Faculty Development

The Robert & Joyce Johnson Center for Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching

Thursday Lunch Topics | Reading Groups | Sabbatical Series | Events & Activities | Resources

Welcome to the Johnson Center! We offer programs throughout the year to our faculty to help us develop as teachers, as academics, and as people. The Johnson Center is dedicated to encouraging conversations and the sharing of ideas that help us be our best as individuals and as a whole faculty. Johnson Center programs not only promote career development for the faculty, but also uphold the spirit of the liberal arts tradition at Austin College.

About the Johnson Center

New and Prospective Faculty

The Johnson Center provides support and opportunities for new faculty at Austin College. We organize New Faculty Orientation in August and offer special programming for new and pre-tenure faculty throughout the year. New faculty are encouraged to participate in all Johnson Center programs including our successful Faculty Writing Group, book discussion groups, and our Peer Class Visit program. Visiting faculty have the opportunity to give campus-wide lectures through the Johnson Center. As a new, visiting, and pre-tenure faculty member, the Johnson Center will provide you with opportunities to get involved on campus, talk about teaching and pedagogy, and make a difference at Austin College. We look forward to meeting you!

Interested in starting a faculty development center?

The Johnson Center for Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching is a signature program at Austin College, with a high level of faculty participation and satisfaction. Our program is faculty-driven with a full-time faculty director and an elected faculty committee. If you would like information on the Johnson Center and the faculty development center model at Austin College, please contact Dr. Andrea Overbay, director, at aoverbay@austincollege.edu.

Have a program idea?

Oscar Page

Dr. Oscar Page, President Emeritus of Austin College will be the special guest speaker at the A.J. Carlson Lecture on the Liberal Arts. Dr. Page will be speaking Tuesday, September 10, 2019, on “The Changing Nature of the Liberal Arts: The Impact on the Traditional Liberal Arts College.” A reception will be held at 4:00… [Read More]

Hunt Tooley

Hunt Tooley’s Sabbatical Lecture “From Mametz Wood to 100 Aker Wood: Trenches, Trauma, and the Great War Legacy of Children’s Literature” will take place on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 in the Wright Campus Center. A reception will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Johnson Gallery, with the lecture following at 5:00 p.m. in Mabee… [Read More]

Jessica Healy

Jessica Healy’s Sabbatical Lecture “Have Squirrels, Will Travel: Adventures in International Hibernation Research” will take place on Wednesday, November 6, 2019 in the Wright Campus Center. A reception will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Johnson Gallery, with the lecture following at 5:00 p.m. in Mabee Hall. My sabbatical had two main goals: the… [Read More]

Mark Monroe

Mark Monroe’s Sabbatical Lecture “Industrial Debitage” will take place on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 in the Forster Art Studio Complex. A reception will be held at 4:30 p.m., with the lecture following at 5:00 p.m.

Keith Kisselle

Keith Kisselle’s Sabbatical Lecture “Threats to the Canadian Boreal Forest: My Sabbatical With the Natural Resources Defense Council” will take place on Wednesday, April 1, 2020 in the Wright Campus Center. A reception will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Johnson Gallery, with the lecture following at 5:00 p.m. in Mabee Hall.

Mission & Purpose

The Robert & Joyce Johnson Center for Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching advances the mission of Austin College by fostering lively intellectual dialogue within and across academic disciplines. Nourishing a collegiate environment of passionate inquiry and free expression, the Johnson Center supports faculty initiatives, both intramural and extramural, that explore questions fundamental to the continued vitality of the liberal arts tradition at Austin College. As means to these ends, alongside broader campus-wide programming, the Johnson Center facilitates:

Colloquia exploring questions vital to the liberal arts
Interdisciplinary reading groups
Faculty participation in regional, national, and international liberal arts conferences
Activities in support of the scholarship of teaching and learning
Informal gatherings devoted to intellectual inquiry and exchange
Career development workshops related to the liberal arts for faculty at early, mid, and late career stages
Faculty development programs to complement activities supported by the Cullen and Richardson endowments

Committee Members:

Please contact the Director or Committee members for additional information about center programs and activities.