Season 2: #1 - Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Generous Thinking

In this episode of Rocking the Academy, co-hosts Roopika Risam and Mary Churchill talk with Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Director of Digital Humanities and Professor of English at Michigan State University and author of Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University, about her ideas for the future of higher education. We talk with Kathleen about her career journey, responses to Generous Thinking, and ways that faculty and administrators can implement generous thinking in the academy. Kathleen sees hope for a different future of higher ed through rethinking internal reward structures for faculty, breaking out of traditional metrics, and questioning what we value in the academy. Find us on Twitter: @roopikarisam, @mary_churchill, and @kfitz.

Episode 1 of the Rocking the Academy podcast, hosted by Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Roopika Risam, Mary L. Churchill, titled "Season 2: #1 - Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Generous Thinking" was published on February 5, 2020 and runs 14 minutes.

February 5, 2020 ·14m · Rocking the Academy

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Summary

Episode Description

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Kathleen's career moves from faculty at Pomona College to Associate Executive Director at the Modern Language Association (MLA) to faculty and administrator at Michigan State University.
Putting ideas related to publishing and scholarly communication into place on a national scale in her role at MLA.
Working with institutions that are interested in implementing lessons from Generous Thinking in their strategic plans.
Working with faculty to explore the possibilities for how their work might contribute to a richer, more open public sphere.
When re-evaluating reappointment, promotion, and tenure guidelines, thinking about public engagement first rather than as a separate outreach category.
The rise of the #GenerousThinking movement on Twitter as people share their stories on how they have implemented generous thinking in their work and personal lives.
The HuMetricsHSS initiative focused on rethinking prestige economies of academia and thinking about how values like openness could be incorporated into assessment.
Using generous thinking as an approach to creating equity and expanding opportunity for others in the academy.
There is no quality without equality.

Resources Discussed in this Episode: