Teaching Circles

Teaching circles provide (usually) three faculty members the opportunity to observe each others’ classes and talk about teaching in an informal setting. Participants receive a stipend of $500 for participating. Generally, faculty create their own teaching circles, but the LTC can also assist with matchmaking. Teaching circles can be among faculty in related disciplines, or they can include faculty in different disciplines. Some of the most successful teaching circles have involved faculty who might seem to have very little in common in terms of the types of courses they teach.

See a list of previous teaching circles.

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Previous Teaching Circles

2025-26

Learning to Love Required Classes: Accessibility and Community Across the Humanities

In September 2024, we started our tenure-track careers at Carleton in French, English and creative writing, and music. Although we work in different departments, we share one thing in common: we all teach classes in the humanities that fulfill liberal arts requirements and attract students with little to no experience in our fields. In addition to the many positive interactions we’ve had, each of us has also heard students express frustration at having to take classes seen as nonessential or unnecessarily challenging given their perceived lack of relevance to future professional aspirations. As we enter our second year at Carleton and begin advising students, we are interested in addressing these concerns by incorporating new inclusive teaching practices into our courses that inspire student confidence and build community across departmental lines.

Katharine Hargrave, Assistant Professor of French
Gwen Kirby, Assistant Professor of English
Jeremy Tatar, Assistant Professor of Music

Connecting Cultures Through Music

Gao Hong, Director of the Chinese Music Ensemble and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Musical Instruments
Rose Tyler, Visiting Director of the Carleton Symphony Band

2024-25

Learning From Colleagues Across Divisions

 In this teaching circle, colleagues from History, Educational Studies, and the QRC, with a range of tenures at Carleton, will participate in reciprocal teaching observations and discussions. Our goals are to learn new pedagogical strategies, participate in an interdisciplinary community of teaching practice, and reflect on the epistemology and assumptions of our own disciplines.

Lin Su Winton, Director of the Quantitative Resource Center and Lecturer in Biology
Susannah Ottaway, Laird Bell Professor of History
Anita Chikkatur, Professor of Educational Studies

2023-24

Anastasia Pantazopoulou (Classics)
Rebecca Terry (Math & Stats)
Chris Saladin (Digital Arts & Humanities)

Gao Hong (Music)
Lauren Visel (Music)

Bereket Haileab (Geology)
Gretchen Hofmeister (Chemistry)
Jay McKinney (Cognitive Science)
Sarah Meerts (Psychology and Neuroscience)
Jay Tasson (Physics)

Annie Bosacker (Biology)
Colleen Carpenter (Religion and ENTS)
Victoria Morse (History)

2021–22

Victor Almeida (Economics)
Sarah Kennedy (Classics)
Sarah Lahasky (Music)

Brooke McCorkle (Music)
MurphyKate Montee (Math)
Anya Vostinar (Computer Science)

2019–20

Andrea Mazzariello (Music)
Kim Huynh (Chemistry)
Ryan Terrien (Physics & Astronomy)
Paul Petzschmann (European Studies)

  • LTC blog post about this teaching circle, including a podcast by the participants

George Cusack (Writing Across the Curriculum)
Charisse Burden-Stelly (Africana Studies & Political Science)
Gisel Flores-Montoya (Psychology)
Baird Jarman (Art History)

2016–17

Kristin Bloomer (Religion)
Anita Chikkatur (Educational Studies)
Anna Rafferty (Computer Science)

Juliane Schicker (German)
Sandra Rousseau (French)
Kevin Wolfe (Religion)

2015–16

Jessica Keating (Art History)
Shaohua Guo (Chinese)
Prathi Seneviratne (Economics)

2014–15

Thabiti Willis (History)
Constanza Ocampo-Raeder (Anthropology)
Kent Freeze (Political Science)

2013–14

Heidi Jaynes (P.E.A.R.)
David Liben-Nowell (Computer Science)
Kelly Connole (Art)

2012–13

Sarah Meerts (Psychology)
Jason Decker (Philosophy)
Sherri Goings (Computer Science)

Andy Flory (Music)
Cherlon Ussery (Linguistics)
Julia Strand (Psychology)

2011–12

Tsegeye Nega (ENTS)
Aaron Swoboda (ENTS and Economics)
Dan Hernandez (Biology)

2010–11

Peter Balaam (English)
Susan Jaret-McKinstry (English)
George Shuffelton (English)