Faculty Advancement
The Director of Faculty Advancement (FA), a component of the Academic improvement unit, helps faculty develop and improve their teaching; prepare for the review, tenure and promotion process; and navigate the multiple demands of faculty life at Arcadia.
FA is committed to helping faculty achieve excellence in the classroom and other venues where learning takes place. By fostering discussions about teaching, FA encourages instructors to reflect on their own practices, to gain new insights, and to learn new ideas and strategies from each other.
To achieve these goals, a variety of programs have been established:
- Monthly teaching discussions—known as Faculty-to-Faculty Lunch Discussions—will be sponsored by the office of Faculty Advancement. These discussions, which are lead by faculty, are open to all University faculty members—though each discussion will be limited to a dozen faculty members.
- Monthly sessions will be held for new and junior faculty members on matters of particular interest to them, ranging from the promotion and tenure process to fostering student learning.
- One-on-one consultations with faculty members can be arranged with the Director of Faculty Advancement. These may include class observations by a the Director or another faculty member, if appropriate.
- Departmental workshops on a variety of topics can be arranged with the Director of Faculty Advancement.
- Workshops for adjunct faculty members will be run at least twice a semester, focusing on issues of particular interest to them.
- The Junior Faculty Research Group, a support group for all junior faculty and their research.
Director of Faculty Advancement
John Noakes was named to the new position of Director of Faculty Advancement in September 2010. An Associate Professor of Sociology (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1994), he was the founding director of the Criminal Justice Program at Arcadia University. A political sociologist by training, his research focuses on the construction of political dissent and how police respond to street protests. He is also a member of the Policy Board of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. From 2003-2005, he served as the Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached at 215-572-2897 or noakesj@arcadia.edu.
