Past Symposia

2025 - Teaching in Turbulent Times: Creating Community with Care and Empathy

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Michele DiPietro

January 8, 2025

The theme focused on ways to create learning spaces that support students, and those who work with them, as we as a campus community navigate turbulent times. The current social and political climate along with rapid technological changes are among many things that present challenges and opportunities for higher education. Our goal is to discuss ways to engage local, national, and global contexts in our classes and to foster inclusive and empathetic learning environments that address the unique needs of our students while also attending to our well-being as faculty and staff.

2024 - Thriving at Illinois State

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Bryan Dewsbury

January 10, 2024

To thrive at the university goes beyond academic achievement to include engagement in and outside the classroom, social connectedness, and opportunities to engage with diverse perspectives. It goes beyond feelings of happiness and academic accomplishment to include feelings of connection, purpose, and growth (Su, Tay & Diener, 2014). At this year’s Symposium, we would like to center conversations on how our teaching practices can foster opportunities for ourselves, as instructors, and for our students to thrive in and out of the classroom.

2023 - Belongingness

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Lorgia Garcia Peña

January 11, 2023

Belongingness can be conceptualized on the personal level and also on the institutional or structural level. At the core is the idea that members of a particular community feel included, valued and cared for as a contributing member of that group (Strayhorn, Hurtado, & Harris, 2012). Structural belonging goes beyond just having access, but that once in a space, one has power and voice to fully participate in decision-making and even make demands upon the institution (Johnson, 2022).

2022 - Listen, Encourage, Inspire, Challenge: Building a Relationship-Rich Campus

Keynote Speakers: Peter Felten and David Rettinger

January 5, 2022

Few things have illustrated the paramount importance of connections between students and instructors like the coronavirus pandemic. As we move into a new year, we hope to explore the interconnected strands of relationship-rich education, authentic learning, and authentic assessment.

This year's Symposium theme asks: How can we encourage students to make human connections, with those who teach them and among themselves, in ways that shape their learning environments and provide transformative experiences?

2021 - Civic Engagement in Extraordinary Times

Keynote Speakers: Elizabeth Bennion, Marshall Welch, and Timothy K. Eatman

January 6, 2021

This year’s theme, Civic Engagement in Extraordinary Times, examines one of Illinois State University’s core values in an era of unprecedented pressure on our social, political, and educational lives. What roles should institutions of higher education play in their communities? How are we as an institution encouraging students to become informed, engaged, and responsible members of a community? And how have recent social and political events shaped our views of civic engagement and how to incorporate it into Illinois State University’s overall mission?

Reflecting this, the Symposium will be offered entirely online as a series of plenary and concurrent sessions, each focusing on a different aspect of civic and community engagement. A group of nationally recognized speakers will lead discussions on a wide range of topics, from high impact practices in teaching and learning, to promoting civic engagement across the disciplines, to fostering meaningful dialogues about social justice and other issues.

2020 - Intentional Technologies: Reclaiming Our Spaces

Keynote Speaker: José Antonio Bowen

January 8, 2020

Much has been said about the use, or in some cases, the overuse, of technology in education. As we cast our eyes forward, peering across the next decade, we need to think intentionally about the technologies we use, the ways in which we use them, and the predilections and prejudices which inform our choices. Doing this may allow us to reclaim physical, virtual, mental, and emotional spaces for our teaching.

2019 - Contemplative Teaching: Connecting Meaning, Purpose, and Values

Keynote Speaker: Michelle Chatman

January 9, 2019

As instructors, we want our students to do more than just remember. We want them to learn in ways that are deeply transformative. We want this not just for their sakes, not just for ours, but because we believe all of society benefits from an educated, compassionate citizenry.

The theme of contemplative teaching is rooted in the same soil as the contemplative practices which grow from other physical, creative, and even spiritual endeavors—practices made more challenging in an age of distracting devices, tweets, and incivility. For the purposes of this symposium, contemplative teaching can be defined as teaching to encourage new forms of inquiry, reflective thinking, and experiential learning. It also helps students to connect learning to their lives, values, and identities (ACMHE, 2015).

2018 - Expanding Notions of Literacy

Keynote Speakers: Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope

January 10, 2018

Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope have spent their careers investigating how modes like the visual, the audio, and the gestural combine in new communication environments, and how we learn the rules of these new modes of communication to use them effectively. Their work, part of the New London Group, serves a foundation for looking at literacy as much more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic.

2017 - Start Where You Are - The Journey Towards Cultural Responsiveness

Keynote Speaker: Ernest Morrell

January 12, 2017

2016 - Imagining the Future, Reflecting on the Past

Keynote Speaker: Todd Zakrajsek

January 6, 2016

2015 - Next Steps in Student Engagement

Keynote Speaker: Elizabeth Barkley

January 7, 2015

2014 - Teaching and Learning Across Context - Engaging Students in and Beyond the Classroom

January 8, 2014

Due to hazardous weather and airline cancellations, our scheduled keynote speaker, Dr. Ken Bain, was not able to attend. We plan to invite Dr. Bain back to campus at a later date.

2013 - Changing Teaching; Changing Learning: Helping Students Become Knowledge-Able

Keynote Speaker: Michael Wesch

January 9, 2013

2012 - Creating Climates for Teaching and Learning

Keynote Speaker: Kent Weeks

January 11, 2012

2011 - State Your Passion for Teaching and Learning

Keynote Speaker: Eric Liu

January 5, 2011

2010 - Sustainable Teaching, Sustainable Learning, Sustainable Living

Keynote Speaker: Debra Rowe

January 6, 2010

The 2010 Symposium was our largest ever, with more than 140 faculty/staff presenters and more than 360 registered participants, and we look forward to continuing the conversation about Sustainable Teaching, Sustainable Learning, and Sustainable Living throughout this semester through a Teaching Excellence Series and a reading group.

2009 - Teaching and Learning in a ‘Diverse Community of Scholars

Keynote Speaker: James Anderson

January 7, 2009

2008 - Gladly We Learn and Teach: Past, Present and Future

Keynote Speaker: Ken Bain

January 9, 2008

This year’s theme is “Gladly We Learn and Teach: Past, Present, and Future,” and our keynote speaker is Dr. Ken Bain, author of the award-winning work, What the Best College Teachers Do, and Vice Provost for Instruction and Director of the Teaching and Learning Resource Center at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey.

2007 - Civic Engagement in Classrooms and Communities

Keynote Speaker: George Mehaffy

January 10, 2007

This year’s theme is “Civic Engagement in Classrooms and Communities,” and our keynote speaker is Dr. George Mehaffy, Vice President of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and founder of the American Democracy Project.

In keeping with this theme, we encourage faculty, teaching assistants, and professional staff to share the results of and insights gained from recent projects, research, and teaching experiences. Especially welcome are presentations addressing theme-related issues such as: What responsibilities do we have as educators in and for a democracy, and how do we meet them? What do we mean by ‘civic’ engagement? What do we mean by ‘communities’? How is civic engagement similar to or different from other kinds of engagement? How do our notions of ‘classroom’ and ‘community’ intersect—and diverge? How can we model civic engagement for our students—and why should we?

2006 - Making Connections: Fostering Integration of Learning

Keynote Speaker: Jacqulyn Lauer-Glebov

January 11, 2006

This year’s theme is “Making Connections: Fostering Integration of Learning.” This theme encompasses a broad array of topics such as making connections between technologies and teaching and learning goals, general education studies and majors, various learning experiences within majors, various learning experiences in outside activities, curriculum and co-curriculum, theory and practice, or writing and thinking.