Six UHCL professors awarded travel grants to learn, share with faculty

February 8, 2019 | Jim Townsend

Six University of Houston-Clear Lake professors recently received faculty development grants that will allow them represent the university at national and international conferences in 2019. The professors are expected to share what they learn with other faculty, says Robert Bartsch, director of the Center for Faculty Development and professor of psychology. Standing with Bartsch (left) are recipients five of the six recipients: Assistant Professor of Criminology Helen Jin, Assistant Professor of Writing Patricia Droz, Assistant Professor of Public Health Isabelle Kusters, Assistant Professor of Accounting Maggie Hao and Assistant Professor of Engineering Management Gene Shan. Not pictured is Professor of Women’s Studies and Psychology Kim Case.

Jin, whose classes on crime focus on gender and race, is attending the Academy Criminal Justice Society conference in Baltimore in March. She is seeking ways to broach these sensitive topics in the classroom, as well meet with textbook publishers and gather more resource material for students.

Droz is looking forward to a workshop on corpus linguistics at the College Conference of Communication and Composition in Pittsburgh in March. In the context of linguistics, a corpus is a large, structured set of text – taken from books, periodicals, transcripts, etc. – from which a language’s use of syntax and semantics is analyzed. Linguists use it to infer meaning and context.

Also in March, Kusters will attend the 2019 Diversity, Equity and Student Success Conference organized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Pittsburgh. Kusters teaches the social determinants of health and health care access. She’s seeking more ways to encourage unbiased, open and civil discourse around these politically charged topics.

Hao teaches financial auditing and fraud examination. In August, she intends to present a case study at a teaching conference hosted by the American Accounting Association. The case study, co-authored by UHCL Professor of Accounting Constance Lehmann, will be presented to peers at the conference for feedback. Hao also hopes to hear about new technologies and trends.

Shan says he hopes to gain insights and best practices for conducting classes online at the International Conference on Distance Learning and Education to be held in October in Amsterdam. Scholars from all over the world will present research, exchange ideas and seek out new ways to collaborate.

In May, Case will travel to Portland, Ore., for the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education. Then in the fall she hopes to offer faculty new ways to approach diversity discussion in the classroom, with the goal being to increase UHCL’s diversity curriculum and content and to bolster a strong sense of belonging among under-represented students.