Faculty of arts and sciences

School Notes: Faculty of Arts & Sciences
January/February 2023

Tamar Gendler | http://fas.yale.edu

Connection and Collaboration Dinners program supports faculty innovation

Research and creativity thrive when faculty members can exchange new ideas and debate difficult questions. Because the pandemic made it difficult to gather and have these conversations, the FAS has introduced “Connection and Collaboration Dinners.” This program helps faculty members re-engage with colleagues and build new connections, now that many in-person activities are possible again. 

The program enables groups of FAS faculty members, representing at least two academic departments or programs, to gather, share a meal, and enjoy a conversation around a topic of intellectual interest. Since June 2022, 15 faculty groups have met, and their conversation topics have ranged from Central Asian history and cultures to new discoveries in robotics; from accessible curricula to life after tenure; from Japanese calligraphy to plant biology. We are excited to see what innovative ideas and collaborations can emerge when colleagues gather to break bread. 

FAS faculty respond to war in Ukraine

FAS faculty have played a vital role in shaping understanding of the war in Ukraine. Across the FAS—in departments ranging from Slavic languages and literatures to political science to history, faculty have engaged with the war in their classes. Tim Snyder’s (history) new course, The Making of Modern Ukraine, is available to all as a YaleOnline course—and the lectures have received over 2.5 million views. Snyder and Scott Shapiro (philosophy) were featured in the Humanity Dialogues event series hosted by Yale’s MacMillan Center, in which scholars reflected on art, politics, and war in Ukraine. FAS faculty have also responded in writing. Marci Shore (history), author of The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution, has explained the connections between wars past and present for Foreign Policy, interviewed Ukrainian writers, and reflected on the complex relationship between Ukraine and Russia in the Yale Review.  

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