Overview

The Poorvu Center Faculty Fellows Program is a yearlong opportunity for a small group of faculty from across the disciplines to foster discussions of teaching and learning and to promote equitable teaching practices. In collaboration with the Poorvu Center, the faculty fellows will complement the center’s existing educational development offerings by facilitating some faculty development sessions for their colleagues that engage in conversations related to inclusive, equitable or antiracist pedagogy. As ambassadors with insight about the Poorvu Center’s programming, the faculty fellows will also inform the Center’s future priorities and offerings for faculty, departments, and schools.

For the 2023-2024 academic year, the Poorvu Center welcomes two Faculty Fellows: Charles David Bailyn, the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of Astronomy and Physics, and Daniel Martinez Hosang, Professor of  American Studies with a secondary appointment in Political Science. Learn more about the Faculty Fellows in the next section. 

In this upcoming year (2024-2025), we’d like to have one faculty member focusing on anti-racist pedagogy and one focused on accessibility. Full-time faculty at the rank of full professor, senior lecturer II, senior lector II, or an equivalent rank in a professional school (senior appointment level) are eligible to nominate themselves or their colleagues. Nominations will be accepted until April 12, 2024 for the Faculty Fellows Program for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Poorvu Center recognizes each fellow’s contributions with $5000 of research or professional development funds for 1-2 hours of each fellow’s time most weeks that Yale classes are in session during the fall and spring of each academic year. Interested faculty can learn more details here.

Meet the Faculty Fellows

Charles David Bailyn, 2023-2024 Faculty Fellow

Charles Bailyn is the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of Astronomy and Physics.  He graduated from Yale College in 1981 and returned to Yale as a faculty member in 1990, where he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and as Chair of the Astronomy Department.  His research focuses on observations of compact celestial objects; he shared the 2009 Bruno Rossi prize from the American Astronomical Society for his work on mass measurements of galactic black holes.  During his time at Yale, he has created six new undergraduate courses, several of which are now taught by colleagues, and was awarded the Dylan Hixon Prize for teaching excellence in the natural sciences.  He was the inaugural Dean of Faculty at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, where he was a leader in developing and delivering a ten-course Common Curriculum taken by all students.  After he returned to Yale from Singapore, he served for six years as Head of College of the newly created Benjamin Franklin College. The Poorvu Center is incredibly excited to have Professor Bailyn serve as a Faculty Fellow with the intention of focusing on supporting student mental health and well-being from the classroom.

Daniel Martinez Hosang, 2023-2024 Faculty Fellow

Daniel Martinez HoSang is Professor of American Studies and holds a secondary appointment in Political Science. He also serves on the Education Studies Advisory Committee. HoSang has previously collaborated with the Poorvu Center as a faculty partner in the Pedagogical Partners program and as a panelist on several sessions on anti-racist and inclusive teaching. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of six books in ethnic studies, racial politics, and social movements. His recent work has focused on legacies and impacts of racism in the academic disciplines, including the long history of Eugenics advocacy and research in science, medicine and the university. Through the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, he has taught seminars for K-12 public school teachers on Anti-racist Curriculum and Pedagogy, and works with teachers and youth organizing groups in Connecticut on teaching about racism and racial justice in the K-12 curriculum through the Anti-Racist Teaching & Learning Collective and the Yale Education Studies partner teachers program. The Poorvu Center is thrilled to have Professor Hosang serve as a Faculty Fellow with the intention of facilitating discussions that provide faculty the opportunity to examine their own disciplines through an antiracist lens.

Claire Bowern, 2022-2023 Faculty Fellow

Claire Bowern is a Professor of Linguistics and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Linguistics department. Professor Bowern graduated from Harvard in 2004 with a PhD in Linguistics. As a historical linguist, her research is centered around language change and language documentation in Indigenous Australia. While her work touches many areas, the overarching question she explores is how to characterize the nature of language change. As a Yale instructor, Professor Bowern is very dedicated to teaching. Students of her LING 110: Introduction to Linguistics course describe her as “supportive, passionate, and knowledgeable” while providing “a great foundation and introduction to Linguistics.” Professor Bowern has worked extensively with the Poorvu Center as a past member of the center’s advisory board, faculty partner in the Pedagogical Partners program, featured panelist at Course (Re)Design, and participant in many other workshops and sessions. Bowern also directed Yale’s Women Faculty Forum, a gender equity group on campus, from 2017-2020, and has secondary appointments in Anthropology, Cognitive Science, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. During her time as a Faculty Fellow, Professor Bowern facilitated many different workshops on the topic of linguistic justice and created an infographic depicting The Many Languages of Yale College.

Enrique M. De La Cruz, 2022-2023 Faculty Fellow

Enrique M. De La Cruz is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (MB&B) and the Head of Branford College. He is a first-generation Cuban-American from Newark, NJ, who attended Rutgers as an undergraduate and John Hopkins for his PhD. He  is actively involved with various scientific advisory boards, societies, journals and peer review committees, as well as numerous outreach activities to advance and promote underrepresented minorities in the sciences.  Professor De La Cruz’s research focuses in the areas of cell motility and the actin cytoskeleton, motor proteins, RNA processing enzymes, and signaling enzymes involved in blood clotting and calcification.  He considered becoming a medical doctor before pursuing his PhD, but he realized, “I wanted to be a teacher. It wasn’t even research. I was so enamored. That might not be the right word, but I was just so appreciative, and I admired my professors at Rutgers for just their commitment to undergraduate education and teaching. It was life changing and made me want to be a teacher.” Professor De La Cruz launched a new course last fall at Yale, MB&B 275: Biology at the Molecular Level, with two of his colleagues–Professor Andrew Miranker and Assistant Professor Adjunct at the Medical School, Zachary Levine. Students in the course described De La Cruz’s lectures as “so engaging–he kept the classroom environment so open to questions and further exploration of the topics.” During his time as a Faculty Fellow, Professor De La Cruz facilitated several discussions with faculty on teaching sensitive topics in STEM and teaching the works of controversial figures in one’s field.

Questions

For Yale faculty inquiries about the Faculty Fellows Program, email faculty.teaching@yale.edu.