Ithaca College

Contributed on behalf of Tanya Saunders, Assistant Provost

On behalf of the London Faculty Sabbatical Review Committee, I am pleased to announce the Ithaca faculty members selected for the 2020-21 academic year.

The Office of International Programs and Extended Studies launched the London Sabbatical Program in 1997 to strengthen the connection between the London Center and home campus faculty. Now in its 23rd year, the program has benefited from the acquisition of a house in Colliers Woods where sabbatical faculty may stay during the course of a semester. Faculty who participate in the sabbatical program serve as a resource to London course instructors and to the OIPES as it collaborates in initiatives to enhance the London experience for Ithaca College students.

Professor Catherine Weidner has been selected for the Fall 2020 semester at the London Center. She is Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Having proposed two courses she might teach for the London Center, Ms. Weidner plans to “write a textbook on [the] year-long, two-semester sequence of [her] curriculum and develop an online ICC course that might service the College in winter and summer sessions to come.”  Professor Weidner offered a fully developed syllabus for each of the two courses from which the London Center will choose one: The Original “Game of Thrones”: Shakespeare’s History Plays- Placing the Wars of the Roses in Context and Power, Politics and Feminism in Middleton, Sheridan & Churchill.  Professor Weidner values the “opportunity to study, research, and write at the epicenter of Shakespeare’s world.” Her area of expertise is in performance and the pedagogy of classical acting and heightened text. Given the signature theatre immersion program already offered by the London Center, Professor Weidner’s complementary contributions will be most welcome.

Dr. Howard Kalman, associate professor in the Department of Strategic Communication in the Roy H. Park School of Communications, will be the faculty member resident in London during the Spring 2021 semester. Dr. Kalman proposes to teach an ICC-designated course, STCM 12300, Systemic Design, a course originally developed by Dr. Gordon Rowland, and plans to “customize the course to take advantage of London’s local context.” The course “enables students to understand the world from multiple perspectives, utilize modeling techniques to analyze how phenomena relate, and engage in critical thinking to design solutions to resolve organizational and societal problems.” We hope that Dr. Kalman’s time in London will also support his sabbatical research. He is the author of a number of articles in refereed journals and the co-author of two textbooks. Given his doctoral specialization in instructional design and his implementation of “behavioral, cognitive, and constructivist theories of learning,” we look forward to his engagement with our London Center faculty.

Dr. Thorunn Lonsdale, director of the Ithaca College London Center, joins the OIPES and the London Sabbatical Review Committee in congratulating Professor Catherine Weidner and Dr. Howard Kalman.