Before joining UCC, Anna was Faculty Development Specialist in the Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at University of Rhode Island (USA), where she led an array of consultation services, Justice & Equity educational resources, Inclusive Excellence initiatives, and High Impact Teaching programs to foster educators’ agency as reflexive practitioners and engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Anna holds a BA in Modern Languages (Padova, Italy), an MA in English (Nottingham, UK), and a PhD combining Italian Studies and Theatre Arts & Performance Studies (Brown University, USA). During her doctoral studies she was also Visiting Scholar at Dickinson College, and she served for several years as Graduate Teaching Consultant within Brown’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning.
Her trans-disciplinary scholarship, teaching practice, and international collaborations focus on critically inclusive pedagogies informed by applied theatre, performance activism, language education, and intercultural teaching and learning. Recent highlights include her work on Democratic Belonging as Informed Citizenry (POD session at AAC&U 2022); on Intercultural Educators’ Ethical Practice Across Disciplines (Scenario Journal); on the role of acknowledgement in transformative Faculty Development programs for Inclusive Teaching that center truth and racial healing (Journal of Faculty Development); on exploring discomfort, co-creation, trust, self-awareness, and empathy in teaching in her contribution to the Deep Teaching Residency (DTR) project curriculum and facilitators team; and on Listening to the Sound of Silence in Supporting Instructors' Transitions to Remote Teaching During COVID-19.
Anna believes in education for liberation, and in the powerful ways in which creativity and authentic relationships shape our collective journeys towards positive change. She interrogates power with honesty, values co-creation and shared knowledge, and advocates for systemically supporting equitable success for all teachers and learners. She is excited to join the CIRTL team and contribute her passion and expertise to UCC’s growth and success, especially in relation to:
1) nurturing an evidence-based and intellectually-engaged teaching and learning community;
2) sustaining learning-centered teaching strategies that consider motivation, growth mindset, self-realization, empathy, embodiment, sense of belonging, and affectivity;
3) facilitating multidisciplinary conversations that integrate culturally aware teaching and mentoring, with particular attention to the role played by educators’ own values and identities;
4) directing programmes that address holistic student success as well as the needs of educators as learners themselves;
5) supporting and maintaining local and global partnerships to pursue meaningful organizational change and advance Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
Biography
Anna Santucci, PhD (she/lei/sie/ella) joins University College Cork in 2022 as Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning Enhancement in the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL). She brings to UCC her fervent vocation for Educational Development, her strong commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, her international experience within diverse Higher Education settings, and her dedication to promoting intentional, learning-centred, and evidence-based teaching across the disciplines. These values ground her professional identity, which she cultivates as an active member of organizations such as The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and the International Consortium for Educational Development.Before joining UCC, Anna was Faculty Development Specialist in the Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at University of Rhode Island (USA), where she led an array of consultation services, Justice & Equity educational resources, Inclusive Excellence initiatives, and High Impact Teaching programs to foster educators’ agency as reflexive practitioners and engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Anna holds a BA in Modern Languages (Padova, Italy), an MA in English (Nottingham, UK), and a PhD combining Italian Studies and Theatre Arts & Performance Studies (Brown University, USA). During her doctoral studies she was also Visiting Scholar at Dickinson College, and she served for several years as Graduate Teaching Consultant within Brown’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning.
Her trans-disciplinary scholarship, teaching practice, and international collaborations focus on critically inclusive pedagogies informed by applied theatre, performance activism, language education, and intercultural teaching and learning. Recent highlights include her work on Democratic Belonging as Informed Citizenry (POD session at AAC&U 2022); on Intercultural Educators’ Ethical Practice Across Disciplines (Scenario Journal); on the role of acknowledgement in transformative Faculty Development programs for Inclusive Teaching that center truth and racial healing (Journal of Faculty Development); on exploring discomfort, co-creation, trust, self-awareness, and empathy in teaching in her contribution to the Deep Teaching Residency (DTR) project curriculum and facilitators team; and on Listening to the Sound of Silence in Supporting Instructors' Transitions to Remote Teaching During COVID-19.
Anna believes in education for liberation, and in the powerful ways in which creativity and authentic relationships shape our collective journeys towards positive change. She interrogates power with honesty, values co-creation and shared knowledge, and advocates for systemically supporting equitable success for all teachers and learners. She is excited to join the CIRTL team and contribute her passion and expertise to UCC’s growth and success, especially in relation to:
1) nurturing an evidence-based and intellectually-engaged teaching and learning community;
2) sustaining learning-centered teaching strategies that consider motivation, growth mindset, self-realization, empathy, embodiment, sense of belonging, and affectivity;
3) facilitating multidisciplinary conversations that integrate culturally aware teaching and mentoring, with particular attention to the role played by educators’ own values and identities;
4) directing programmes that address holistic student success as well as the needs of educators as learners themselves;
5) supporting and maintaining local and global partnerships to pursue meaningful organizational change and advance Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.