Throughout the pandemic, instructors at Yale took extraordinary steps to support their students. This event, featuring a keynote by Professor Laurie Santos, celebrates those efforts, but it also recognizes the burnout and struggle that instructors themselves are feeling. We proceed from the assertion that instructor well-being, just like student well-being, is a vital part of the classroom community. What if we extended the same level of grace and understanding toward instructors that we extend toward students?  Together, we will consider: What is emotional labor, and who performs it? How does it fit into the larger structures of labor in the academy, and how can we better recognize and reward it?  What place does an instructor’s vulnerability have in the classroom? Who has authority to be vulnerable, and how does our identity impact these choices?  Can we protect ourselves from burnout as instructors? In what ways can we reframe self-care as a community endeavor, rather than an individual instructor’s problem to solve?

Please join us for this timely discussion! This event will take place in person at the Poorvu Center, Room 120A, and will include a box lunch. 

SCHEDULE:  9:30 to 10:30: Keynote, Q&A. 

                       10:30 to 11:30: Panel discussion. 

                       11:40 to 12:20: Lunch, Small Group Discussion.

                       12:20 to 12:45: Gallery Walk. 

Speakers: Keynote: Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology, Head of Silliman College.

Panel:Larry Gladney, Phyllis A. Wallace Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development; Professor of Physics. Jennifer Hirsch, Lecturer of Psychology. Sharon Kugler, University Chaplain. Maria del mar Galindo, Interim Dean of Silliman College, PhD Candidate in English.

Register here.