From the Desk of the VPAA: January Ph.D. and Ed.D. Residencies

As we begin the new year, I am happy to report that we kicked off 2014 with successful residencies for the Ph.D. and EdD programs. The residencies took place at the METS Center in Erlanger, Kentucky, from January 2 through January 10.

Doctoral students and faculty presented several papers addressing the theme of “Boundaries.” In addition, the faculty hosted a presentation on the topic of “Visualizing Structure & Agency Through Social Network Analysis.”

The Ninth semi-annual MLK Legacy speaker, Dr. Stewart Burns, presented “Way Out of No Way: How King’s Teachings Might Help Us Overcome Our Quadruple Peril.” Dr. Burns is a distinguished historian of the civil rights movement, and he wrote the Wilbur-Award-winning biography of Martin Luther King, To the Mountain, in 2004. A former editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers at Stanford University, he produced the Montgomery bus boycott volume, Daybreak of Freedom, later made into the HBO feature film Boycott (on which he consulted). His new book We will Stand Here Till We Die: Freedom Movement Shakes America, Shapes Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013) covers the epic story of the American freedom struggle of 1963 to the March on Washington. Dr. Burns currently shares leadership of the Center for Learning in Action at Williams College. His work absolutely parallels what we are trying to support at Union Institute & University, by merging theory and practice through the development of the scholar-practitioner.

On another note, this residency provided the ongoing opportunity for the Ed.D. and Ph.D. students to work  together through the ongoing effort to cross faculty between the programs, merge courses that have the same focus, and bring UI&U doctoral students together through collaborative academic experiences. This began in July 2013 through the merging of two research seminars and continued in this January 2014 residency by merging two more foundational type experiences, Ethical Leadership and The Art of Social Justice. This collaboration will continue in the July 2014 residency as we progress with this approach. When asked, the faculty teaching these cooperative endeavors believe the seminar experience is richer with the diversity of student experience.