Three faculty members at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, were awarded Provost’s Inclusive Teaching Fellowships for the 2021-2022 academic year. The fellowships are sponsored by the provost of Carnegie Mellon University, James H. Garrett, Jr, and administered by the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation.
Now in its second year, the fellowship provides support and mentorship for instructors who wish to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion in their courses. This year was the first that applications were open to the Qatar campus, and CMU-Q’s Deepa Nair, Patrick Walsh and Ihab Younis were selected.
Annette Vincent, associate dean for diversity and climate, was delighted that three faculty members were chosen from CMU-Q: “The faculty members on our campus have a lot to contribute to the area of inclusion in education. I hope that as these three educators develop and redesign their courses, we will start a wider dialogue among faculty members at our campus and beyond about inclusion in the classroom.”
During the fellowship, Nair, who is an assistant teaching professor of history, will be redesigning the course, Gender in South Asia. She will incorporate diverse perspectives into the course materials, and explore strategies that enable student participation, remove barriers and consider a variety of learning needs and preferences.
An assistant teaching professor of philosophy, Walsh will focus on the course, AI, Society, and Humanity. He will be incorporating three strategies as he develops the course: improving the autonomy of students, including underrepresented scholars and topics, and increasing the accessibility of course materials.
Younis, who is an associate teaching professor in biological sciences and the associate area head for the program, will redesign elements of the advanced elective, Molecular Biology. Younis will be addressing gender bias in the scientific community, incorporating an equal proportion of female and male scientific authors, having students research these scientists, and discussing issues of gender barriers and equal representation in science.
Carnegie Mellon University is bringing greater focus to issues of diversity, inclusion and equity, both within and outside of the classroom.
