Congratulations to our ten new fellows. They represent 3 schools and 7 departments, and their projects will have one or more of our three areas of focus:
Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence (8 fellows)
Advancing the QEP: Post-Graduation Readiness Across the Curriculum (4 fellows)
Designing for Adult Learners and Emerging Student Profiles (2 fellows)
Sarah Agarwal, Counseling, Behavioral and Social Sciences
CNCO 6318: Professional Orientation
Timothy Braun, English (and Theatre), Arts and Humanities
THAR 2362: Theater History
Christopher Flynn, English, Arts and Humanities
ENGL 2300: Introduction to Literary Studies
Kim Garza, Visual Studies, Arts and Humanities
UXDE 1301, UXDE 2311, and UXDE 3330: Intro to UX, UX Methods, and Practical Projects
Selin Guner, International Affairs and Political Science, Behavioral and Social Sciences
INTA3337: International Law and Organizations
Renee Lai, Visual Studies, Arts and Humanities
VISU 3335 01: Professional Practices
Rodrigo Nunes, POLS/INTA/ENSP, Behavioral and Social Sciences
POLS 2319: Research Methods in Political Science
Mathew Scruggs, Theology and Religious Studies, Arts and Humanities
FILM 2398-03/RELS 2319-01: Film and Religion
Timothy Tu, Occupational Therapy, Health Science
OCTH7315: Health Conditions: Impact on participation/performance
Curt Yowell, English (Journalism and Digital Media), Arts and Humanities
JOUR 3318.01: Digital Investigative Techniques with AI
CNCO 6318: Professional Orientation
Area of Focus: Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence
This project redesigns the Master’s-level Professional Orientation course in the counseling program to intentionally integrate ethical, reflective engagement with artificial intelligence. As an introductory seminar, the course shapes students’ professional identity, ethical commitments, and understanding of the counseling field. Increasingly, students enter the program with questions and uncertainty about AI’s role in mental health practice, yet few structured opportunities exist to critically examine its implications.
The redesigned course will embed AI literacy within counseling ethics, professional identity formation, and critical thinking development. Rather than teaching AI as a technical skill, the course will position it as a catalyst for deeper reflection on human presence, discernment, bias, and responsibility in helping professions.
THAR 2362: Theater History
Area of Focus: Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence
I propose re-framing Theatre History as a skill-building, post-graduation-ready practice, serving student profiles through flexible, multimodal design, and integrating AI thoughtfully as a research, reflection, and synthesis tool, not a shortcut.
ENGL 2300: Introduction to Literary Studies
Area of Focus: Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence
This project redesigns ENGL 2300 to strengthen close reading and analytical writing skills, then introduces AI uses that draw on those. The idea is to get students to see how the skills they develop reading poems, plays, and fiction will make them effective at the kind of close attention it takes to get good results when using AI. Students will develop their interpretive skills and then learn to design, test, and verify AI-supported workflows (prompting, comparison, bias/hallucination checks) with textual evidence at the center. The redesign responds to lessons I took from my Fall 2025 version of the class about clarity and scaffolding by providing stepwise workflows and verification checklists. Hoped for outcomes will include improved close-reading performance, ethical AI proficiency, and a useful package of material colleagues can draw on. The work advances transformative learning and prepares students for post-graduation contexts that demand judgment with emerging technologies.
UXDE 1301, UXDE 2311, and UXDE 3330: Intro to UX, UX Methods, and Practical Projects
Area of Focus: Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence
UX is rapidly changing with the rise of AI. UX designers use generative AI as a collaborative partner to do many aspects of their professional work. Increasingly, UX designers are being tasked with designing the user experience of AI systems. In order to meet the future now, AI will be integrated into three existing courses: UXDE 1301 Intro to User Experience, UXDE 2311 UX Methods, and UXDE 3330 Practical Projects, which are bundled into the new UX & AI certificate. The courses incorporate a human-centered approach to AI — keeping our empathy, our belief in every person’s dignity, and our pursuit of a more just world front and center. Because many of the uses of AI in UX are transferable to other disciplines, students across the university can benefit from building AI literacy and ethical use. This bold curriculum rework exemplifies taking courageous risks on the leading edge of technological shifts.
INTA3337: International Law and Organizations
Area of Focus: Designing for Adult Learners and Emerging Student Profiles, Post-Graduation Readiness Across the Curriculum, Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence
This project redesigns International Law and Organizations to better support emerging student profiles and strengthen post-graduation readiness. The course will adopt a hybrid format that combines flexible online learning with in-person sessions focused on discussion, simulations, and applied analysis of international legal and institutional frameworks.
The course also contributes to the newly developed Law, Policy, and Politics Certificate, where it will serve as one of the program’s law-focused offerings. A key innovation of the project is the intentional integration of artificial intelligence as a learning tool. Students will learn how to use AI to support research and analysis while critically evaluating AI-generated outputs and considering the ethical implications of emerging technologies.
By combining hybrid learning, applied professional assignments, and responsible AI integration, the redesigned course aims to enhance student engagement, strengthen analytical and digital literacy skills, and prepare students for careers related to law, policy, and global governance.
VISU 3335 01: Professional Practices
Area of Focus: Post-Graduation Readiness Across the Curriculum
I am developing Professional Practices to advance post-graduation readiness across the curriculum. Several areas I want to focus on are identifying how skills developed in the arts are applicable to jobs that extend beyond the arts, financial literacy in both personal finances and in terms of managing a small art business, and how to present oneself, which will be helpful both during interviews and networking. Honing these skills will help students be prepared for life after graduation and will help make them attractive candidates to employers. I particularly hope that coursework around financial literacy can be used across multiple majors in courses that upperclassmen take as all of them will need to balance budgets, learn about investments, and many may start their own side hustles and businesses.
POLS 2319: Research Methods in Political Science
Area of Focus: Post-Graduation Readiness Across the Curriculum, Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence
This course development project introduces a new Political Science research methods course that expands beyond traditional statistics to equip students with a broader, more relevant methodological toolkit. The new course integrates qualitative methods — including case studies, comparative analysis, and interviewing — alongside foundational statistical literacy and, critically, the thoughtful use of generative AI in social science research. The course is designed to prepare students for upper-division coursework, internships, and the post-graduation job market, directly supporting institutional commitments to AI competency. A central challenge guiding the course design is pedagogical: how do we harness AI as a tool for intellectual growth rather than a shortcut around it?
FILM 2398-03/RELS 2319-01: Film and Religion
Area of Focus: Post-Graduation Readiness Across the Curriculum
This project develops new strategies for integrating structured dialogue into a Film and Religion course in order to help students engage complex questions about belief, culture, and ethics through the analysis of film. The project expands the understanding of religious discussion to include a wider range of religious perspectives and global cinematic traditions while introducing discussion frameworks that support thoughtful, respectful conversation across differences. Structured dialogue practices such as guided discussion protocols, reflective writing paired with conversation, and small group facilitation will help students develop skills in critical analysis, careful listening, and constructive disagreement.
The project is significant because courses that address religion, identity, and values often generate strong perspectives but lack clear structures to help students engage those perspectives productively. By developing adaptable dialogue practices connected to film analysis, this project offers a model that can be applied across disciplines where students are asked to discuss complex cultural and ethical topics. The resulting materials and strategies will be easily transferable to other humanities and social science courses.
OCTH7315: Health Conditions: Impact on participation/performance
Area of Focus: Designing for Adult Learners and Emerging Student Profiles, Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence
This project focuses on designing the foundational course, Health Conditions: Impact on Participation and Performance, for the Occupational Therapy program. The goal is to bridge the gap between clinical pathophysiology and the lived experience of disability. By focusing on occupational participation and performance, the course moves beyond a deficit-based medical model toward one that centers on occupational justice.
JOUR 3318.01: Digital Investigative Techniques with AI
Area of Focus: Thoughtful and Purposeful Use of Artificial Intelligence
This course-development project develops a curriculum that equips students with the knowledge and skills to combat the growing global threat of digital disinformation, and empowers them to create digital media that serves public information needs. The hands-on, experiential curriculum, is designed to build critical competencies in AI-assisted verification, data extraction, and digital forensics. The project’s significance lies in shifting students from passive media consumers to adaptable creators who understand the ethical implications of generative AI. Broadly applicable beyond journalism, the pedagogical frameworks and AI-resilient rubrics developed here seek to provide value for the St. Edward’s community and guidance for the revamped Journalism and Digital Media minor and new “Certificate in Writing and Researching with AI.” The project strives to reveal how higher education can adapt to rapid technological shifts, and teach students across disciplines to ethically interrogate complex digital landscapes and prepare for rapidly evolving professional environments.