By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
10 faculty members were selected for the 14th cohort of Baylor Fellows. The new cohort is tasked with implementing this year’s theme inside the classroom: civil discourse.
Baylor Fellows, started by The Academy for Teaching and Learning in 2011, is a program dedicated to fostering excellence in teaching. Each cohort is assigned to a theme — such as well-being or global engagement — and spends the year integrating that theme into their classroom and the greater Baylor community. Faculty were nominated by three groups: colleagues, deans and former Baylor Fellows.
Recipients of this year’s fellowships, along with the task of providing novel ways of facilitating discourse in the classroom, received an award of $1,845 in honor of Baylor’s founding year. The 2024-2025 Baylor Fellows cohort is as follows:
Lauren Weber, lecturer in theater – Senior Fellow
Dr. David Corey, professor of political science in the Honors Program
Dr. Rebecca Flavin, senior lecturer in political science
Dr. Tara Foley, senior lecturer in English
Leah Witcher Jackson Teague, professor of law
Dr. Jonathan Lawson, lecturer in biology
Dr. Kevin Magill, professor of teaching and curriculum
Michael Rodriguez, clinical assistant professor of accounting
Janet Sanker, clinical associate professor of communication science and disorders
Dr. Luke Winslow, associate professor of communication
With a high-stakes election season well underway, Baylor Fellows has adjusted its yearly theme to fit the times. Following this theme, fellows will each select one course and implement new teaching strategies that promote healthy discussion of political issues.
For some fields, the implications are obvious. Dr. David Corey, professor of political science in the Honors Program, is in one of these fields.
Corey has done significant research on the topic of civil discourse inside and outside the classroom. He taught a class last year with his wife about civil discourse. Corey is also currently writing a book about American politics, “The Politics of War and The Politics of Peace.”
Through this experience, Corey said he has become aware of the way college students deal with disagreement.
“One of the reasons I got into [promoting civil discourse] outside my classes is that I observed students on campus approaching political conflict in a way that my students would never have done in the classroom,” Corey said.
While Corey implements discussion into most of his classes, the richest instances of civil discourse have come in “The Hardest Issues of Our Age: A Course in Civil Discourse” — the class that Corey co-teaches with his wife.
Because not every student can take a course that encourages discussion of the biggest political issues today, Corey said he hopes he can bring this topic outside of his classroom.
“I think there are things we can do structurally on campus for the whole community, even the ones who are engineers and biologists, to see civil discourse done well,” Corey said.
So far this is going well, as Corey introduced bestselling columnist David Brooks before his Sept. 10 speech in Waco Hall.
Those not studying political science won’t necessarily have to go outside their classrooms to find civil discourse this year. But it depends on what’s meant by “civil discourse.”
Lauren Weber is a lecturer of theater in Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences and a Senior Baylor Fellow. As a senior fellow, Weber was nominated into Baylor Fellows last year and remained in the program this year to guide new members throughout the process.
In her classes, like vocal lessons and musical theater workshops, civil discourse is not so much an issue of red and blue.
“Civil discourse doesn’t necessarily have to be political science, it’s about civility. It’s about humanity,” Weber said.
To implement this definition of civil discourse in her classes, Weber said she has a couple of ideas. One of these strategies is “story exchanging.”
“What I’ve started doing is adding in some story exchanges. Dr. Kevin Villegas came to one of my classes and had them share a story with someone in their own voice… and then you tell the story that you just heard,” Weber said.
Weber also said she hopes to experiment with a merger between acting and a common personality test.
“I’m also really interested in piloting this idea of Enneagram and acting,” Weber said. “There’s no Enneagram acting technique now, but I’m kind of creating one, using the Enneagram as a way to get into whether you’re head-centered, heart-centered or gut-centered”
Weber said that this technique, though still a work in progress, will help actors connect on a deeper level with both their characters and with other actors.
“How can I understand where they’re coming from, and that it’s not good or bad, it’s just that we’re created differently?” Weber said.
