Professional Activities

A multi-disciplinary team from Keene State College travelled to St. Paul’s in Concord, NH from June 15-17 to participate in a symposium on “Empathy, Intimacy, and Technology.” Amber Davisson, assistant professor of Communication and Philosophy, Emily McGill-Rutherford, assistant professor of Communication and Philosophy, Tiffany Mathews, coordinator of wellness education, and Jeff Maher, Title IX coordinator, participated in the symposium. The symposium brought together leading experts in the fields of adolescent development, empathy, human sexuality, technology, and social media. The program included breakout sessions in areas such as academic curriculum, counseling and student support, inclusivity and identity, prevention and intervention, and policy and procedure. Approximately 140 people attended from schools both locally and internationally. Participants discussed how best to build, support, and maintain a healthy student culture while preparing our students to not only be good citizens, but to also lead healthy, responsible, and fulfilling lives.

Kate Tirabassi (English) co-coordinated the National Archives of Composition and Rhetoric’s workshop on “Archives as Sites for Community Collaborations, Classroom Explorations, and Activism” at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Houston, Texas in April 2016. At this workshop, several scholars presented their current work teaching archival research to undergraduate students and working with community partners to develop new archival collections, and also offered professional mentorship for faculty and graduate students who were beginning new archival research projects or considering incorporating undergraduate archival research projects to their courses. In a panel presentation at the same conference, Kate presented on “Opening the Archives to Undergraduates: The Potential of the Archives in Creative Nonfiction Writing Courses.” On April 2-3, 2016, Kate, as interim director of the Center for Writing, and the Center for Writing staff hosted the 32nd Northeast Writing Centers Association (NEWCA) regional conference, bringing 297 undergraduate, graduate and professional writing center tutors and administrators, and writing/writing across the curriculum faculty from New England, New York, and New Jersey to the Keene State College campus to share developing theories, current research, and new practices in writing centers across the NEWCA region. During this conference, the Northeast Writing Across the Curriculum Consortium (NEWACC) also held their spring workshop and business meeting, and elected a executive committee for the coming academic year.