‘Mindfulness’
Teaching after Charlottesville
Aug. 15, 2017—By Derek Bruff, CFT Director This weekend’s events in Charlottesville, Virginia, saw hateful and bigoted speech turn into deadly violence. As classes at Vanderbilt resume this month, these events will be on the minds of students and faculty returning to campus. They’re certainly on my mind. I think of my visit to the University of...
Teaching in Response to the Election
Nov. 10, 2016—by Joe Bandy, CFT Assistant Director Before and certainly after Tuesday’s election, there has been much discussion in higher education about the incivilities and conflicts of this electoral season, and the potential impacts they are having on our students, particularly those students who are least represented on our campuses and most vulnerable to trauma. Many...
What Can Faculty Do about Students’ Classroom-Based Anxieties? More Than You Think.
Aug. 4, 2014—by Nancy Chick (CFT Assistant Director) Last week, The Princeton Review released its annual list of “The Top 10 Colleges for ___,” and Vanderbilt made a big splash by ranking #1 with the Happiest College Students in the US.* While this is fantastic news for the campus, and it’s interesting to speculate about what makes these...
The Mindful PhD: Sitting Down & Staying Still
Jul. 27, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director The progressive breakdown of my computer and resulting residencies of IT guys have conspired to force me to read some of the books I have stacked on my desk. Today, I read the copy of Teaching with Heart: Poetry that Speaks to the Courage to Teach (Intrator & Scribner, eds.,...
The Mindful PhD: A Room of One’s Own
Jun. 27, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director I have a new favorite place on campus. It may not look like much–small room with a recliner and a lamp, a desk with a computer and handbook, a tv screen with assorted DVDs–but it’s a little oasis tucked into a corner room at 2015 Terrace Place. More comfortable than...
The Mindful PhD: Homing In
Jun. 20, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director My post-semester sabbatical from blogging lasted a bit longer than I’d anticipated. Nothing bad happened: I simply devoted 100% of my writing efforts to a few manuscripts I wanted to get off of my desktop. There are more–there are always more–but I finished the third yesterday, so I feel caught...
The Mindful PhD: In Case of Emergency
May. 1, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director Before flying, we’re told to locate our nearest emergency exits. If we’re sitting in the emergency row, we must verbally agree to the responsibility of working the doors and helping our fellow passengers if necessary. Similarly, now that storm season has arrived in the South,* we’ve all prepared our “safe...
The Mindful PhD: On Another Planet
Apr. 25, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director Last year, Forbes declared university professor the Least Stressful Job of the Year (Adams). The response was so strong that the writer issued a corrective Addendum, and the magazine published a variety of rebuttals explaining the stresses of this seemingly cushy job (c.f., Kroll, Willingham). In the wake of this...
The Mindful PhD: It’s About Our Students
Apr. 18, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director Today is my last day of class, and I feel a little antsy, even a little edgy. I already have a stack of materials to grade, and I’ll be getting another stack today, and then another during our final exam period. I have deadlines related to other work activities. And...
The Mindful PhD: Looking into the Fire
Apr. 4, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director In preparation for a talk next week, I was sitting on my floor next to my bookshelves, surrounded by open volumes of literature. (This is the literary scholar’s version of a kid surrounded by unwrapped presents.) I got sidetracked as I revisited one of my favorite passages in one of...