of my ideas are based in Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, which strives to create a classroom environment where the individual is valued for who they are and what they know. In my woodwind methods course, I encourage my students to draw from what they already know from their primary-instrument studies and use that knowledge to take on another instrument with confidence. I use my natural enthusiasm to help try to keep everyone awake at 8am, but also work to keep everyone calm when it gets close to midterms and finals. Being sensitive to student needs is something that is very important to me and I do my best to make sure my students feel seen and heard.

What is a favorite teaching resource you would like to share with other graduate teachers?

I highly recommend looking up Culturally Responsive Pedagogy--also known as Culturally Responsive Teaching. It has given me a new outlook on teaching!

What are your recommendations for continuing or increasing student advocacy and engagement?

Students are more engaged when they care about the class, and they usually care about the class more when they know the professor cares about them. Getting to know students helps in a myriad of ways, including being able to advocate for their needs on other levels.

Tell us a fun fact about you that is not related to your teaching and research.

I am an equestrian! I grew up competing in rodeos, then switched to dressage and jumping in my mid-twenties. I currently ride at a stable near Highlands Ranch and love every minute I get to spend with the horses.

What is a good book you have read recently and why did you enjoy it?

I just finished The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, which won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Set in 1950s rural North Dakota, it tells the story of the lives of several Chippewa tribal members and events leading up to a "termination" bill that threatens to take away their rights to the land. It has a lot of stark imagery and really moving points of view from the Chippewa members.

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Teaching Spotlight - Hunter Thompson

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2022 22:30:43 +0000

Teaching Spotlight - Hunter Thompson Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/08/2022 - 16:30

Hunter is a 4th year PhD student studying Communication. His research focuses on how rhetorical contexts shape texts and people’s perception of texts. Hunter was recently awarded a Teaching Excellence Award based on his teaching philosophy and dedication to his students. We asked Hunter a few questions to learn more about him as a teacher and get to know him better. Read more below!

What is your favorite part about teaching?

I enjoy when students share final projects they have been crafting all semester. It is exciting to see students join broader discussions and imagine alternative futures.

Please tell us a bit about your pedagogical philosophy.

My pedagogy is shaped by the principle that a variety of learning modes improves the experience of everyone. Too often, students are only lectured at, or learn exclusively through group discussions. Instead, a single day in my class relies on a variety of modes—lecture, writing, visual displays, group work, and games—to present ideas to students. Students have different learning styles, so a variety of modes keeps everyone engaged, and no one feels alienated.

What are your recommendations for continuing or increasing student advocacy and engagement?

If we want students to be engaged, we need to apply concepts from our curriculum to contemporary examples circulating in public culture. It shows them that academic ideas have actual stakes and can help us make sense of the world.

Tell us a fun fact about you that is not related to your teaching and research.

I listen to far too many podcasts in my spare time. They are easy to listen to while commuting, cooking, and exercising. Even better is that they offer a window into topics I wouldn’t otherwise have the time to follow.

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