March Newsletter: Education Program

Thursday, Mar 17, 2022

The Gottesman Libraries

Ed Prpgram Logo 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 March.

Workshops

Regularly scheduled instructional offerings include workshops, tours, orientations, and course-specific instruction in coordination with staff and faculty of the College.

Using News and Law Databases, Tuesday, 3/8, 3:30-4:30pm

Are you looking for historical or current newspaper articles or legal information, including cases, statutes and court rules, regulations, administrative decisions and guidance, secondary sources, briefs, or proposed and enacted legislation? Whether you are interested in databases that pertain to journalism or looking into legalities in education or related areas, this workshop will demonstrate key resources available through the Gottesman Libraries, as well as Columbia University, and help you navigate to a wealth of news and law.

Please rsvp in advance and we'll follow up with Zoom details.

Searching Educat+, Tuesday, 3/22, 3:30-4:30pm

This workshop introduces you to different ways of searching Educat+, the new catalog of the Gottesman Libraries. Powered by Primo VE, discovery of research resources has never been more robust or easy to navigate. Learn how to optimize your research experience by using scoping features, facets, and other options that streamline the process to provide enhanced access to materials held at Teachers College, Columbia University, as well as other libraries.

Please rsvp in advance and we'll follow up with Zoom details.

Introduction to Course Resource Lists for Instructors, Wednesday, 3/23, 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 second 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.

Human-Nature Entanglements: Biodesign Workshop, Thursday, 3/24, 2-4pm (postponed until April 1, 5-7pm)

In this in-person 2-hour workshop you will learn to work with mycelium (the underground networks of mushrooms) to grow a personal artifact. You will know what is the role of this creature in ecosystems and how we may partner up with her to imagine and build our living environment.

No previous experience is required, only curiosity.

Where: 305 Macy

Participants: max 10, TC community.

Please rsvp by Tuesday, March 29th.

This workshop builds upon the art exhibition, Human-Nature Entanglements: Explorations in Creativity Beyond Human; Everett Cafe book display, The Entangled World of Fungi; and recent panel talk: Biodesign: Learning and Growing at the Intersection of Art and Science. It concludes the program for the 2021 Myers award recipient Isabel Correa, designer, doctoral student, and research assistant at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Managing Your Citations with Zotero, Tuesday, 3/29, 3-4pm

Zotero is a free, open-source bibliographic management program that allows you to collect, organize, cite, and share your research. In this workshop we will introduce you to this important tool, help you get started, and offer tips for effectively using Zotero in your studies and research so you can master the art of managing scholarly references.

You may rsvp by Monday, March 28th and we'll follow up with a Zoom link.

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.

Sliding Doors: Whatsapp Is the New Black (Student Network), with Lauryn Duncan, Wednesday, 3/23, 3-3:45pm

Community is essential, but it has an all new look. Lauryn Duncan, the Black Student Network, shares how community building has transitioned from the campus to the group chat and beyond.

Lauryn Duncan (she/her) serves as the Black Student Network’s External Communications Officer and is a first-year student in the Counseling M.Ed. program, on the Mental Health Counseling track. Lauryn is a Wisconsin native and May 2021 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied Psychology and Spanish. She aims to serve marginalized clients and to teach future psychologists from underrepresented communities. For now, she is enjoying all New York City has to offer, especially Broadway plays.

Sliding Doors is a lively, pop-up set of talks given by and for members and affiliated members of the Teachers College community. The program consists of 10 one-time, community driven offerings that are open to faculty, students, and staff and conducted in a small, informal, impromptu setting; each session will last approximately 45 minutes, with 15 minutes devoted to open discussion and/or activity.

This event is co-sponsored by the Digital Futures Institute and Graduate Student Life and Development.

Please rsvp with your interest and details no later than Monday, March 21st, as seating is limited to 15 persons.

Where: Smith Learning Theater, Fourth Floor

Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation

The Earth Singing Project, with Katarzyna Sądej, Monday, 3/7, 4:30-5:30pm

Katarzyna Sądej, international opera and concert singer, takes us on a journey with her ongoing environmental art project “Earth Singing”.

Mezzo-soprano Katarzyna Sadej’s international, eclectic career spans concert, opera, film, chamber music, oratorio, recital and voice over performance. Her voice has also captivated the attention of living composers and she has performed many world premieres. She raises awareness for the fragile beauty of our planet through her Earth Singing project.

Resources:

Katarzyna Sadej linktr.ee

Earth Singing

Katarzyna Sadej Website

The Ground Beneath Our Hearts, with Trebbe Johnson, Monday, 3/14, 4:30-5:30pm

When the places where we live and that we love are hurt, we hurt too. In our western culture, it’s hard enough to cope with the loss of a loved person. Knowing how to live with damage to places and species has been even more challenging.

Radical Joy for Hard Times offers a simple, portable practice that you can do anywhere, alone or with large groups, to confront grief over damage to the Earth, share stories with others, and create spontaneous acts of art as gifts to the place.

Trebbe Johnson is the author of Radical Joy for Hard Times: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty in Earth’s Broken Places, and other books, as well as many articles and essays that explore the human bond with nature. She is also the founder and director of the global community Radical Joy for Hard Times, devoted to finding and making beauty in wounded places. Trebbe speaks four languages; had camped alone in the Arctic wilderness; studied classical Indian dance; and worked as an artist’s model, a street sweeper in an English village, and is an award-winning multimedia producer. She has led contemplative journeys in a clear-cut forest, Ground Zero in New York, the Sahara Desert, and other places. She lives in Ithaca, New York.

Resources:

Trebbe Johnson Website

Trebbe Johnson Writing

Radical Joy website

Gender and Design, with Melanie Levick-Parkin, Monday, 3/21, 2:30-3:30pm

Women’s participation in ‘world shaping’ activities and their representation through design is still circumscribed by gender imbalances and exclusion, reflecting wider gender inequalities across a broad spectrum of society.

The discipline of design plays a central role in how the human made world is constructed, yet material agency is distributed unequally, economically, culturally and by gender. This talk will discuss some of the ways in which gendered power relations impact on the design of the artefacts, sites, and systems that we live with, in and by. For material agency to distributed equally, not only by gender but also by age, class and ethnicity, we need to better understand how designs’ role in re-producing in-equality and demand a future design practice that attends to gender equality and social justice. We need a design practice that transcends traditional and binary constructions of gender, addresses intersectional lives, and the symbolic and embodied violence which excludes people from materializing their lived realities and futures. Join us in exploring issues around this theme and discover some of the work done that tries to address it.

Dr. Melanie Levick-Parkin is a feminist design researcher and design educator, with an interest in heritage, human making practices and visual/material language. There is a particular focus on gender and design in her research and she works within speculative and design anthropological methods and approaches. She is passionate about situating design in the context of political, social and environmental justice and ethics (and hopes design can become a better person).

Resources:

Dr. Melanie Levick-Parkin

Freeing up the Windup Dolls, with Aphrodite Désirée Navab, Monday, 3/28, 4:30-5:30pm (rescheduled)

Artist Aphrodite Désirée Navab will present on her ink drawing series: WINDUP DOLLS (2020).

Navab explores how the same tool which winds the doll will become the key that frees her. Like her invented heroine, Super East-West Woman, whose chador turns into a cape of agency—transformation, metamorphosis and reinvention are significant strategies for survival explored in Navab’s art. This series is inspired by one of Iran’s first feminist voices, Forough Farrokhzad (1934-67) and her poem “The Wind-up Doll” (1959): “More than this, ah yes, one can remain silent more than this…Exactly like a wind-up doll, one can see one’s own world with two glass eyes. One can sleep for years in a felt-lined box, on lace and tinsel. And in response to every obscene squeeze of a hand, one can exclaim without reason: ‘Oh, I’m so happy!”

Born in Iran and based in New York, the artist Aphrodite Désirée Navab mines her Iranian, Greek and American heritage, calling forth its competing histories, myths, and politics and tracing its impact on her personal identity. Navab’s art has been featured in over one hundred and fifty exhibitions and is included in a number of permanent collections including: The Addison Gallery of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Lowe Art Museum, the Harn Museum of Fine Arts, Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, Naples, Italy, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Arkansas State University. At present, Navab had a solo museum show, Landmines of Memory, at the Addison Gallery of American Art (Jan-April 2021). She had a solo exhibition, The Homeling, at Johannes Vogt gallery in New York (Jan.-Feb. 2018). Her work was exhibited at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in the traveling group museum show: Men of Steel, Women of Wonder, (Feb 9-April 22, 2019). In 2009, her art was featured in the museum exhibition and catalogue, Through the Lens: Photography from the Permanent Collection, at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. The exhibition featured only 100 significant photographs from more than 1,000 photographic holdings from: Julia Margaret Cameron and Walker Evans to Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson.

Resources:

Aphrodite Désirée Navab’s Website

Instagram at @aphroditedesiree

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!

Vivian Phong Ngo, Thursday, 3/10, 5:00-6:00pm

Indie dream pop, with a cinematic taste of raw poetry. Southern California born and raised, Vivian Phong Ngo first began producing music on her laptop inside of her room sophomore year of college. Not only is she a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer, but she is also beginning her first year of her Masters program at Teachers College in the Applied Linguistics program. Her love for music began at a young age when she was forced to play classical piano, branching out into the realm of pop, she realized her love for writing existed outside of formatted textbooks.

Timothy Smith is a professional vocalist and pianist from Brooklyn NY. He received a Bachelors in Professional Music from Berklee College of Music in Boston MA. He is currently pursuing a Masters's with Initial Certification in Music Education at Teachers College. Timothy is a versatile musician whose talent serves many different platforms such as restaurants, churches, weddings, funerals, schools, and much more in NYC.

Wadsworth Strings, Wednesday, 3/23, 4-5:30pm

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.

Jose Lomeli, Wednesday, 3/30, 4-5pm

Jose Lomeli is beginning his first year of doctoral studies at Teachers College in the Music Education program. He began exploring the guitar as a child by searching for guitar books with which to learn to play from his local library. And continued his passion for guitar through the Beatles, Bossa-Nova and most recently, classical guitar. He enjoys participating in community music ensembles and teaching guitar to people of all ages.

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.

The Peace Corps Is Established, Tuesday, 3/1

WHO Declares COVID a Pandemic, Friday, 3/11

Ruth Winifred Howard Is Born, Friday, 3/25

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, Library Director and Senior Librarian, and designed by Trisha Barton, Lead Designer.

Where: Everett Cafe Online

Artivism: Inventing Vision, Taking Action, beginning 3/14

Just how far can we push political agendas by the means of art to raise social, environmental, and technical awareness of important issues and needs? And what do we experience in the process? Artivism, a compound word for Art and Activism, has the power to illuminate the imagination and spur not only action, but teaching and learning. Community building and collaboration are part, allowing us to deepen our collective experiences and enrich our understanding of the human condition, characteristics and seminal events that make up the essentials of our human existence. An educative tool in itself, artivism goes beyond the use of language or non verbal communication in social contexts by embracing art in multiple mediums, including visual, literary, and digital, so that we can become more engaged with the world around us.

Artivism: Inventing Vision, Taking Action takes a broad look at the history and connection between art, social transformation, and education with inspiration drawn from a diverse lens with perspective on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, cultural background, abilities, and more. The selections for this display build upon the work of "Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation", a program co-sponsored by the Gottesman Libraries, Adelphi University, and Sing for Hope that aims to generate community through multi-disciplinary teamwork for a more dignified and meaningful coexistence.

"Social imagination is the capacity to invent visions of what should be and what might be in our deficit society, in the streets where we live and our schools. Social imagination not only suggests but also requires that one take action to repair or renew." -- Maxine Greene

This display is curated by Jennifer Govan, Library Director and Senior Librarian, and designed by Trisha Barton, Lead Designer, with assistance from Scarlett Cheng, Library Associate, Art and Design.

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: Women in Education

At the turn of the century, the head professor of Latin dubbed 120th Street "hairpin alley" (James Earl Russell, Founding Teachers College, NY, 1937, pp. 64-65). Lawrence Cremin, renowned education history and seventh president of Teachers College, reported that by 1950-51, almost 36 percent of the professors here were women, a considerable increase over the years, while female faculty climbed the academic ladder as regularly as their male counterparts (A History of Teachers College, p.245). While philanthropist Grace Dodge served as the pioneering founder of Teachers College, Susan Fuhrman served as the first female president of Teachers College from 2006-2018.