Workshops
To offer specific, targeted, and impactful tools, we work with institutions to offer workshops for your graduate students or faculty, or even for administrators who work with graduate students. We have a number of workshops that we are prepared to offer, a selection of which are listed below. For a deeper dive into these topics, please see our courses (or inquire about a future course!). In addition, we are very happy to work with you to develop a new workshop to suit your particular needs and challenges.
Our workshops are interactive and engaging, offering exercises to experiment with new tools as well as concrete information that participants can immediately use and adapt. We can offer them remotely or (when travel is possible) in person.
Understanding and Supporting Neurodivergent Students
The term ‘“neurodiversity” (Singer, 1999) highlights normal variation in the human population regarding differences in individual brain function and behavioral traits. “Neurodivergence,” originally coined in relation to autism, is an umbrella term now used to describe developmental differences such as dyslexia, ADHD, and autistic spectrum disorder, among many others.
Today, more neurodivergent faculty, students, and scholars are teaching, learning, living, and working on higher ed. campuses than ever before (Henning et al., 2022), but most institutions aren’t yet equipped to fully include them - let alone to help them thrive (Dwyer, 2022). This workshop is intended to aid postdocs and faculty to better support neurodivergent students and colleagues.
Reading and Note-making in Grad School
Overwhelmed by how much you’re asked to read in your courses? Graduate school reading demands not only increase, but they are likely qualitatively different from what you were asked to read – and how you read – in college and the working world. Not only are you expected to critically absorb and analyze an immense number of difficult texts of various types, you are expected to do so quickly. (Spoiler alert: And it’s not necessary that you read everything that’s assigned. Really.)
In this introduction to reading and note-making in grad school, we’ll explore strategies for managing diverse academic demands such as selecting and prioritizing what to read; retaining more of the material; connecting texts within and across courses; and annotating effectively.
Mentoring Up
As a grad student or postdoc, why is it essential to consider your own role, goals, and participation in mentoring relationships with faculty advisors and PIs? More specifically, are there best practices that you can cultivate to “mentor up” that will benefit you and your mentor(s)?
In this workshop, we’ll explore strategies to work collaboratively with advisors and mentors while also communicating what you want and need from the relationship. We’ll focus particular attention on approaches to managing advisors’ expectations for productivity and “progress.”
Giving & Receiving Feedback
In this workshop for graduate students across disciplines, you and your peers will learn how to give constructive feedback to classmates, colleagues, lab-mates, and assistants; gracefully hear and implement feedback from others; and ask your peers (and advisor!) for useful and timely feedback on your own scholarship. You’ll practice simple strategies to conquer the anxiety that can often come with “critique,” and will leave armed with tips and tools to give, receive, and elicit feedback positively, productively, and with purpose.
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