On November 20th, the Liberal Arts: Humanities and Communications held its first annual Grammar Summit titled, “Tools, Not Rules: Looking at Grammar through the Lens of Equity, Inclusion, and Access.” We’re proud to announce that this event was a complete success and was attended by more than 50 faculty and staff members!
The Grammar Summit explored a myriad of topics, ranging from the problems associated with teaching from a monolinguistic point of view to techniques on how to use grammar not as a gatekeeping mechanism but as a useful tool in the process of creativity.
LAHC plans to hold another Grammar Summit next year in which a different set of ideas will be explored and discussed. Bookmark the Dean’s Blog for updates and to browse additional upcoming events.
To learn more about the Grammar Summit and watch some of the LAHC faculty presentations, follow this link. The Liberal Arts: Humanities and Communications department would like to wish everyone a safe and healthy holiday!
Join us in congratulating this year’s winner of the ACC Leadership Award for Faculty Leader of the Year,Vanessa Lazo! This award is given to those who exhibit outstanding leadership, service, and dedication, above and beyond their regular duties, to Austin Community College. Additionally, ACC has submitted Vanessa’s name for The League Excellence Award, which is a national-level award.
Faculty Leader of the Year Winner – Vanessa Lazo
We would also like to congratulate Natalie Andreas for winning a NISOD Excellence Award! This award is given to faculty who promote special learning opportunities, student interaction, and innovation. Additionally, they harbor an extensive breadth of knowledge in their subject area and a profound teaching philosophy. Winners were nominated by their peers as well as students and are selected by a committee of faculty.
NISOD Excellence Award Winner – Natalie Andreas
Winners will be presented with their awards during the April 2021 award ceremony.
“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”
Margaret J. Wheatley, “Turning to One Another”
As I consider my education thus far, I often recall the question that haunted my grade school classrooms: “When will I use this in real life?”
While I heard this in nearly all subjects, liberal arts courses were particularly judged for an apparent (to my group of high school peers, at least) lack of pertinence. I did not think about how my liberal arts courses played a role as I waited in line to vote last month in the same way I know I’ll apply algebra to halve tonight’s dinner recipe. However, civic engagement, the effort to understand and address the values and needs of our communities, is a prominent example of how aspects of the liberal arts are present in our daily lives. Civic engagement plays a unique role in a liberal arts education as an opportunity for a student’s personal context, their academic training, and their community’s needs to all intermingle to produce new understanding and potentially, new solutions to problems both personal and global.
The pandemic has put significant constraints on the ability to engage one’s community, yet many incredible people have fought to keep our networks together and, despite it all, even new connections and opportunities have been created. Among these is a new partnership between the ACC Honors Program and the University of Texas which facilitates civic leadership training for ACC Honors students.
Taught by nationally-recognized UT faculty members Dr. Molly Wiebe and Dr. Lorna Hermosura, UT’s Youth and Community Studies program is offering 40 ACC Honors students free online workshops centered around community building, restorative practices, and civic leadership. Students who complete all five workshops will receive a certificate of completion and transfer advising, as well as an invitation to apply for a paid internship with UT GEAR UP.
UT GEAR UP’s one-week internship serves as an opportunity for students to apply their newly acquired analytical skills and techniques for community building and engagement to guide students from high needs schools as they explore career and college readiness. ACC interns will lead workshops, lessons, and team building activities throughout the camp while working alongside UT faculty and staff and will receive a field-based learning certificate for their work.
Online workshops will be conducted on the following Fridays: January 29th, February 5th, March 5th, April 2nd, and May 7th. All will take place from 1:00-3:00 pm, with the February workshop being slightly longer. The deadline for ACC Honors students to apply is December 10th, 2020. Students must have taken at least one Honors course or be registered in an Honors course for the Spring 2021 semester.
This opportunity will only be available for a maximum of 40 applicants, so apply to become a YCS Fellow and join the program today here! All majors are welcome!
A decade ago, the Pew Research Center conducted research called “The 2010 Religious Knowledge Survey.” The results showed a lack of religious literacy among Americans. For instance, more than half of Christians didn’t know that Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament. Few Americans knew that Vishnu and Shiva are figures in Hinduism. Most didn’t know that the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist spiritual leader.
In July of 2019, the Center released more research on this topic called “What Americans Know about Religion.” It reports,
“Most Americans are familiar with some of the basics of Christianity and the Bible, and even a few facts about Islam. But far fewer U.S. adults are able to correctly answer factual questions about Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, and most do not know what the U.S. Constitution says about religion as it relates to elected officials. In addition, large majorities of Americans are unsure (or incorrect) about the share of the U.S. public that is Muslim or Jewish….”
“What Americans Know About Religion,” Pew Research Center
At ACC there is a growing interest in religious literacy. Grant Potts, Department Chair of Philosophy, Religion, and Humanities was tapped by the American Academy of Religion to help develop religious literacy guidelines which were released in Fall 2019. Here is link to those guidelines: https://www.aarweb.org/aar-religious-literacy-guidelines
In the past two summers Professors Farrah Keeler, Daniel Waktola, Barbara Lane, and Frank Cronin have attended Harvard University’s Religious Literacy Institute. The Institute’s focuses are to educate teachers about religious literacy and to help them incorporate it into their curricula. This is the link to the Institute: https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/
And in May 2019, Dean Matthew Daude Laurents and Grant Potts convened a group of like-minded teachers for a Religious Literacy Committee. For the short term, the committee is trying to do the following:
recruit more members for the committee
educate ACC faculty about religious literacy
facilitate faculty attendance at the Institute
non-academic support for students and their religions
Since knowledge of religion can be useful in so many areas like History, Government, Sociology, Interdisciplinary Studies, Criminal Justice, Nursing, Travel and Tourism, and others, the committee is reaching out to teachers to join the committee. If you are interested, please get in touch with Professor Grant Potts at gpotts@austincc.edu.
In Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 the Religious Literacy Committee will host three video sessions for faculty. The February 12, 2021 and April 9, 2021 meetings are tentative dates.
Friday November 13, 2020, 1-2 PM: A panel will talk for about a half an hour on the basics of religious literacy and The Harvard Religious Literacy Project. We will have a set of questions to guide our presentation. The second half of the meeting will focus on questions and comments from the attendees.
Friday February 12, 2020, 1-2 PM: This will focus on The Harvard Religious Literacy Project which will be accepting applications for next year’s Institute. Frank has gotten in touch with Lauren Kerby and Anna Mudd of the Institute to be a part of the meeting. They are interested as long as our day and time fits their schedules.
Friday April 9, 2020, 1-1 PM: The focus of this meeting will be on students. We will invite ACC Student Services employees and others to participate.
I’ll start by congratulating you on making it to the second week of the fall term. In these times, that’s an accomplishment. I also thought I would contribute a little something to your general sense of gratitude toward the cosmos — which, given the recent tricks Nature has been playing, could be a challenge — by pointing out that no matter what you’re facing as a teacher this fall, at least you don’t have me as one of your students.
The stories I could tell to underscore this gratitude are really too numerous, but I will share one illustrative anecdote from the beginning of seventh grade. I had a teacher for Life Sciences who, once we came to “an understanding,” would exert tremendous influence on my development. Mrs. Y was an ebullient African-American woman whose overflowing passion for biology was infectious. I don’t know what possessed her to give me this sort of ammunition in the second week of the term, but she asked my class to engage in a thought experiment:
Imagine what the world would be like today if whales had opposable thumbs.
Among the words used thus far to describe 2020, there are two that capture it well: tense and illuminating. As our values as a society are brought into question, what we are being asked as individuals is inherently uncomfortable. For better or for worse, these questions of who we are and what we think seem inescapable. As we attempt to reflect on not only on our own behavior, but extend the conversation to our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our leaders, it won’t take long to reach someone (if that someone isn’t also us to begin with) who has already raised their walls and entered a moral fight-or-flight mode—challenges to our values create a visceral discomfort so strong that is hard to set aside, analyze, or (if you can imagine!) eventually appreciate this discomfort. Instead, it can be easier to protect ourselves, lash out, or dig deeper into the ground where future challenges to our ideals cannot affect us so strongly again. We are in daily conflict not only with those of opposing values, but with ourselves and our own prejudices, decisions, and actions.
I see a lot of concerns about the attendance certification in response to the late notices. Attendance certification is important for various student support and other institutional processes — which is why you get those nagging notices. It can also be puzzling when you know you’ve submitted your certification, so I want to share the number 1 reason professors get them: You’re conscientious.
A decade ago, the Pew Research Center conducted research called “The 2010 Religious Knowledge Survey.” The results showed a lack of religious literacy among Americans. For instance, more than half of Christians didn’t know that Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament. Few Americans knew that Vishnu and Shiva are figures in Hinduism. Most didn’t know that the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist spiritual leader.
In July of 2019, the Center released more research on this topic called “What Americans Know about Religion.” It reports,
“Most Americans are familiar with some of the basics of Christianity and the Bible, and even a few facts about Islam. But far fewer U.S. adults are able to correctly answer factual questions about Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, and most do not know what the U.S. Constitution says about religion as it relates to elected officials. In addition, large majorities of Americans are unsure (or incorrect) about the share of the U.S. public that is Muslim or Jewish….”
“What Americans Know About Religion,” Pew Research Center
At ACC there is a growing interest in religious literacy. Grant Potts, Department Chair of Philosophy, Religion and Humanities was tapped by the American Academy of Religion to help develop religious literacy guidelines which were released in fall 2019. Here is link to those guidelines. https://www.aarweb.org/aar-religious-literacy-guidelines
Last Summer Professor Farrah Keeler of ESOL attended Harvard University’s summer Institute on Religious Literacy. This week long Institute, started in 2015, focuses on how religions are internally diverse, evolve and change, and are embedded in all aspects of human experience. Farrah is incorporating religious literacy into the curriculum for her exit level ESOL Reading course. She is allowing me to attend some of her classes. We are reading and discussing the novel The Chosen by Chaim Potok about two young Jewish boys in New York City in the last years of World War II. We are also reading and discussing case studies supplied by the Institute which focus on Judaism and contemporary social and political issues.
Last May Dean Matthew Daude Laurents and Grant Potts convened a group of like-minded teachers for a Religious Literacy Committee. This project has become one of the agenda items of the Liberal Arts Academic Master Plan. For the short term, the committee is trying to do the following:
facilitate faculty attendance at the Institute
recruit more members for the committee
establish relationships with Student Life Religious organizations
lay the groundwork for an ACC Center of Religious Literacy.
Since knowledge of religion can be useful in so many areas like History, Government, Sociology, Interdisciplinary Studies, Criminal Justice, Nursing, Travel and Tourism, and others, the committee is reaching out to teachers to join the committee. If you are interested, please get in touch with Professor Grant Potts at gpotts@austincc.edu.
When I was a grad student at the U of Chicago, I cooked in a restaurant, and one of the duties I relished most was making fresh mayonnaise, 2 quarts at a time.
During this period of sheltering-at-home, I’ve made several 1 cup batches, so I thought I’d share my recipe and encourage you to give it a try. Incidentally, mayonnaise is beautiful on just about everything savory, and many things that aren’t.
Elements
mayo basics
Ingredients (according to me):
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper*
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 fresh egg yolk
1 tablespoon vinegar*
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup oil*
*A few comments about ingredients:
White pepper is not “traditional,” but I started putting white pepper in my mayonnaise decades ago, and I’ve never looked back. No one has ever complained, either. I will admit that sometimes I double the white pepper and skip the mustard altogether. When I’m feeling particularly oppositional, I use smoked paprika or cayenne pepper. Live dangerously.
I generally use apple cider or white wine vinegar, but today I’m in the mood for rice wine vinegar. You can use most vinegars but I would avoid balsamic vinegar (on aesthetic grounds). Besides, if you are going to have balsamic vinegar, why mix it with anything?
Now the question that’s been burning since the first days of emulsion-as-condiment: Which oil makes the best mayonnaise? Maybe it’s a flaw, but I’ve never been a person with “favorites.” No favorite color, no favorite dish, no favorite Spice Girl. And no favorite oil for mayo, either. I’m just like that.
Today, I’m using grapeseed oil, which makes for a lovely, light flavor that lets the lemon’s brightness shine. I often use avocado oil, which is a bit heavier, but it has a detectable flavor, so you’d want to be in the mood. In general, go for a light oil (and taste it first: If you wouldn’t drizzle it on some roasted veggies, it doesn’t belong in mayo).
Truth and Method
Let’s start with some truth: The key ingredient in good mayo is patience. If you try to move the process along too quickly, your mayo will break and you’ll be sad. “Break” means the emulsification didn’t work and you ended up with something resembling dingy-yellow curds-and-whey.
It happens to all of us in our time. I’ve been known to eat broken mayo anyway, out of kindness, but it’s not nearly aesthetically pleasing as creamy-smooth, beautifully emulsified mayonnaise.
whisk the dry ingredients into the yolk
Whisk the sugar, salt, white pepper, and mustard together with the yolk until smooth.
Mix the vinegar and lemon juice and whisk half of it into the yolk mixture.
I do this phase by hand; the rest is left to a stand mixer, a nasty habit I picked up in professional kitchens.
the first stage of drizzling
Put the bowl under the stand mixer and turn the whisk on high. Add a few drops of oil at a time until your emulsion takes off.
Give it a little time. You’ll know you’re emulsifying when the mixture turns a bit lighter and thicker.
Look on my mayo, ye mighty, and despair!
Now you’re ready to drizzle a very thin stream of oil into the bowl (still whisking on high), until you’ve added 1/2 cup. Don’t worry if you see a little oil around the creamy blob in the middle. As you drizzle, the oil should become incorporated into the mixture, which should remain creamy and fairly thick. At this point, drizzle in the rest of the vinegar and lemon juice, and continue drizzling the oil until you’ve incorporated the rest.
Leave your mayonnaise at room temperature for an hour, then refrigerate. I’m told that mayo is good for five to seven days, but I can’t vouch for that.
Move over, Ozymandias
At this point, it’s polite to ask your mayonnaise aficionado what to do with this magnificent emulsion. My answer at about lunch time today: sardines and freshly grilled green beans.
Congrats, everyone: We survived our first week online.
And we’re not just surviving. Not exactly thriving yet, but we’re doing better than just hanging on. I’ve heard so many great stories from you about the creative ways you’ve adjusted, what you’ve learned, what you can live without — and I don’t mean TP. I mean, we’ve turned teaching upside down and lived to tell about it.
