February Newsletter: Education Program
The Gottesman Libraries
The Gottesman Libraries Education Program informs students, faculty and staff about the latest thinking in education, in ways that engage members of the community with one another and with a broad range of educational experts. The program also provides understanding of work being done throughout the College.
Read more below about offerings in February.
Tours
Welcome back Spring Semester students! Please join us for a tour of the Gottesman Libraries to see the many beautiful spaces of Russell Hall, including the first floor hub, second floor collaboration space, third floor quiet reading room, stacks, and of course, the beloved Big Bear! You'll become acquainted with key resources and services, from instructional offerings to room reservations, scanning to printing, sponsored events to book displays and art exhibits.
Wednesday, 2/2, 3-3:45pm
Thursday, 2/3, 4-4:45pm
Friday, 2/4, 12-12:45pm
All tours meet at the First Floor Library Services Desk, and you may rsvp in advance with your interest and details.
Workshops
Regularly scheduled instructional offerings include workshops, tours, orientations, and course-specific instruction in coordination with staff and faculty of the College.
Advanced Searching, Tuesday, 2/8, 3:30-4:30pm
This workshop focuses on using Boolean logic to construct a good search strategy, fine tuning your results; and using additional search features to find what you need, whether you're writing a paper; thesis, or dissertation. Truncation, quotations, wild cards, and other tips in smart searching will be presented, taking you beyond simple keyword searching to maximize your success in research.
Please rsvp with your interest and details for this session by Monday, February 7th and a Zoom link will be sent prior to the workshop.
Cited Reference Searching, Tuesday, 2/22, 3:30-4:30pm
If you need to find the most highly cited articles and authors; are curious about who has cited you, or is writing on a similar topic; or wish to explore the impact factor for journals in your field, then join us! This workshop covers citation searches for scholarly journals, books, book series, reports, conferences, and much more. In this session you will learn some tips and tricks as discover your preferences in using key citation tools, namely: Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and ISI Journal Citation Reports.
Please rsvp via online support by Monday, February 21st and a Zoom link will be sent prior to the session.
Introduction to Course Resource Lists for Instructors, Wednesday, 2/23, 3-4pm
We are excited to announce the implementation of Course Resource Lists (powered by ExLibris Leganto) our new, permanent course reserves platform and collaborative tool for instructors and librarians to create and fulfill reading lists for students in courses taught each semester at Teachers College, Columbia University. Currently, Course Resource Lists are available to all faculty, course assistants, and professional staff who make a Spring 2022 course reserves request through the Library's resource request form. In preparation for Summer A, Course Resource Lists will become available to all courses in Canvas, where faculty also will have the ability to submit course reserves requests.
Please join us for the first in a series of monthly sessions, held over Zoom, in which we will introduce our new platform and cover the basics of creating a Course Resource List and making a course reserves request, in preparation for Summer 2022 term courses and
beyond. Faculty, course assistants, and professional staff are all welcome to attend.
This workshop is co-sponsored by the Digital Futures Institute.
Interested persons may rsvp in advance and Zoom details will be shared.
Talks
The Gottesman Libraries sponsors talks by leaders in education, psychology, and the applied health sciences to recognize and celebrate scholarly work of interest to the Teachers College community.
Panel Talk: Biodesign / Learning and Growing At the Intersection Of Art and Science, with Special Guests, Thursday, 2/17, 5-6pm
This seminar explores the untapped possibilities of biodesign as a hands-on learning space at the intersection of science and the arts. We will share how artists, community labs, pioneer educators, and young people are challenging settled assumptions about humans’ relationship with nature and proposing alternative ways of approaching the socioecological challenges of our times.
Guest speakers will discuss their work at Biodesign Challenge, Genspace (a community lab in Brooklyn), and Labva (a rural community lab in Chile).
Persons interested in attending may rsvp by Tuesday, February 15th, and we will confirm with a Zoom link and calendar invitation.
Inaugural Spring Event: Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation, Monday, 2/7, 2-4pm
Guest Talk: Art Unites: Energy of Creation In the Service Of a Healthy Community, with Yiannis Kaminis
Yiannis Kaminis will share his artistic journey and how a healthy connection with creativity can allow the expression of inner and universal values of existence. He will also talk about how having the courage to honor the arts as a service to the community, builds bridges of communication and healing in our societies.
“Everything changes and that’s a good thing! Embracing the power of change in our lives is transformative for ourselves and our communities future”. – Yiannis Kaminis
Bio:
Yiannis Kaminis, an international artist born in Greece, is inspired by people, ideas, and phenomena as they are evident in the sphere of conscious and unconscious life. He chooses colors to represent energy dynamics and the paintings of acrylic on canvas emerge as a flow of energy. Usually, each painting has a multifaceted meaning unveiling archetypical signs and symbols allowing the imagery to be positioned and hanged from different sides. Each painting is characterized by free-flowing movement and multilevel 3D layers. The artist is in an altered state of consciousness during the process of painting through specialized meditation techniques and selects music to accompany the energy representation of themes.
The art of Yiannis Kaminis is exhibited in galleries, art fairs, shows, exhibitions and events in New York – USA, Cusco – Peru, Seoul – S. Korea, Beirut-Lebanon, Riyadh – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kiev – Ukraine and Europe. Selected paintings have been used to create items of fashion, jewelry, the covers of books and the artwork of international conferences.
Yiannis Kaminis has a master’s degree in marketing communications (University of Westminster, UK) and a Bachelors in Communication Studies (Communication, Culture and Media – Coventry University, UK). He is the founder of www.yacmc.gr and works as an international marketing communications consultant and trainer for Europe Aid projects funded by the European Union. He has worked as a professor for Master and Bachelor programs. He is also a trained psychoanalyst (Freudian School of Lacanian Approach in Northern Greece), an energy healer (Body Mirror Technique by Martin Brofman), and an author.
Poster Presentation: Reggio Inspired Network of Greece (RING)
Reggio Inspired Network of Greece is a non-profit organization which aims at bringing together parents, educators, artists, and organizations, both national and international, who are interested in the pedagogy inspired by the Reggio Emilia Philosophy. The panelists will discuss RING and story behind the artwork created by the students in the 1st Kindergarten of Gargaliani, Peloponnesus, Greece.
Presenters are:
Despina Sakoulogeorga, RING President
Marina Sgourou, RING General Secretary
Garyfalia Terizaki, RING Member, Teacher
Guest Talk: America Divided: Socialism for the Top, Capitalism For Everyone Else, with Charles Herman
In this presentation, Charles will speak about how the Wealth Gap in the United States is widening among class and racial lines, as is discussed in Berkley Professor Robert Reich’s book, The System: Who Rigged It and How We Fix It (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, [2020]).
Charles Herman, is a Senior majoring in Criminal Justice, focusing on Social Justice. In Independent Studies with Dr. Stephanie Lake, he has focused his attention on race-related topics, including policing practices in the BIPOC community. One such study examined the existing research on whether BIPOC individuals were more likely than others to be searched for illegal drugs, even though whites are more likely to have drugs on their person during police stops. Charles also examined the judicial ruling on NYC’s Stop and Frisk program in the early 2000’s, as well as the implications of this ruling for the tactic in other cities. In another example of his research, Charles explored why BIPOC students are suspended at higher rates than White students, and how in predominantly BIPOC schools, disciplinary policies are far harsher than for schools with primarily white students. He hopes that his research, presented last spring at Adelphi’s Research Conference, sheds light on these critical issues and creates real, meaningful change. Upon graduating, he hopes to work at a non-profit to advance the cause of equality and justice FOR ALL people. Charles is also the President of the Criminal Justice Club and has previously served as its Vice President. He also is a member of the Environmental Action Coalition, where he explores the issue of environmental racism and how to address it.
The keynote speaker fort this inaugural event is CaSandra Diggs, President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Board Member for Sing for Hope.
Register HERE.
Artivism: The Power of Artmaking Towards Transformation: Macro and Micro Healing Ourselves and Community, with Melissa Leaym-Fernandez, Monday, 2/14, 4:30-5:30pm
Melissa Leaym-Fernandez will share some thoughts regarding giving ourselves permission to be creative and art making on both micro and macro levels to survive/thrive after trauma, COVID, or just to get centered as people.
Working as a painter, educator, parent, wife, and researcher in marginalized communities around the globe before coming to Penn State, Leaym-Fernandez has always been interested in artmaking as a method to share the counterstories of our lives while overcoming adverse childhood experiences, ACEs, or trauma. Her professional art works make connections between the roles of woman specifically single parenthood, wife, motherhood, and daughterhood while entangling connections to the lived experiences of elephants in the wild. Connections often including roles of the matriarch and the aunties that nurture, protect, lead, and raise offspring within various families and herds. Her work is in personal and corporate collections, and she has shown in museum, corporate, and gallery spaces. You can see her work here.
Currently, Leaym-Fernandez is in the doctoral program of Art Education with a certified minor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University and will complete her degree, Summer of 2022. Her research focuses on the creative processes of women of color artists who have adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and how creativity has helped manage and/or overcome lifelong outcomes of ACEs. Additionally, she researches gender representations within Korean, Chinese, Thailand, Taiwanese, and South Asian television and music media markets.
She holds a master’s degree in art education and another in arts administration and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a focus in painting and another in art education with her teaching certification. She also holds a certificate in Deaf Studies. She has taught in rural, urban, public, and private settings.
Artivism: Reimagining Fashion and Art Education, with Hyunsoo Alice Kim, Monday, 2/21, 4-5pm
What impact does sustainable design practice and art education have on society?
Based on Hyunsoo Kim's work, "Sustainable Leather and Holistic Education", a chapter in Illuminations of Social Imagination, the author expands the discussion to sustainable consumption and Artivism for new times, and its potential influence on society.
Hyunsoo Alice Kim is a multidisciplinary artist who actively works as a designer, merchandiser, engineer, entrepreneur, researcher and educator. She holds BFA Textiles from RISD, MS Textile from Philadelphia University, AAS Fashion Marketing from Parsons, and MA Textile Futures from CSM in London, UK. She is currently a doctoral candidate and studio fellow in the Art and Art Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University
Resource:
Weida, Courtney Lee, Dolapo Adeniji-Neill, and Carolina Cambronero-Varela. Illuminations of Social Imagination: Learning from Maxine Greene. New York: Dio Press, 2020.
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The vision of Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation is to generate a movement with committed social artivists in response to historic global unrest. Artivism aims to generate community through multi-disciplinary teamwork for a more dignified and meaningful coexistence, however you define these terms. The goal of this initiative is to nurture confidence in taking continuous action from wherever you are by means of reciprocity.
Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation is a collaboration between Adelphi University; Gottesman Libraries, Teachers Colege, Columbia University; and Sing for Hope.
Artivism: The Power of Art Social Transformation, grew out of Illuminations of Social Imagination: Learning From Maxine Greene, (Dio Press, 2020), edited by Teachers College alumni Courtney Weida and Carolina Cambronero-Varela, and Dolapo Adeniji-Neill, of Adelphi University. "The concept for this book is inspired by the late Maxine Green, who described her enduring philosophical focus and legacy of social imagination as “the capacity to invent visions of what should be and what might be in our deficient society, on the streets where we live, in our schools” (p. 5). The purpose of this volume is to examine and illuminate the roles of community organizers and educators who are changing lives through public art and community arts projects. This research originally emerged from a well-attended 2018 conference presentation and exhibition at Teachers College, Columbia University, engaging with the local and international community of arts education and arts administration."
-- Publisher's Description
Live Music
The Everett Cafe Music Program sponsors performances by TC student and affiliated musicians. Come enjoy a variety of genres and styles!
Wadsworth Strings, Wednesday, 2/16, 4-5pm
The Wadsworth Strings Ensemble features music for classical strings, from the symphonies of Mozart and Haydn, to well known arias from the operas of Puccini and Bizet. You may hear a selection of continental Viennese waltzes and French cabaret. Musicians of The Claremont Strings Ensemble have performed collectively at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and throughout the Northeast, playing a diverse range of symphonic and chamber music, eclectic jazz, and gypsy swing. Wadsworth Strings, emanating from the Washington Heights area, is a division of Claremont Strings, founded by Vivian Penham, a graduate of the Juilliard School and Columbia University.
Want to play in Everett Cafe? If you'd like to showcase and/or volunteer your own talents, please contact us with your details via online support. Solos, duets, trios are welcome!
News Displays
Need to keep current, look to the past, teach a topic? The Everett Cafe features daily postings of news from around the world, and also promotes awareness of historical events from an educational context. Be sure to check the Cafe News postings on the library blog.
Winter Olympics Begin, Friday, 2/4
Margaret Thatcher Is Elected, Friday, 2/11
Louis Comfort Tiffany Is Born, Friday, 2/18
Federal Taxes Go Into Effect, Friday, 2/25
Book Displays
We are pleased to host the following curated book displays that draw upon special and current topics of significance to teaching, learning, and research.
Staff Picks: Arabian Night
"The theme of Arabian Night is inspired by my cultural background. My father was born in Palestine and was raised in Amman, Jordan. As my siblings and I grew up, he emphasized the importance of our culture. Although I knew how important it was to my father for us to learn about our culture and pass it on, I didn’t know where I could access the knowledge when I was younger. There weren’t as many texts about my culture at my local library. While working at Gottesman Libraries, I’ve had the opportunity to research literature on Arab culture. I was happily surprised to learn that we have a plethora of books written by Arab authors as well as books written about Arab culture. The Arabian Night collection is a mixture of new and old texts that speaks on Arab art, language, history, issues, and customs. Through this collection, I hope students can see the rich literature that Gottesman Libraries has to offer from a different cultural lens."
-- Rania Abdelqader, Library Associate
Where: Second Floor Reading Room
Staff Picks is curated and designed each month by the Gottesman Libraries' staff to highlight resources on educational topics and themes of special interest.
Rocketship Launch: New and Now
Looking for a new read? Integrating exciting titles into your lesson plans? Building a curriculum for today's young learners? Blast off with the latest and greatest! Books on our "Rocketship" shelves are all award-winning and honoree titles for children's, middle grade, and young adult readers to bring into your orbit.
Rocketship displays are curated by Rachel Altvater, Library Associate.
Where: Second Floor, Reading Room
Everett Cafe: Carbon and Climate
Activists, artists, citizens, diplomats, economists, lobbyists, media, political leaders, and scientists gathered together in Glasgow, Scotland, this past November at an historic and critical summit, the 26th annual climate conference, represented by countries bound by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They were united with a common concern: our dependence on fossil fuels which heat our homes, run our vehicles, and generate power for industry and manufacturing, but which fundamentally place limits on life. Said Sir David Attenburgh, British documentarian, natural historian, and author, “We are, after all, the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth. If working apart, we are a force powerful enough to destabilize our planet. Surely working together, we are powerful enough to save it.”
Without carbon dioxide Earth would be unbearably cold since it traps heat close to our planet and helps keep us warm. However, too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere serves to accelerate climate change to the detriment of our health; it causes compromised supplies of food and water; greater risk of illness and death from infectious diseases; and devastating weather events, like hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, droughts, and fires. Melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels, and disruptions in natural habitats are indicative of global warming which threatens the survival of species, ecological balance, and well-being of nature, as well as humans.
Did you know that carbon dioxide constitutes approximately four fifths of all greenhouse gasses, and that transportation, with the burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas), geologically formed from the remains of dead plants and animals, generates the largest proportion of carbon emissions -- roughly 29%? Carbon dioxide emissions from cars, trucks, planes, and boats cause smog and pollution, harmful to humans, living creatures, and the environment. Passenger cars produce approximately 41% of global transportation emissions which equaled 7.3 billion metric tons in 2020 alone. Particularly in suburban United States where it's common for a family to have two, sometimes three vehicles, the car culture is consuming us with a deadlier price tag.
Cleaner modes of transport, including public transit, electric vehicles, biking, and walking, help reduce our carbon footprint, as will taking fewer flights in favor of trains or boats. Can we get to "net zero" emissions by taking certain steps in our daily lives to change our behavior and together work towards a smarter, more sensible way of living? Carbon and Climate invites us to examine the overarching question of CO2 emissions, from individual to corporate responsibility, educational to economic concern, political to health implication, present to future life.
Carbon and Climate is curated by Jennifer Govan and designed by Trisha Barton.
Where: Everett Cafe Online
At the Everett News Cafe, you'll find a new book collection every few weeks that relates to current events, education, or learning environments.
Featured Databases: Celebrating Libraries
In February, come Valentines as well as libraries! Did you know that February is considered Library Lovers' Month, a time when we recognize and celebrate the work of libraries, spaces devoted to reading, housing, organizing, categorizing, finding, studying, promoting, and loving books and other materials, physical and virtual -- as well as services that meet needs of users. Services may include research and reference assistance, educational programming, meeting spaces, artwork and exhibitions, and conservation and preservation of historical collections. Read more on the Library's news page.
Exhibit: Human-Nature Entanglements: Explorations in Creativity Beyond Human
In times of ecological unraveling, Human-Nature Entanglements: Explorations in Creativity Beyond Human looks into biodesign as a creative space to reimagine humans’ relationship with nature. The exhibition presents an array of material explorations in shape, texture, and color resulting from an entanglement with mycelium (the underground networks of mushrooms), technologies, bioplastics, waste, and other materials. By blurring the boundaries between the practices of making and growing we are invited to interrogate sharp distinctions and hierarchies between humans and non-humans, culture and nature, artificial and organic. Instead, we examine the ways in which all material bodies are intertwined and constantly giving form to each other through pressure, friction, breath, growth, decay and ongoing material transformations by which all forms emerge.
Isabel Correa is a designer, doctoral student, and research assistant at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on understanding creativity particularly in education, and involves the development and study of playful tools and practices for children to make sense of the world around them and build alternative worlds. Working at the intersection of design, learning sciences, and biology her dissertation explores creativity across species through the development of biodesign practices that invite learners to reimagine humans’ relationship with nature.
This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of the Myers Foundations. The pieces displayed in this exhibit are part of Isabel Correa’s dissertation research on Interspecies Creativity with the advice of Dr. Nathan Holbert, and developed in collaboration with Snow Day Learning Lab’s members Maria Lopez-Delgado, Ayse Unal, Uttarika Shetty, Yuxi Huang, and Blake Danzing. It was produced in collaboration with Trisha Barton, lead designer of the Gottesman Libraries.
Also be sure to visit the Everett Cafe book display, The Entangled World of Fungi, which invites us to unravel the kingdom of fungi in the search of meaning, connectedness, possibility, and life amid environmental decay.
Where: Offit Gallery, 12/16-3/18
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To request disability-related accommodations contact OASID at oasid@tc.edu, (212) 678-3689, or (646) 755-3144 video phone, as early as possible.