The Teaching Fellows Program is offered each year to full-time Baylor faculty members and graduate teaching assistants through the Baylor University Libraries. This program supports research in one of Baylor’s six special libraries/collections, including The Texas Collection! Fellows spend time in these special libraries/collections over the summer with the expectation of implementing special collections in their courses that academic year. If you missed the Academy for Teaching and Learning (ATL) session, “Teaching with Special Collections,” here is a brief overview of The Texas Collection’s Summer 2018 Teaching Fellows.
Dr. T. Laine Scales
Dr. Scales is a Professor of Higher Education as well as Social Work and serves the Baylor Graduate School as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Professional Development. In 2016, she was named as a Baylor University Master Teacher. Dr. Scales spent time this past summer looking through several early collections in the University Archives to be implemented in her Foundations & History of Higher Education Administration graduate level course in the School of Education. Students in this class were assigned to one of five themes: Access, Curriculum, Finance, Students, and Religion. Through these themes, they researched Baylor’s history from 1890-1910 and a particular topic that fit with their assigned theme. Students were able to connect what they were learning in class about the history of higher education on a national level with history on a local level while gaining valuable research skills within the archives. Students were required to complete individual papers using materials from the archives as well as group blog posts, which The Texas Collection has been posting throughout this semester (see our “Sharing Student Scholarship” series).
In my experience, introducing students to primary source materials deepens their experience of studying Baylor’s history, but also sparks an interest in further archival work in their graduate studies. The Texas Collection is such a rich resource for our students and I am grateful for this chance to shape the experiences of my classroom in partnership with the staff of the Texas Collection.
Dr. Moisés Park
Dr. Park is an Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages & Culture at Baylor. Dr. Park spent time this past summer looking through Ernest Atkinson’s papers, a full time professor of the Mexican Baptist Bible Institute (MBBI) from 1962-1988 to be integrated into his Introduction to Spanish Literature courses in the spring. Dr. Park felt this collection was ideal and relevant for the section on identity and religion within his Spanish course, as the collection contains early texts on the history of the earlier years of today’s Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, previously known as Mexican Baptist Training School, Mexican Baptist Bible Institute, Hispanic Baptist Theological Seminary and Hispanic Baptist Theological School. Students in Dr. Park’s classes looked through Ernest Atkinson’s papers and were required to translate at least 100 words, but Dr. Park found that many students translated much more than that because of their interest in the materials.
If you are a Baylor faculty member or graduate teaching assistant (teachers of record) are interesting in applying for a fellowship, we encourage you to apply! Applications are due by April 5th. For more information about the call for applications, visit the Teaching Fellows Program website.
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