The John M. Burns Conference is co-sponsored each year by the Teaching Academy and the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center. Named in honor of Dr. John M. Burns, who helped found the Teaching Academy, this conference is held each fall and features two keynote sessions from an invited teacher-scholar and a poster session from recipients of the Lawrence Schovanec Teaching Development Scholarship Award. Past speakers include Noah Finkelstein, Bryan Dewsbury, Derek Bruff, Michelle Miller, Lauren Barbeau, Claudia Cornejo Happel, and Lindsay Masland.
This year, we are excited to hear from Dr. Ann Austin. Dr. Austin is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University (MSU), where she has been a faculty member in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education in the College of Education since 1991. She has recently served as Interim Vice Provost and Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs (2022-2023), and she previously served as Interim Dean of the College of Education (2021-2022), Associate Dean for Research (2016-2021), and Assistant Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs (2016-2021). She has been a Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) (2015-2016), a U.S. Fulbright Fellow (1998, South Africa), and President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and she is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
Her international work in higher education has taken her to more than fifteen countries. Her research concerns organizational change in higher education; academic work, careers, and professional development; creating more inclusive academic workplaces; teaching and learning issues in undergraduate education; doctoral education; and STEM education. Her current and recent National Science Foundation-funded projects have focused on gender equity in academe, teaching preparation of future STEM faculty, improving teaching evaluation, and organization change networks. Dr. Austin has published extensively, and she and her colleagues have a book on teaching evaluation that will be published by Harvard Education Press in fall, 2025.
The conference will feature a keynote talk in the morning and a workshop in the afternoon. Lunch will be provided in between the sessions and recipients of the Lawrence Schovanec Teaching Development Scholarships will present posters sharing information from the conferences they attended. Please register by Wednesday, October 8th.
*Please Note: While this conference is intended to be face-to-face, we may offer a virtual option for remote faculty. If you have a remote appointment, please email tlpdc@ttu.edu to request a Zoom link.
Registration is now open! Please click on the session title to for the description and option to register.