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PRF Expands in 2020-21, Introduces New Teaching Fellowships

Using the new theme "Displacement and Justice" as a prompt, the program has expanded in 2020-21 with nine faculty fellows working with 19 students representing a wide range of disciplines: from Music, English, and Theater to Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology. While the program nearly doubled its research fellowships and student involvement, it also expanded through the creation of a new teaching fellowship offered to faculty interested in connecting their courses to the theme and forms of public engagement. Five faculty from Spanish, English, and the Fine Arts are designing course modules and assignments that ask students to connect their learning with a public outcome.

Dr. Matthew Warshawsky, professor of Spanish and Chair of the International Languages and Cultures department, is one of this new cohort and is excited for a novel challenge. He is using the opportunity to build public engagement into his Spring 2021 course on collaboration and conflict in Judaism, Islam, and Catholicism in Medieval Spain. The class, taught in Spanish, presents an opportunity to deepen one’s knowledge of Spanish language and culture in a unique framework. Warshawsky notes that Spanish is often a popular course of study because of its utility in the professional world, but he hopes that this course will challenge students to broaden their horizons and learn from a seemingly distant history.

Warshawsky plans to have his students visit places of worship (via Zoom) in Muslim, Catholic, and Jewish communities here in Portland to catalyze “conversation and dialogue through the lens of this time in Medieval Spain when three cultures had to work together” and where questions of displacement and justice were at the fore. He believes that connecting the course to the community will help students engage with subject matter that can sometimes feel far afield from their contemporary lives. He also hopes it will give them a concrete way to showcase their skills: as he puts it, “Our students do such great work and then nobody sees it.” Warshawsky, and the new PRF teaching fellowship, aim to change that by building opportunities for connecting to local communities directly into a course.