This Month: Larry Gibbs, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology (SOAN)

To see this as a Video  interview, click the link.

Originally posted October 22, 2020—18:24 run time)

When Larry sat down with us, our intention was to find out about some of the techniques that were used in SOAN to combat the feelings of isolation and separation that many of us have been experiencing during the pandemic. One approach was to bring the family to a virtual staff meeting, with snacks. That event developed into a drop-in gathering on the department Chair’s patio where social distancing and masks couldn't dampen the positive impact of the meeting.

Our conversation touches on the impact of teaching international students and the significant time challenges that can bring, then moves on to the effect that current events can have on teaching. Larry talks about how surreal it was to be teaching your students about pandemics in an epidemiology course and racial unrest in a sociology course as related events were taking place in real time. The power of the course content being from real life—not a journal or text—made for a term unlike any other.