Flipping the Focus: Honors Faculty in the Hot Seat

from Mosaic 2023: 40 Years of Honors at USF

Digging into the Archives: Looking Back on 40 years of Honors at USF

BY DR. CATHERINE WILKINS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF INSTRUCTION

THE FACULTY OF THE Judy Genshaft Honors College are a diverse and dynamic team, with academic backgrounds in fields as disparate as Physics and Anthropology, and hometowns from Nagoya, Japan, to Westtown, New York, and everywhere in between. In the JGHC, faculty let their differences stimulate their curiosity and inform boundary-breaking creative collaborations. Always eager to learn from each other, faculty decided that a fun Flipgrid Q&A would be the perfect way to share more about their professional and personal interests, with each other and with our Mosaic readers.

Topics discussed included pillars of our Honors identity, such as sustainability, global engagement, and service. Dr. Lindy Davidson reflected on her Medical Humanities courses, and how they lead students to critically evaluate current conceptions of health and healthcare and consider how “to sustain ourselves in a way that really helps us to live well.”

For Dr. Andrew Hargrove, creating a sustainable future involves “building up my students and colleagues” and their capacity for environmental and economic problem-solving in our complex world. Dr. Catherine Wilkins agreed that mobilizing the skills and knowledge that everyone in a classroom possesses is a powerful way to provide service to the community that is more impactful than episodic volunteering. Indeed, as Dr. Cayla Lanier pointed out, opportunities for service are everywhere – from the grocery store parking lot to the rural villages of the Dominican Republic where, she said, “I take cold bucket showers and sleep under a mosquito net,” when working with students at a mobile medical clinic.

Many of our faculty have not only traveled to foreign countries but have lived abroad as well. Dr. Holly Donahue Singh, who spent many months in India as a researcher, says, “To me, global experiences are crucial, because they help us recognize our common humanity and…common challenges.” Prof. Atsuko Sakai fondly reminisced about using the ham radio as a teenager in Japan to connect with people in faraway places, sparking an interest in travel that led to her visiting 14 countries, then settling abroad here in the United States.

Honors faculty opened up about other personal subjects, and how they inform their choices for their lives. For instance, when asked how she would spend a windfall sum were she a wealthy philanthropist, Dr. Ulluminair Salim spoke about her experience caring for her mother at the end of life being the inspiration to create programs “to be able to provide respite” for caregivers of chronically ill people. Dr. Benjamin Young talked about the porous boundaries between work and play in his life, explaining how following his curiosity is intrinsically rewarding and restorative even if it looks like research from the outside. Prof. Tina Piracci agreed; for her, art making isn’t just part of her job – getting to express her creativity is a “major outlet” for restoration and mental stimulation.

Although Honors faculty are clearly passionate about their professions, there are other ways they like to have fun. One of the most laughter-filled subjects discussed was favorite concerts they either attended (from Kiss to Coheed and Cambria) or actually performed!

To find out which faculty member shone in the spotlight, and to hear all our interviews in their entirety, scan the QR codes.