Three Modern Languages Faculty Named Sustainability/SDG Education Teaching Fellows

Posted January 31, 2022

Three faculty members from the School of Modern Languages were selected by the Georgia Tech Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) as Sustainability/SDG Education Teaching Fellows for the Spring 2022 term.

Lionel Gall, senior lecturer of French; Britta Kallin, associate professor of German; and Kyoko Masuda, associate professor of Japanese, will serve as fellows alongside faculty, staff, and graduate students from across Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State University.

“These recognitions highlight the expertise our faculty bring to the discussion of sustainability topics across institutions of higher learning,” said David Shook, interim chair and associate professor of Spanish in the School of Modern Languages. “The fact that these topics can be folded into our explorations of foreign-language development and the understandings of cultures outside of our own is a natural combination that our faculty have developed and continue to develop for the future. Lionel, Britta, and Kyoko, and many others in the School, are building to enhance their students’ goals and desires for their futures within our courses and programs by providing access to minors and majors in language and culture studies for those who want to delve even further into global sustainability issues and possibilities.”

Gall, Kallin, and Masuda are joined by their cohort members:

• Anne Fuller, senior lecturer of strategy and innovation area in the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech
• Jairo Garcia, adjunct faculty in the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech
• Steven Kangisser, building construction Ph.D. student in the College of Design at Georgia Tech
• Raghu Pucha, principal lecturer in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech
• Carsten Sievers, associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech
• Norah Sinclair, instructional designer and content developer at the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation in the College of Design at Georgia Tech
• Teresa Snow, senior academic professional in the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech
• Tiffini Eugene Jones, assistant professor in the College of Sciences at Kennesaw State University
• Richard Halstead-Nussloch, professor in the Information Technology Department at Kennesaw State University
• Lara Smith-Sitton, associate professor in the English Department at Kennesaw State University

“The Sustainability/SDG Education Teaching Fellows Program builds upon SLS Fellows and CTL Teaching Fellows Programs,” the call for application states. “The SLS Fellows Program fosters interdisciplinary learning communities by bringing together diverse faculty, staff, and graduate students to examine and apply key themes related to sustainable communities. CTL Teaching Fellows Programs bring together a diverse group of interdisciplinary faculty to engage in conversations about teaching.”

During the spring semester, fellows will focus on either advancing professional development in sustainability education — such as designing workshops, training materials, or conference presentations — or advancing their own sustainability teaching through course re-design, module development, or projects that prepare students to be sustainability change-makers.

By incorporating the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and sustainability competencies in their teaching, fellows are advancing the Institute Strategic Plan (ISP) goal to “provide all students with transformative learning experiences to grow as creative, ethical, globally aware, technologically sophisticated leaders who can define and solve problems to improve the human condition.” The fellowship further supports the School of Modern Language’s goal “to sustain and grow excellence in interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research and scholarship.”

At the conclusion of the one-semester program, the resources developed by the fellows will be made available to other faculty through SLS’ and CTL’s websites.