UB faculty to share perspectives on inclusive pedagogy

Published October 22, 2020

The Office of Inclusive Excellence will present a panel on Oct. 29 titled “What Is Inclusive Pedagogy?”

The virtual event will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. that day on Zoom, and will feature speakers from across UB. To register, visit the event sign-up page.

According to the Office of Inclusive Excellence, “Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, inclusive pedagogy consists of a variety of approaches, depending on the course content and the students in the class. To help guide instructors seeking to make their pedagogy more inclusive, panelists from various disciplines at UB will discuss the philosophy that guides their approach to inclusive teaching and course design.”

Speakers will include:

  • Rajan Batta, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and associate dean for faculty affairs and diversity for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Batta provides school-wide support for faculty recruitment, diversity, mentoring, promotion, tenure, and honors and awards.
  • Luis A. Colón, A. Conger Goodyear Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences. Colón has been widely recognized for his successful efforts to increase diversity in STEM, particularly in the chemical sciences. In 2015, Colón was named by President Barack Obama as a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring — one of many awards Colón has received for his work to advance diversity, and for his research.
  • Namsook Kim, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy in the Graduate School of Education. Kim has more than 20 years of professional experience in training educators and education leaders in the transformative intersections of culture, language and education in the context of inclusion, multiculturalism, multilingualism and globalization, and teaching language and culture to multicultural/multilingual users.
  • Theresa McCarthy, associate professor of Native American studies and associate dean for inclusive excellence for the College of Arts and Sciences. McCarthy is an Onondaga nation, Beaver clan citizen of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Ontario. For over 20 years, she has worked on addressing the campus climate and retention-based concerns of Indigenous students in higher education. She has also been instrumental in launching the new Department of Indigenous Studies at UB.
  • Raechele L. Pope, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, and associate dean for faculty and student affairs and chief diversity officer for the Graduate School of Education. Pope’s scholarship interests, research and publications generally focus on a social and organizational analysis of equity, access, inclusion and engagement, examining the components of multicultural environments and the concrete strategies, competencies, evaluation and practices to create and maintain such campus environments.

The panel is among numerous events on inclusive pedagogy at UB that will be held in coming months. During the 2020-21 academic year, the Office of Inclusive Excellence, in collaboration with unit diversity officers, will present a series of programs designed to further UB’s efforts to cultivate inclusive classrooms and curriculums. For more information, visit the Office of Inclusive Excellence website.