September Newsletter: Education Program

Your Research Journey is a five-part library workshop series to help guide you in your research throughout the semester, by providing you with manageable tools and resources to use along your journey. Whether this is your first time conducting research, or you are a well-seasoned researcher and looking for a refresher, each workshop introduces fundamental information to lay a foundation of knowledge on which you can build your scholarly work. While the workshops in this series are designed to build upon each other, you are welcome to attend any workshop individually. All are held on Wednesdays, 3-4pm.

Elevate Your Research builds upon the foundational series, Your Research Journey, by presenting valuable new topics, resources, and methodologies to make you an even stronger and highly proficient researcher. Held on Thursdays, 3-4pm, this series also invites deeper, collaborative work to strengthen academic research initiatives.

Charting Your Path: An Introduction to Library Research, Wednesday, 9/13, 3-4pm

Graduate school research may feel daunting, but this foundational workshop will address the key concepts, strategies, and tools to help develop your research skills.  Charting Your Path will start with a broad overview of what library research can look like, including the terms you may come across in your journey. We will also cover how to use Gottesman Libraries and the Columbia University Libraries to access physical and digital resources; discuss reference management tools; show how to create strong keyword searches; and end with a review of strategies for better search results. Attendees will leave this workshop with the information needed to be successful in Library research across all research disciplines.

Presenter: Ralph Baylor, Head of Reference and Reader Services and Ava Kaplan, Research and Instruction Librarian

Where: 101 Russell /Online

 

Introduction to Course Resource Lists for Instructors, Thursday, 9/14, 3-4pm

Course Resource Lists (powered by Ex Libris Leganto) is the Gottesman Libraries’ course reserves platform and collaborative tool for instructors and librarians to create and fulfill reading lists for degree-seeking students in courses taught each semester at Teachers College, Columbia University. Course Resource Lists are available to instructors of all active, credit-bearing courses and can be found on the left navigation menu of their courses in Canvas.

Please join us for this workshop in which we will cover all you need to know to place a library course reserve request or create a Course Resource List yourself. Faculty, course assistants, and professional staff are all welcome to attend.

For more information be sure to see the Libguide, Course Resource Lists for Instructors, which takes you through all the necessary steps.

Presenter: Roshnara Kissoon, Reserves and Support Services Librarian

Where: Online

 

Managing Your Citations with Zotero, Wednesday, 9/20, 3-4pm

This workshop provides a quick start introduction including: downloading; tour of the interface;  nuts and bolts of how to ingest references through a web connector; and different ways of citing. It will be followed by others in the Elevate Your Research series, offering more advanced features of Zotero and introductory sessions for Endnote and Mendeley -- all within ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) Frames.

 Instructor: Ralph Baylor, Head of Reference and Reader Services and Ava Kaplan, Research and Instruction Librarian

Where: 101 Russell / Online

 

Understanding Primary Sources, Thursday, 9/21, 3-4pm

Come learn about introductory techniques for locating, accessing, and analyzing historical documents. Our goal in this workshop is to provide participants with a preliminary skill set useful in the discovery, access, and analysis of primary source documents. Objectives of this workshop are to:

• Define and identify primary sources and “archival” material as well as a basic understanding of knowledge organization;
• Discern the relationship between primary sources and secondary sources;
• Recognize how archives can be a valuable resource for certain types of projects, and how archivists can be helpful research partners; and
• Understand the basic methodology of conducting research with primary sources.

Additionally, students and participants will have the opportunity to work directly with primary source material from  the Gottesman Libraries' Special Collections.

Presenter: Conrad Lochner, Special and Digital Collections Librarian

Where: 104b Russell

 

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.

Book Club

The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls, Tuesdays, 9/19 and 9/26, 12-1pm

A #1 New York Times Bestseller, Wall's work is described as "remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered."  --publisher's description

Jeanette Walls' memoir  was  made in 2017 into a major motion picture from Lionsgate starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts. 

Where: 305 Russell

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Fall Book Club is co-sponsored by the Graduate Writing Center. It meets every other week throughout the semester, with a program for three books, two sessions per book. It is open to all students and staff, and the first 15 people to rsvp will receive a free copy. Bring your lunch and also enjoy some simple refreshments.

 

Book Talks

Women Without Kids, with Ruby Warrington, Tuesday, 9/19, 5-6pm

Come to a new TC Fall Book Talk Series that explores the female lifespan trajectory with a focus on motherhood or the process of becoming a mother, known as "matrescence". Yet, what  about not becoming a mother;  how women bond; and why childless women encourage a new perspective on womanhood? 

Our first book talk will be on Women Without Kids: The Revolutionary Rise of an Unsung Sisterhood (Sounds True, 2023), with Ruby Warrington.

Ruby Warrington is a British-born author, editor, and publishing consultant. Recognized as a true thought leader in the wellness space, Ruby has the unique ability to identify issues that are destined to become part of the cultural narrative. Her previous books include Material Girl, Mystical World; Sober Curious; and The Sober Curious Reset.

Moderating discussion is Dr. Aurelia Athan, a clinical psychologist and Research Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Athan's research interests embrace Maternal Psychology: Matrescence & Maternal Mental Health, Perinatal Risk & Resilience, and  Reproductive Psychology: Reproductive Identity Formation and  Reproductive Life Planning & Decision-Making. The author of numerous articles, her Ph'D is entitled, Postpartum Flourishing: Motherhood as Opportunity for Positive Growth and Self-Development (Columbia University, 2011). Dr. Athan is the founder of the Maternal and Reproductive Psychology Lab at Teachers College.

This book talk is co-sponsored by KHORA; the Teachers College Maternal and Reproductive Psychology Lab; and Gottesman Libraries.

Where: 306 Russell / Online

 

Gareth B. Mathews: The Child's Philosopher, with Megan Laverty and Maughn Gregory, Monday, 9/25, 12-1pm

Please join Megan Jane Lavery and Maughn Rollins Gregory for a presentation of their latest book,  Gareth B. Matthews, The Child's Philosopher (Routledge, 2023).

"Winner of the 2022 Book Award of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia, Gareth B. Matthews, The Child's Philosopher brings together groundbreaking essays by renowned American philosopher Gareth B.　Matthews in three fields he helped to initiate: philosophy in children’s literature, philosophy for children, and philosophy of childhood. In addition, contemporary scholars critically assess Matthews’ pioneering efforts and his legacy.

Megan Jane Laverty is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, Together with Maughn Rollins Gregory,  she edits the Philosophy for Children Founders series, including In Community with Ann Margaret Sharp: Childhood, Philosophy and Education (Routledge, 2017). Dr. Laverty received her Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of New South Wales. She taught in the Philosophy Department at the University of Melbourne before starting as Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University (MSU) in 2000. Megan Laverty arrived at Teachers College in 2005.

Maughn Rollins Gregory is Professor of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University. Together with Megan Jane Laverty, he edits the Philosophy for Children Founders series, including In Community with Ann Margaret Sharp: Childhood, Philosophy and Education (Routledge, 2017).Dr. Gregory holds a JD and a PhD in philosophy. He publishes and teaches in the areas of philosophy of education, Philosophy for Children, pragmatism, gender, Socratic pedagogy and contemplative pedagogy. He is co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Philosophy for Children (Routledge 2018) and has edited a number of special journal issues on Philosophy for Children. He is currently serving as the inaugural Research Coordinator for the International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children. Dr. Gregory served as Visiting Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2008 where he taught the doctoral course, "Educational Debates in Philosophical Perspectives.”

Where: 305 Russell

 

Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control, with Amanda Montei, Tuesday, 9/26, 5-6pm

Join Amanda Montei in a discussion of Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control (Penguin Random House, 2023) in which a new mother examines the intersection between misogyny and motherhood, and how caregivers can reclaim their bodies and pass on a language of consent to their children.

Amanda Montei is also the author of the memoir Two Memoirs (Jaded Ibis Press), and a collection of prose, The Failure Age (Bloof Books), as well as co-author of Dinner Poems (Bon Aire Projects). She has an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and a PhD from the Poetics Program at SUNY Buffalo. Her writing and criticism explore literary and cultural representations of gender, work, care, sexuality, feminism, creativity, and the body, and she is widely published in magazines, literary journals, contests, and art exhibitions. She is currently a lecturer at California State University, East Bay. She also teaches creative writing at organizations such as Catapult, Corporeal Writing, Hugo House, Writing Workshops, and Write or Die. She lives in California, where she grew up, with her partner and two children.

Moderating discussion is Dr. Aurelia Athan, a clinical psychologist and Research Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Athan's research interests embrace Maternal Psychology: Matrescence & Maternal Mental Health, Perinatal Risk & Resilience, and  Reproductive Psychology: Reproductive Identity Formation and  Reproductive Life Planning & Decision-Making. The author of numerous articles, her Ph'D is entitled, Postpartum Flourishing: Motherhood as Opportunity for Positive Growth and Self-Development (Columbia University, 2011). Dr. Athan is the founder of the Maternal and Reproductive Psychology Lab at Teachers College.

This book talk is co-sponsored by KHORA; the Teachers College Maternal and Reproductive Psychology Lab, and Gottesman Libraries.

Where: 306 Russell / Online

 

Art Talk

As I Am, with Kendal Oleary, Thursday, 9/21, 6-7:30pm

Please join us for the opening of As I Am, with artist Kendal Oleary. As I Am explores the fluid boundaries between identity and experience: How we see our world reflects how we see ourselves, and how we see ourselves shapes our relationship with our world. In her talk, Kendal's will spotlight viewer reflection with a creative inquiry activity; share her experiences in collaborative group printmaking; and discuss her artwork.

Kendal Oleary has studied fine print-making since 2009. After college, she continued coursework at the School of Visual Arts and Art Students League where she was taught by Sharon Sprung and other professional artists. Kendal is currently a Masters student in Art and Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University where she has embraced a new community of artists, from the classroom to the print studio. Her signature work includes a series of large black and white monotype prints of octopus, each one unique. On a plexiglass plate, Kendal uses relief technique (like “reverse” painting) to apply and remove the black ink until the image develops. She recently began experimenting with transparent plexiglass canvas to create octopus in color. 

Kendal Oleary is a 2023 awardee of Gottesman Libraries' commission art sponsored through the generosity of the Myers Foundations. As I Am is on display through October 20th in the Offit Gallery, concomitant with the curated book collection  Tentacles of Learning in Everett Cafe.

Where: 305 Russell / Offit Gallery

 

Artivism

Indigenous Images on Gentrified Lands, with Brenda Perez, Monday, 9/18, 5-6pm

Restorative Justice for the Arts (RJFTA) was mobilized to preserve murals and sacred imagery, cultivate decolonial pedagogies of creativity, and protect the cultural identities narrated through community art. This grassroots community project aims to educate communities on how to protect their art using federal, state and local laws, the importance of preserving sacred Indigenous murals and community art as to empower marginalized and displaced communities. By utilizing an arts based facet of reconciliation and reparations (restoration) and restorative justice practices, our mission is to help remediate and heal the historical trauma of native peoples’ misrepresentation or total lack of representation (ghosting) in the artistic, political, and social justice arenas.

Brenda Perez is a Mexican (Raramuri) and Chicana woman born and raised in Highland Park, Northeast Los Angeles. Brenda’s research investigates gentrification as a form of internal colonialism in the historic Mexican neighborhood of Highland Park, which continually feeds L.A.’s chronic homelessness crisis. In many urban areas of Los Angeles, murals and community art continue to offer images of Indigenous survivance. In recent years, our neighborhood’s culturally historic and legally registered murals are being systematically erased as part of gentrification efforts. This scholar-artivist research looks at Highland Park as a case study with the recent whitewashing of the Cesar Chavez Foundation funded farmworker mural at Garvanza Elementary during National Hispanic Heritage Month, as well as other threatened murals featuring sacred imagery, profound Indigenous iconography, and artistic heritage. Brenda shows how whitewashing Indigenous iconography in community art and constructing fenced walls or “gentrifences” around gentrifier homes exemplify the defenses and disavowal of the neoliberal psyche. Gentrification is a form of cultural homogenization that measurably increases disparities in community health. Furthermore, her research shows how the psychological shock of gentrification is an ecopsychological injustice that severs ties between people and the land, thus violating one’s well-being. In Indigenous paradigms, psychological sense of community often includes relationships with place, plants, animals, and spirits. For communities facing de-indigenization and displacement, art-making is a means for cultural survival, not just therapy.

Where: Online

 

Are We Free to Move About the World: The Passport in Contemporary Art, with Grace Aneiza Ali and Mona Bozorgi, Monday, 9/25, 4:30-5:30pm

Grace Aneiza Ali, curator of the recent exhibition, Are We Free to Move About the World: The Passport in Contemporary Art, and featured artist, Mona Bozorgi, will discuss the ways in which artists engage with the passport to examine its great paradox—its ability to grant freedom of movement as well as curtail it. Their conversation will reflect on the broader themes in the exhibition as artists unpack the passport in context of our current migration crisis.

Guyanese-born Grace Aneiza Ali is a Curator and Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and in the Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies Program, Department of Art History at Florida State University. Her curatorial, research, and teaching practices center on curatorial activism, art and migration, and art of the Caribbean Diaspora with a focus on her homeland Guyana. She serves as Curator-at-Large for the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) in New York and Editor-in-Chief of the College Art Associations’ Art Journal Open and is a member of its Editorial Board. Her book, Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora explores the art and migration narratives of women of Guyanese heritage.

Mona Bozorgi is an Iranian interdisciplinary artist-scholar who lives and works in the US. Her work focuses on inclusive representation and explores the performative nature of photography as an entanglement between materials and discourses. Bozorgi’s work has been exhibited in Austria, Sweden, South Korea, Iran, England, and the United States, among others. Her work as a scholar has been presented at prominent conferences within the field on a variety of research topics, including photography theory and feminist post-humanism, visual culture and media studies. She received her MFA in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design and is currently working on her doctoral dissertation at Texas Tech University. Bozorgi is an assistant professor of photography at Florida State University.

Where: Online

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Artivism: The Power of Art Social Transformation is jointly sponsored by Adelphi University, Sing for Hope, and the Gottesman Libraries. A movement with committed social artivists, it aims to generate community through multidisciplinary teamwork for a more dignified and meaningful coexistence. The overarching goal is to nurture confidence in taking continuous action from wherever we are by means of reciprocity.

Artivism: The Power of Art Social Transformation, grew out of Illuminations of Social Imagination: Learning From Maxine Greene, (Dio Press, 2019), edited by Teachers College alumni Courtney Weida and Carolina Cambronero-Varela, and Dolapo Adeniji-Neill, of Adelphi University. 

 

Live Music

 

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.

Jane Addams Is Born, Wednesday, 9/6

The Reunification of Germany, Tuesday, 9/12

Alma Thomas Is Born, Friday, 9/22

The First Europeans Arrive in Alta California, Thursday, 9/28

 

Book Displays

 We curate collections to encourage reading, use of library resources, and awareness of interesting, relevant themes. Book displays are hosted in Everett Cafe and the second floor collaboration space throughout the year and support programs of the College, as well as the Gottesman Libraries' Education Program.

Everett Cafe

Tentacles of Learning, through October

Staff Picks

More Than a Monolith: Exploring Asian Identities

“The Model Minority Myth is the overwhelming shadow of Asian identities that monolithically groups the Asian identity into one stereotypical idea of "perfection." However, this collection of children's books aims to dismantle this monolithic myth to disaggregate the Asian identity and showcase the different lived experiences of ethnic identities across the Asian continent. These are just a few of the many stories out there that illustrate the beauty, resilience, and cultural uniqueness of many Asian ethnic communities. We encourage you to explore with empathy and love for the stories shared as they captivate their own separate unique challenges and celebrations of their respective cultures and identities.”

-- Jason Le, Library Associate

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Staff Picks is curated and designed each month by the Gottesman Libraries' staff to highlight resources on educational topics and themes of special interest. 

Where: Reading Room, Second Floor

 

Rocket Displays

Back to School

Check out a small selection of popular children's books on school, including picture books, poetry, and young adult novels.  The rocket cases will orbit you into the sphere of children's literature, with more books from the 1990s onwards shelved  nearby in the open stacks.

Where: Reading Reading, Second Floor